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We debated on skipping breweries today and visiting the Minnesota State Fair but there was rain off & on all day so we went someplace we knew we could stay dry: the breweries. Nothing like a flight of American IPA, Brown Ale, Doppelbock and White Coffee Stout to chase away the clouds & rain. The brown tasted a little “casky” but the white stout was the bomb!

This brewery recently opened back in July and specializes in two great things that go great together: pizza and beer. But not just any pizza or any beer – craft pizza and craft beer. We started with a flight of simple-named beers: Cream Ale, Kolsch, Hazy IPA and Amber Ale. No fancy names just good beer followed by the Everything Supreme pizza that was stupendous!

Great selection of beers and they are playing Toby Keith’s greatest hits on the house music. We had a flight of Turncoat juicy IPA, Traitor IPA, Oktoberfest marzen lager and Three Witches pale ale. One friendly beertender gave us a 4 oz. kicker of Paisley Hazy IPA that was awesome and the other beertender gave us a Blood Orange & Paisley mix which was also out of this world but the marzen was our favorite especially since its almost that time of year. Prost!

This brewery only offers 6 beers and a only flights of six so the decision what to get was easy: all of them. We had the Whipped Cloud cream ale, Not So Red irish red ale, Damned Squirrel brown ale, Blues Don’t Bother Me blueberry ale, Autum’s Early Arrival blonde ale and Anti-Scurvy Elixir IPA. Interestingly enough, they all tasted very similar with only slight variations in flavor and the blueberry didn’t have any blueberry taste at all.

What a uniquely themed brewery! The seating and tables are taken right off of a pontoon boat. We kicked off our MSP mini tour with a flight of their Pontoon Pilsner, Hi-Sea orange cream ale, Paul’s Footprints red lager and Reel Good IPA. The first 3 were pretty good but the IPA had a weird aftertaste.

Swanky downtown restaraunt meets craft beer. Offering two-dozen beers brewed offsite, we only went with a couple of pints of their McLovin irish red ale and their Mosasaur (aka “Mosey”) IPA to go with our dinners of blue gill and RIP cheesy mac. The fish was outstanding!

Located in a trendy part of town with cool shops and restaraunts, this place knows beer. Everything on the menu looks drinkable except the sours but we had to make a choice: The Fuggler briwn ale, small batch seasonal Oktoberfest, Ninja Dust juicy IPA and Super Penguin west coast IPA. The Oktober was good but the juicy was the winner.

This place offers flight and has a solid selection of a variety of beers……so many beers, so little time. We had their Peter’s Treat red session IPA w/ spruce tips, West Coast Dreaming cold rye IPA, Lake Loop cream ale and Americanized Dream amber oatmeal ale. We had high expectations for some wacky flavor in the oatmeal but it just tasted like a regular amber ale. The sleeper was the spruce since we had a couple of pine-tree beers up in Maine but it was surprisingly mild.

We departed Indiana this morning and stopped here enroute to our two-week layover in Minneapolis. We had four, 4 oz pours of Hawk Jones seasion IPA, Fantasy Factory IPA, Disaster Aritist oat IPA and Midwesty Pilsner since they don’t offer official flights. The Fantasy is one of their core beers and we can see why: very tasty althought the Artist was probably the best of them all. Musta been the oats!

The last stop on our Toledo Tour brings us to this interesting place with an interesting history. Started by Chris in 2014 in his garage, he was the first African-American brewmaster in the US. This tap room is known by the locals as the Cheers of the neighborhood and sports tons of Star Wars memorabilia. This one-man operation only has six beers on the menu, 3 gose and 3 beers, but Rich the beertender is a mad scientist mixing all sorts of combinations that results in endless possibilities. He made us the Ebenezer Bomber Run holiday ale mixed with Bomber Run DIPA finishing it with sugar on the rim. How interesting!!!