Celebrate Oktoberfest all year at these 6 German-styled Minnesota breweries

When he opened Utepils Brewing seven years ago, Dan Justesen was accused of being as twisted as a Bavarian pretzel for making a hefeweizen one of his flagship beers.

“People would laugh and say, ‘You can’t sell that year-round!’” the Utepils founder recalled.

After naming the wheaty German-style beer Ewald the Golden — another unusual twist — Utepils not only had its hefe available from Day One, Justesen said, “It has been our top-selling beer every year since then.”

With Oktoberfest season now underway, breweries across Minnesota are upping their German game and offering lots of different styles of beer popular throughout Deutschland, including hefeweizens, festbiers, altbiers, dark lagers and bocks. But what about after Oktoberfest season?

Most American breweries always keep a pilsner and a light-bodied lager on tap, but other German-style beers have largely been treated as seasonal or specialty brews amid the craft-beer boom of the past two decades.

Fortunately in Minnesota, there’s a decent smattering of breweries tapped into these beers year-round — including some with histories that date back to the state’s original late-1800s wave of German immigrants. There are newer ones like Utepils, too, which is named after the Norwegian term for “summer beer.”

Justesen said he was confident Germanic beers and other old-Europe styles would catch on with local beer consumers because of who he already saw drinking those beers: other Minnesota brewers. He noticed it when they would all hang out together after industry events such as the Autumn Brew Review.

“After a day of serving all those super-flavorful IPAs and stouts, the brewers would wind up at the Glockenspiel in St. Paul or the Gasthaus in northeast Minneapolis drinking these [German] beers,” Justesen remembered. “I figured the public’s tastes would drift that way, if that’s where the brewers themselves were.”

Here’s a rundown of some of Minnesota’s best breweries for German-style beers year-round.

3038 Minnehaha Av. S., Mpls., arbeiterbrewing.com

One of the best breweries to open in Minneapolis in recent years, it’s named after the German word for “worker” (pronounced “arr-bit-er”) and takes a workhorse approach to reviving old German flavors. It also revived the former Harriet Brewing site and remade it into a communal hub of the rebounding Longfellow neighborhood, with the Hook & Ladder next door offering some of the city’s best live music.

Biers: The Märzen Lager has a brown tint but is light and highly drinkable, while its Gestalt altbier is a hardier and darker option. The coyly named Westküst and Zestküst are IPAs with German hops. Pilsners and weissbiers beers usually dot the menu, too.

Oktoberfest: Oct. 5.

1860 Schell Road, New Ulm, Minn., schellsbrewery.com

Of course, this old standby made the list. And it wasn’t just grandfathered in. The country’s second-oldest family-run brewery (after Yuengling in Pennsylvania) has been keeping up with the trendier craft brewers with new offerings like its Fresh Prints Cold IPA and Sangria lager, but its Germanic beer offerings are still some of its best. The 1860-dated brewery site on a hill overlooking scenic New Ulm has a classic German beer hall aesthetic, too.

Biers: Year-round staples include the Schell’s Dark lager, the Firebrick Vienna-style lager and No Frills pilsner. The seasonal bock and Oktoberfest are both still worthy of their namesake annual bashes at the brewery.

Oktoberfest: Oct. 12 ($10 for 13 and older).

1306 NE. 1st St., New Prague, giesenbraubierco.com

The beers aren’t the only German flavor on tap at this exurban brew hub 45 miles southwest of Minneapolis. Founder Erin Hutton studied in Bavaria, where he also met his future wife, Anna Giesen, who’s from New Prague. They adopted her name, her hometown and their shared love of the halls where they hung out in Germany for a Minnesota brewery that not only tastes like Oktoberfest year-round, but also looks like it, too.

Their biers: The Hildy’s Helles was already a staple when it was named top pale lager at last year’s Minnesota Brewers Cup. Other staples include the Giesen Weiss (hefeweizen) and the more unusual Bavarian Gangsta, an IPA made with all German hops. Seasonal favorites include the Bräu Bräu Bräu festbier and Doppel the Hutt doppelbock.

Oktoberfest party: Oct. 4-5 ($5 for 13 and older).

225 Thomas Av. N., Mpls., utepilsbrewing.com

Longtime visitors to Germany, former Vine Park Brewing co-owner Dan Justesen and his wife, Deb, didn’t just pick their creekside Bryn Mawr brewery location because it had old-beer-hall vibes. They also picked it because it had its own spring water on site; the building used to be the home of Glenwood Springs Water Co. That water is a key ingredient in Utepils’ brews (pronounced “oo-tuh-pils,” by the way).

Biers: It’s no coincidence that its Ewald the Golden hefeweizen is so popular. Other flagship brews include the Alt 1848 altbier and the unfiltered Keller Pils (Czech-styled, but close enough). Current German-style offerings include the berry-infused Berliner Weisse and the Receptional Festbier, the latter named for the wedding reception on which Oktoberfest is based.

Oktoberfest: Continues 11 a.m. Sept. 20-21 ($8 after 2 p.m. Sat.).

445 N. Smith Av., St. Paul, waldmannbrewery.com

In a hidden-gem, 1857-built building near the High Bridge that doubles as a reputable German restaurant, Waldmann’s is one of three modern breweries inside lovingly preserved historic brewery sites in St. Paul. (See also: Yoerg’s, mentioned below, and St. Paul Brewing Co. in the former Hamm’s site; sadly, Clutch Brewing in the old Schmidt site closed last year). The old limestone-lined interior is quaint, and the garden-like patio is one of the best in the Cities, with heaters to make it hospitable in winter. You know, with a good dunkelweizen to help keep you warm.

Biers: In addition to a classic pilsner, Kölsch, hefeweizen and amber weizen, Waldmann’s serves its 1865 Historical Lager modeled after the original Hamm’s recipe, plus the Grapefruit Radler and Leipziger Gose for fans of fruitier beers.

Oktoberfest: Sept. 20-22 and Sept. 27-29 ($3-$7.50).

378 Maria Av., St. Paul, yoergbeer.com

Just a block from the former St. John’s Hospital site where F. Scott Fitzgerald and a far less famous and usually less drunk writer were born (me), this small East Side German restaurant and brewery opened in 2019 in the home of the original Anthony Yoerg Brewing Co., purportedly the first brewery in Minnesota, dating back to 1848. Today, it stands out for having one of the Twin Cities’ best selections of European beers, in addition to its own German-style brews.

Biers: The lightest and darkest options are the standouts among its year-round in-house brews, the former its Picnic Beer (a summery, golden helles) and the latter its Black Forest Lager (a smoky dark lager). Other regular offerings include a dunkelweiss, hefeweizen, bock and a very old-school amber Culmbacher.

Oktoberfest: Specialty beers on tap every day and German wine flights weekends through Sept. 30.