Forager Brewery — Rochester, Minnesota’s Best-Kept Secret

Rochester, Minnesota is known for the Mayo Clinic. It is not typically listed among the great craft beer destinations of the upper Midwest. Forager Brewery would like a word with that assessment. Currently the highest-rated brewery in Minnesota on Untappd — and consistently in conversation as one of the best in the entire region — Forager has been quietly building something remarkable since 2015 while the rest of the country mostly looked the other way.

What makes Forager special is range. They brew German-tradition pilsners with the kind of patience that most American brewers won’t commit to, and then they turn around and produce hazy IPAs with world-class hop character. Their ROMP series — various rotating hoppy ales — has been named among the best beers in the country by Hop Culture. The lager work, including a State of Flow German Pilsner, demonstrates that Forager understands classical brewing tradition as deeply as they understand modern American craft.

The Rochester taproom doubles as a full-service restaurant with a farm-to-table food program that uses locally sourced Minnesota ingredients — the same philosophy that drives the brewery side. It’s a genuinely complete experience: excellent beer, excellent food, a beautiful space, and the pleasant surprise of discovering that one of the country’s best breweries has been hiding in plain sight in southeastern Minnesota.

Don’t sleep on Rochester. Forager is making some of the most complete, excellent beer in America, and the Midwest doesn’t get nearly enough credit for it.

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