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12 Best Breweries in Duluth, Minnesota

Canal Park Duluth
Published on: April 15, 2021
Last updated: June 4, 2024

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Kyle Kroeger

Written by Kyle Kroeger

Kyle Kroeger is the Founder and Owner of ViaTravelers.com. He is a full-time traveler and entrepreneur.

Minnesota is the Land of 10,000 Breweries. There are many great options no matter the city, and the North Shore is no exception. These are the best breweries in Duluth to check out.

Looking to check out some epic spots for a cold beer in Duluth? We’ve got you covered with some of the best breweries in Minnesota’s largest lakeshore city.

As locals of Minnesota, we love cruising to our favorite cities to get a chance to drink delicious beer and have great conversations. We’ve covered the staples of Minnesota, including the following:

But what about Lakeshore City, which features a lively canal park and great views of Lake Superior?

Downtown Duluth Minnesota

Best Breweries in Duluth, Minnesota

There are many breweries in Duluth, and they are of great quality. You may need to book one of these top Duluth hotels, as you’ll be in for some fun hopping around all these breweries.

Ursa Minor Brewing

Ursa Minor Brewing

Address: 2415 W Superior St B, Duluth, MN 55806, United States

Ursa Minor Brewing is a fantastic brewery and restaurant in Duluth, Minnesota. Visitors will enjoy a batch of craft beer in their taproom, which also features wood-fired pizza, a year-round pet-friendly patio, live music every weekend, and monthly taproom activities and fun games.

Ursa Minor Brewing’s mission is to bring customers and other people together through its fantastic craft beer by providing authentic experiences, meaningful interactions, delicious craft beers, and opportunities to give back to the community that supports the brewery.

The Ursa Minor Brewing is a small 5 BBL brewery dedicated to providing a diverse range of rotating beer types to the taproom. Every customer will be made to feel at ease and welcomed with handcrafted beers and artisan wood-fired pizzas designed to bring people together.

Ursa Minor Brewing’s taproom is designed to be an excellent place to kick back, relax, and enjoy friends, familiar faces, and meaningful connections.

This fantastic brewery’s beer and other alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages are diverse, but they are still relatable, purposeful, locally minded, creative, and incredible. Ursa Minor Brewing is as concerned about the beer it makes as it is about the people who drink it.

See Related: Best Things to Do in Minnesota

Fitger’s Brewhouse Brewery and Grille

The lobby of the historic Fitgers Hotel

Address: 600 E Superior St, Duluth, MN 55802, United States

Fitger’s Brewhouse Brewery and Grille serves artisanal pub grub and house-brewed beers in a lofty space with a festive ambiance. It is also one of the better restaurants in Duluth.

Fitger’s Brewhouse Brewery and Grille is a perfect spot for customers, whether they are locals who love to eat and drink and are looking for the best burger in town or craft beer connoisseurs looking for a one-of-a-kind local brewing company in Duluth, Minnesota.

Locally influenced mouthwatering food and excellent craft beer are available at the brewery, which is open for everyone.

The elk and wild rice burgers, made to match perfectly with Fitger’s Brewhouse Brewery and Grille micro-brewed beer, handcrafted in their on-site brewery, are popular dishes served to their customers.

After a long day, the brewery is a perfect place to visit every day of the week to sample tasty foods and local craft beer.

The brewery is regarded as Duluth’s first brewpub, and it takes pride in creating delicious meals and brews that represent the city’s rich culture and flavors.

Fitger’s Brewhouse Brewery and Grille is a beautiful and great treat that local or foreign visitors may give themselves an excellent time and experience tasting the finest beer Duluth has to offer.

See Related: Things to Do in Duluth

Hoops Brewing Company

Hoops Brewing Company Taproom
Hoops Brewing Company / Facebook

Address: 325 S Lake Ave, Duluth, MN 55802, United States

Hoops Brewing Company in Duluth, Minnesota, has a great atmosphere, food, craft beers, and other drinks to try. It’s the ideal location for checking out the brewery’s fantastic range of quality beers while relaxing in a beautiful, welcoming beer hall.

In June 2017, veteran Master Brewer Dave Hoops opened the brewery’s doors. The Hoops Brewing Company beer hall has seating for over 250 people and 30 different types of high-quality handcrafted beer brewed with Lake Superior’s pristine water.

The brewery is dedicated to providing a massive and ever-changing range of beer types, from simple to innovative and beautiful Hoops brewing developments. Hoops Brewing Company focuses on drinks because it doesn’t have a kitchen to cook meals.

Still, they have delicious snacks from local restaurants – thick German pretzels, croissants, veggie rolls, locally sourced beef sticks, and some old standbys like chips and peanuts.

Hoops Brewing Company has over 15 to 30 beers on tap at any given time, ranging from simple drinking beers to bold, charismatic brews.

This fantastic brewery serves beer that can be taken home in growlers. However, Hoops Brewing Company’s beer is only available at a few select Duluth and Minneapolis stores.

See Related: Best Things to Do in Taylor’s Falls

Bent Paddle Brewing Co.

Bent Paddle Brewing Taproom

Address: 1832 W Michigan St, Duluth, MN 55806, United States

Bent Paddle Brewing Co. is a great craft brewery in Duluth, Minnesota, with a cozy taproom. It offers pilsner and black ale as flagship beers. Bent Paddle Brewing Co. uses Lake Superior’s awesome water to make the freshest and most dependable craft beer possible.

Bent Paddle Brewing Co. is named after the bent shaft canoe paddle that Bryon, the maker, used to mix his brewing mash while working at Rock Bottom Brewery.

The brewery owner also has a mutual love of canoeing – the Tonnis in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and the Mullens on the Brule River in Northwestern Wisconsin that adds more to its name. His term has come to an end symbolically!

Their brewery and taproom opened to the public in May 2013, and kegs and cans in the Duluth area began soon after. Bent Paddle Brewing Co.’s goal is to brew craft beer with a focus on long-term sustainability for their business, workers, the climate, and the community.

This fantastic brewery’s mission is to make beers that “Bend the Tradition” of the classic style they represent in Duluth.

It aims to create and serve customers drinkable, well-balanced beers with a twist of creativity for all beer enthusiasts to enjoy. Lake Superior contains 10% of the world’s freshwater and is used to produce 100% of Bent Paddle’s beer.

See Related: Things to Do in Minneapolis

Canal Park Brewing Company

Store Building of Canal Park Brewing Company
Canal Park Brewing Company by Emily Fossen

Address: 300 Canal Park Dr, Duluth, MN 55802, United States

Canal Park Brewing Company is an industrial-chic microbrewery in Duluth, Minnesota, serving artisanal beers and locally sourced pub food. It’s a perfect place to chill and drink craft beer for both locals and visitors from around the world. The brewery also offers delicious food and a breathtaking view.

Canal Park Brewing Company is a family-owned and operated brewery that has received numerous awards for its beer and food and has been named America’s Favorite Solar Powered Brewery.

To help the neighborhood and provide the freshest meal to its customers, Canal Park Brewing Company’s food is made with locally sourced ingredients. It uses local hops and malt to create a beer with a true hometown flavor.

The brewery’s brewpub-style restaurant is warm and modern, with big windows overlooking Lake Superior. Canal Park Brewing Company customers can sense the brewery’s inspiration from the wild spirit on Lake Superior’s north and south shores.

The brewery’s mission is to brew beer and serve food to quench the thirst of thirsty travelers traveling up and down the fresh coast, pique interest in craft beer styles by regularly brewing epic batches of beers, and help Duluth develop a brewing community.

See Related: Best Duluth Hotels to Stay Near Canal Park

Lake Superior Brewing Co.

Lake Superior Brewing Co. bar interior
Lake Superior Brewing Co./ Facebook

Address: 2711 W Superior St, Suite #204, Duluth, MN 55806, United States

Duluth, Minnesota’s Lake Superior Brewing Co., is a cozy brewery. The Lake Superior Brewing Company has German roots, and the brewery’s owner’s family can trace their ancestors back to the country where beer was first invented.

They’ve been brewing and experimenting on Lake Superior since the 1960s, beginning with the owner’s grandfather Andreas, who introduced the brewing experience to the new world when he and his wife moved to Duluth from Bavaria.

Since 1994, the beers brewed by Lake Superior Brewing Company have been recognized as award-winning. In 1994, the company paved the way for Duluth breweries, becoming one of the first craft breweries to set up shop in the city over the next few years.

The brewery is dedicated to brewing the beer that consumers want and teaching other homebrewers how to get the best results from their efforts. Lake Superior Brewing would be more similar to a great brewpub in appearance, allowing it to act as a good neighborhood gathering spot.

The brewery plans to welcome events in the future, but for now, it wants to focus on operating and brewing a variety of great beers for its local and foreign customers.

See Related: Top Things to Do in Two Harbors

Blacklist Brewing Co.

Blacklist Brewing Co. building
Blacklist Brewing Co./ Facebook

Address: 120 E Superior St, Duluth, MN 55802, United States

The Blacklist Brewing Co. is a great brewery born out of the desire to create something extraordinary that would accompany and enhance life’s experiences.

Blacklist Brewing Co was founded in 2012 by lifelong friends and collaborators Brian Schanzenbach and Jon Loss. They started from a humble beginning with a great Kickstarter campaign. Blacklist has grown steadily, and in mid-2015, TJ Estabrook joined Jon and Brian as partners.

The brewery specializes in Belgian-style artisan ales; Blacklist continues to thrill its followers with bold flavors, innovative ingredient selections, and refreshing ales that will leave a lasting impression.

The beer produced in this great brewery is associated with recreation, family time, holidays, vacations, sporting events, and joyous life events.

Their taproom is an example of this: a cozy and welcoming place to drink. Blacklist Brewing Co. has games, music, bachelor/bachelorette parties, political events, and birthday parties, and they even have competitive axe throwing into their taproom that visitors will surely enjoy.

For customers looking for a unique hard seltzer, Blacklist Brewing Co. has its interesting hard seltzer that is different from the mass-produced hard seltzer that can be bought in the market.

Aside from the hard seltzer, the brewery has an extensive menu of beers. You can grab other types of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks at Blacklist.

See Related: Most Haunted Hotels in Minnesota

Duluth Cider

Customers at Duluth Cider
Duluth Cider / Facebook

Address: 2307 W Superior St, Duluth, MN 55806, United States

Duluth Cider is a cozy and great place to drink beer and spectacular wine in Duluth, Minnesota. It is the perfect place to enjoy Duluth’s original craft cider at the Duluth Cider taproom and a good production facility.

The brewery’s ciders are crafted for everyone to enjoy. They are sweet, dry, hopped, fruit blend varieties, and small experimental batches, all made with 100% Great Lakes apples.

Locals and international customers coming to Duluth Cider can experience the authentic Duluth experience in the warm and cozy taproom.

Duluth Cider is a great stop for locals or even internationals visiting Duluth who are looking for a great place to try a pint, a flight, a tour of our production facilities, and some live music, and can even take a bottle of beer home with them.

Customers are free to carry in or order their favorite food, including nearby OMC Smokehouse, Corktown Deli, Duluth Grill, Pizza Luce, and Lee’s Pizza. Duluth Cider is a family-friendly space with everything you need to have a good time with your friends and little adventurers.

The brewery is also conveniently located near two of the state’s top breweries, Bent Paddle and Ursa Minor, perfect for those who want to try bar-hopping.

See Related: Things to do in Two Harbors, Minnesota

Earth Rider Brewery

Earth Rider Brewery interior
Earth Rider Brewery by Tap Traveler

Address: 1617 N 3rd St #1016, Superior, WI 54880, United States

Earth Rider Brewery is a unique, tiny, intimate, yet incredible brewery. It brews fantastic beers for Minnesota and Northwest Wisconsin at the head of the Great Lakes, in Duluth Superior Harbor.

Earth Rider beers are made with cold, clear Lake Superior water and premium, hand-selected ingredients by decorated brewers.

Earth Rider 1332 Vienna Lager, Earth Rider Bière De Garde, Earth Rider Caribou Lake Ipa, Earth Rider Blackbecrush, and other beers are available in cans in the pub and other affiliate stores in Duluth.

Visitors can visit Earth Rider Brewery’s Cedar Lounge taproom or find the best brews in town at Northland bottle shops.

Coffee drinkers will enjoy this fantastic pub, which also serves pale ale. Duluth coffee, America’s best outdoor city, necessitates a beer that pushes the envelope and is made with fragrant coffee beans sourced from single-farm farms.

Customers who choose or try to convert any non-alcoholic beverages to alcoholic beverages should do so in this great pub, as Earth Rider Brewery has a fantastic, huge menu of drinks to choose from.

Customers can relax, bond with family and friends, and have fun while holding a can or bottle of Earth Rider Brewery drinks in the pub’s great taproom. Check out these best things to do in Superior if you make the trip over from Duluth.

See Related: Best Breweries in Denver to Visit Today

Thirsty Pagan Brewing

Glass of Beer at Thirsty Pagan Brewing
Thirsty Pagan Brewing by jmanussier

Address: 1615 Winter St, Superior, WI 54880, United States

Thirsty Pagan Brewing is a cozy microbrewery and bar with house beers, deep-dish pizzas, and live music regularly. Since 2006, Thirsty Pagan Brewing has served the community gourmet pizza and craft beer. Every day, there is live music. Every day, join us for lunch, happy hour, and dinner!

The original and current owner of Rails, Inc., DBA Twin Ports Brewing, Steve Knauss, acquired the properties from the Sauer Family. Knauss entered the brewing industry with over a decade of experience from the Pacific Northwest and a good dose of working capital. The Thirsty Pagan Brewing Company grew rapidly, thanks to its gourmet pizza and beer sales.

Thirsty Pagan Brewing purchased a seven-barrel device in 2013 to meet demand. The same year, they started their “wild” or sour beer program. The brewery department excelled, producing world-class beer thanks to a large, committed brewing team.

Thirsty Pagan Brewing will appeal to local and foreign visitors because of its diverse menu of appetizers, salads, pizza, calzones, and scratch-made desserts, perfectly complementing the brewery’s excellent craft beer.

Besides the great beer and tasty pizza served at Thirsty Pagan Brewing, customers can enjoy live music while relaxing in the brewery’s wonderful and cozy taproom.

See Related: Best Minnesota Weekend Getaways

Dubh Linn Brew Pub

Dubh Linn Brew Pub interior
Management / TripAdvisor

Address: 109 W Superior St, Duluth, MN 55802, United States

Dubh Linn Brew Pub is a vibrant, old-school Irish pub and microbrewery that serves bar food and whiskey and hosts trivia nights. The Dubh Linn Pub is housed in a 125-year-old building in the heart of Duluth’s downtown district.

The brewery has always been a family affair, with each family member playing an essential role in serving clients, brewing excellent beer, and preparing delectable foods for customers. The Dubh Linn Brew Pub family worked hard to renovate the space, hand-building the bar for customers’ convenience.

The brewery’s menu has grown over time, incorporating traditional family recipes and modern recipes created and mastered by family members. Dubh Linn Brew Pub has expanded over the years to include a full bar, a boutique brewery, and many murals designed by a local artist.

Dubh Linn Brew Pub has also added exclusive booths, remodeled bathrooms, and expanded its cocktail menu to include the state’s most extensive whiskey and single malt scotch range of great drinks.

Customers who only want a small sip or who want to relax and eat good food in Duluth will enjoy the top-notch beers brewed and served here to match great food, as well as other alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.

See Related: Best Minnesota Family Vacations

Wild State Cider

Wild State Cider interior
Wild State Cider / Wild State Cider

Address: 2515 W Superior St, Duluth, MN 55806, United States

Wild State Cider is a fantastic brewery in Duluth, Minnesota that serves excellent cider and delicious food. Wild State Cider’s brews are sorbate-free are never from concentrate, and have no added sugar. The brewery also has a friendly taproom with a patio, charcuterie board, and a kid-friendly area.

Wild State Cider is a brewery proud to show their ciders, which are made with a custom blend of 100 percent fresh-pressed apples, no added sugar or artificial sweeteners, and no potassium sorbate because they use fine filtration and pasteurization to keep them fresh.

The brewery has a fantastic taproom that is family-friendly and equipped with everything you’ll need to have fun with your friends and little explorers. It is a popular spot for customers looking to unwind and reconnect with family and friends while enjoying good ciders in the afternoon.

In addition to its ciders, Wild State Cider specializes in cheese plates and light snacks to complement its ciders. Wild State Cider not only sells alcoholic ciders but also offers non-alcoholic cider and kombucha. This fantastic brewery taproom offers over 12 ciders on tap, as well as light fare, Vermont soft-serve ice cream, and plenty of canned cider for those who don’t drink.

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