In the neighborhood

There aren't any breweries in the Dinkytown neighborhood itself, but you will find plenty of venues for a pint, a glass of wine, or a cocktail. The Beacon Public House is a higher end pub and grill inside the Graduate hotel. The Beacon has 10 taps with mostly Minnesota-made beer, and an impressive selection of spirits. A block away you’ll find Stub and Herbs, a classic Minneapolis bar built in 1939. There are 30+ taps of local and national beer, frequently rotating by the season. It’s the best beer bar in the neighborhood and it has a sense of history from its quaint corner building surrounded by newer high rises. There’s a game room, a full kitchen, and original decorative woodwork with built-in bookcases adorning the inner wall. If you’re looking for the closest sit-down option before the game, Buffalo Wild Wings is in an old brick building in the stadium’s shadow. Sally’s Saloon is a classic college bar for light beer and basics, with a street-facing patio, and Blarney Pub & Grill is another classic college bar in Dinkytown.

Day Block Brewing Company

Distance from Stadium Village: 1.9 miles

Downtown East has changed a lot along Washington Avenue. Just a few blocks from the Mississippi River and attractions such as Mill City Museum, the Guthrie Theater, and Stone Arch Bridge, Day Block keeps the history alive in an old brick building that serves multiple roles: a brewery and pizzeria on the first floor and an events venue upstairs. It’s also a short walk from the Blue and Green LRT lines.

Day Block beers lean traditional American craft, with a colorful flight board that hits all the styles. They have several core beers, mixing in a few seasonal rotators rather than always having something brand new on tap. They also have a full bar for those who want a little more variety to their alcoholic beverage options.

What to order

Stadium Blonde is a light beer with bright flavors: an easy-drinking ale with strawberry, blueberry, and floral notes. Crackin' Tinnies neatly straddles the line between old school and new school West Coast IPAs. A soft-body sipper, this IPA has orange marmalade, and pine flavors but without the puckering bitterness. Daylight Kolsch and Czech One, Two are also session beers for any occasion.

Town Hall Brewery

Distance from Stadium Village: 1.6 miles

Located at 7 Corners since 1997, this brewpub is one of Minnesota’s oldest breweries. They are known for Masala Mama IPA and their award-winning barrel-aged beers, but they brew a bit of everything, for everybody. Alumni come back for the classics and, every year, new students discover this West Bank tradition. There are discounts one hour before and one hour after home Gopher games and it’s a short walk to catch the Blue or Green LRT lines.

Town Hall’s beers, overall, focus on traditional brewing methods over trendy. You will find brown ales, porters, and lagers alongside IPAs, nitro pours, barrel-aged beers, and rotating Belgian-inspired beers. They also have a full bar with spirits and wine, plus a full kitchen. Its close proximity to hotels makes it a popular voice for alumni.

What to order

Superstrike is a light German-style lager that’s popular on gameday. Gold in color, light, and crisp, this is a bubbly lager that starts with dry toast notes and develops a light and subtly fruity element before transitioning to a dry finish. It’s a very traditional “beer that tastes like beer” that’s light on the hop profile. A flagship beer on the malty side is Hope & King Scotch ale, which pours black in color. This beer is toasty with big coffee notes and a balanced caramel note. You’ll also pick up hints of smoke and toffee, which give a little brightness to an otherwise dark-hued, medium-bodied beer. Two more seasonal lighter bodied beers are Hefeweizen wheat ale and a fall Marzen lager.

Falling Knife Brewing Co

Distance from Stadium Village: 3 miles

The pub-style taproom in an industrial neighborhood, easily accessible from Interstate 35W, MN-280, and MN-36. Falling Knife offers a diverse lineup of IPAs, lagers, sour ales, stouts, and seltzers. Inside, you can play pinball, spin from a curated jukebox, and sip a pint in a classic, comfortable booth that is close to the stadium but away from the city center.

With their eye-catching graphics and well-crafted hazy IPAs, you could easily summarize Falling Knife as a trendy brewery, focused on hops and branding over bigger picture beer. But you’d be missing a lot if you did. One of their top-selling beers, after all, is Tomm’s American lager with a logo that looks suspiciously like a popular canned beer that originated in Saint Paul in 1865.

What to order

Freischütz German-style Pilsner is a classic light-bodied beer that’s perfect for pregaming and pairing with food (Falling Knife hosts food trucks and allows outside food). The Pilsner is bready and lightly sweet, with biscuit and bread flavors leading the way in a balance of sweet cereal grains with lightly citrusy and earthy hops for a crisp and classically bitter finish. If you want to go the more contemporary route, Hidden Temple is a hazy IPA made with El Dorado, Idaho 7, and Mosaic Cryo hops with big pineapple flavors, plus a mix of tropic, dank, and piney flavors. It’s sweet and juicy, big and bold.

Insight Brewing

Distance from Stadium Village: 2.5 miles

Close to Falling Knife you’ll find Insight. While the setting is industrial, it’s surrounded by student housing and is arguably the most student-frequented brewery on this list. The brewery itself balances industrial chic with a coffeehouse-like vibe of wooden booths and open-room seating.

Insight’s beer style is modern craft. They make the beer styles you expect, typically featuring new hop varieties and brewing techniques. There are often food trucks onsite, and they cook frozen pizzas inside. Insight has an afternoon happy hour Monday-Thursday and a brunch happy hour on Sundays.

What to order

Avant is a flagship beer, a dry-hopped Pilsner that is crisp and clear in line with the traditional style, but with a modern American dose of hops for more of a bold finish. Its name is a fitting reflection of the brand: at one syllable and one word, it’s accessible and familiar, but also innovative. Another lager is Sudz Geman-style Pilser. This one is more traditional: a full-flavor, light-bodied beer with a bready base that’s complemented by notes of toast, grass, and soft orange. While it has some sweet malt elements, it’s a balanced lager that finishes clean and dry.

Surly Brewing Company

Distance from Stadium Village: 0.9 miles

One of Minneapolis’ best known breweries, popular for beers like Furious IPA and Darkness imperial stout, Surly built a massive beer hall in the Prospect Park neighborhood that opened in 2014. It is easily accessible from the University of Minnesota, the Green Line LRT, and University Avenue, in addition to being near popular bicycle routes. It has two full restaurants and an outdoor beer garden onsite, among other features. Visitors can leave their cars in the lot.

Surly built their reputation on a potent lineup of seasonal and rotational beers. Darkness Day is an annual fall party with limited release beers and live music, while Pentagram sour is a puckering sour ale that pushes style boundaries

What to order

With over 20 taps you’ll find unique styles and more classic, approachable beers. Yes, the brewery is known for pushing boundaries, but they also brew sessionable and perfect pregame beers too. Lemonade is a crispy and citrusy ale if you crave something light. Oktoberfest returns in time for football season and is a popular, maltier beer that’s perfect for fall. Hell lager is named for its color, as “helles” is the German word for “light.” Gold in color and very bubbly, it delivers the classic barley pop flavors, with notes of cracker and bread with a dry finish and a hint of lemon. You’ll pick up on the hops, but not in a dominant way. It’s clear, crisp, and offers a sweet/dry balance. Furious IPA is the longest running Surly beer, and for good reason. An amber IPA in style, it’s copper in color with big flavors of rich malt and resinous pine. Additional layers of fruitiness and toast dance underneath the bold first impressions.

More pregame options

Besides local breweries, the University of Minnesota neighborhood offers a mix of student bars, tenured dives, and near endless dining options. To briefly name a few more that are close by: Blue Door Pub also has a curated list of local beers, plus some of the city’s best Jucy Lucy burgers; and Burrito Loco is known for filling students’ stomachs with wings, burritos, and fishbowl cocktails. A little further away, but still capturing the U spirit, options include Bumbling Fools Mead, O’Shaughnessy Distilling Co., Acadia Café, Palmer’s Bar, Nye’s Bar, Otter Saloon and more. A Bar of Their Own focuses exclusively on women’s sports.