Autumn Brew Review

This is a must for any craft beer/​cider lover!
This was my 3^rd year attending — lots of new breweries this year, nice to see so much of the local MN/​WI microbrews making it out!
In the 3 years I’ve been going the entrance-​routine has changed each time. First time they split the fest into morning/​evening sessions, last year was just a huge line that wrapped all the way around the block, and this year (by far the best) they had 2 entrances and early check in — everyone was through the gates in about 5 minutes.
I don’t know what it was about this year’s (2014), but the breweries were generous with their pours with most of them filling the tasting glass up near or to the top! Needless to say the list I had made of the beers I wanted to try went out the window. A couple breweries had huge lines, like Indeed and Bell’s, so I skipped those — plenty of other great places with no lines!
The layout is good, although they could do with some more tables in the food truck area — there was plenty of space, but my group ended up having to sit on the grass since all the tables were full. We also only found 1 glass cleaning station, and it was kind of out of the way, which made cleaning your taster glass between samplings kind of a drag.
Anyway, as has been mentioned, tickets sell out super quick, so pay attention to the website early July to see when tickets will go on sale. I’m hoping to continue to go to this every year, it is such a fun event!

I have coming to the Autumn Brew Review for at least ten years, back when it was held at Peavey Plaza. It has GROWN! 3,500 people this year at the Historic Grain Belt Brewery in Northeast Minneapolis.
It was a perfect day for the 2014 festival, and there were 110 breweries with about 4 or 5 beers each, made for a lot of beer!
The breweries bring their best too! Lots of hoppy, barrel aged beers, Surly had some of their best and rarely sampled beers as well. More ciders and even some meads, which are making stronger showings in the last few years.
$ 45 gets you a tasting glass for the huge event. I also took a 40 minute walking tour of the brewery, which was quite interesting and a nice break from the deluge of beer being sampled.
Wonderfully run, everyone was cool and mellow, nice and spread out, so there was rarely a long wait for beer. My favorite of the beer festivals in The Cities. Be warned, it sells out fast, like within an hour of tickets going on sale. I like that it keeps the crowd manageable though.

I was a lucky duck. Volunteering with Finnegans? Best kept philianthropic secret of the Twin Cities. A friend and I spent the morning with Finnegans, volunteering for the setup, which means, we got to enjoy the entire event!
I loved all the brews from around MN, especially Big Wood Brewing, with their craft brew Morning Wood. *snicker* Sorry, I’m five-​years-​old. Seriously, the beer is good as well as puny.
Surly had a HUGE showing this year with craft brews rolling out every hour or so. From what we could see, they were the bell of the ball.
Only disappointment? It’s a craft brewing event, yet… not all beers represented were craft. I’m looking at you Coors and Bud. You are fine at a ball game (unless you are here, GO SURLY), but at a craft beer event? Come on.

If you’re looking for a craft beer tasting event with plenty of variety in the Twin Cities area, you’ll be hard-​pressed to find anything larger than the Autumn Brew Review. As of the 2012 event, they had 108 breweries represented, with most of them bringing at least 3 to 5 different styles of their suds to choose from.
The event, sponsored by the MN Craft Brewer’s Guild, does a good job of representing the rapidly growing MN brewing scene, as well as many regional and national craft brewers. If you can’t find plenty of new brews to try, you’d probably best put the pint glass down for awhile…
The venue also deserves praise, located just across the river from downtown at the old Grain Belt brewery, the site can handily accommodate the crowd of around 3,000 while letting attendees enjoy the fall weather. There’s also some space reserved for five or six food trucks that’ll be slinging grub to those that need to fend off the drunchies.
And finally, if you want tickets to subsequent year’s events make sure you keep an eye out for the date that tickets go on sale, as they typically only last for about 10 minutes. Cheers.

«An Outdoor Beer Sampling Festival Dedicated to the Fine Art of Craft Brewing» is how the MN Craft Brewer’s describe this event. While that is accurate, it does not do justice to how much FUN this festival is. I can say without a doubt that this is my highlight of the summer, it never fails to disappoint. First off, the number and quality of local and national brewers is outstanding. Secondly, the professionalism and organization is top notch.
Details: Tickets generally go on sale sometime in July or August, and are $ 35. The event is late September or early October, depending on the year. You had better act fast as they typically sell out very quickly. This gets you entrance to the event at the Grain Belt Brewery complex in NE Minneapolis (outside) and all the beer you can drink for 4 – 5 hours. The line is usually long to get in, but goes by very quickly. Once you are inside, you will be handed a small 4 oz (I believe) glass. If you should be so unfortunate to drop your glass, you will hear about it from the crowd! There are water fountains where you can wash your glass out if you so desire.
This past year, they added a morning session which included not only the beer but also Bloody Mary’s. Along with the great beer, there’s food vendors including Pizza Luce and Barrio (2011). An ample supply of portable toilets is available. I almost hesitated starting this review as I would like to keep this to the 3−4k people that know how outstanding this event truly is.