Masters of their craft (beer): three Forager brews rated among the best in Minnesota

One Rochester brewery continues to make a splash in the Minnesota beer scene, scoring three spots on a new 2020 list of the top 40 best beers in the state — and bringing southern Minnesota some love in a Twin Cities-dominated list.

Three of Forager Brewery’s best-known brews were featured on City Pages’ list of the best beers in Minnesota, released last week. This year, the list was broken up into four lists of ten based on different varieties, and Forager showed up on three of the four: ‘Gummies Make Us Likable’ at #7 on the sour list; ‘Regal Hops’ at #2 on the IPA list; and ‘Nillerzzzzz’ took the top spot as the best stout in Minnesota.

Forager was one of two breweries based south of the Twin Cities metro to be included, alongside New Ulm’s Schell Brewing — the makers of Grain Belt. 

Jerard Fagerberg, the City Pages writer who earned the byline for the story, heaped extra praise on the eccentrically-spelled and wildly popular Nillerzzzzz (that’s with five z’s), calling it “the most exclusive beer on any of these lists.”

“Nillerzzzzz is released on what has become a veritable beer holiday,” he added. “Score enough bottles of Forager’s fudgy whiskey-aged vanilla bean double stout, and you’ll have currency to trade for any other beer made in America.”

This is not the first time Forager has received recognition from City Pages’ beer connoisseurs; the aforementioned Regal Hops took the #3 spot on last year’s top 40 list (which wasn’t separated by category, like the 2020 list). 

While you may want to run straight to the brewery to try these accoladed creations for yourself, unfortunately, it isn’t that simple. Gummies Make Us Likable is a revolving door of sours that change by the week, and the other two beers aren’t on Forager’s current tap list. Anyone interested in Nillerzzzzz is out of luck until the spring, when the brewery announces their annual bottle release event.

(A word to the wise… it won’t be available for long. People have been known to drive hundreds of miles and camp out just to get the chance to take a bottle of NIllerzzzzz home with them.) 

As for Regal Hops, behind only Barrel Theory Brewing’s Rain Drops for the title of best IPA in Minnesota, Rochester’s beer lovers may be in luck. In a Facebook post written Sunday celebrating the City Pages selections, Forager indicated that the double IPA brew  — an “elusive quarry” in itself, according to the article — was being brewed over the weekend.

Isaac Jahns is a Rochester native and a 2019 graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism. He reports on politics, business and music for Med City Beat.