There were 65 new beers this year at the Great Minnesota Get-Together, a particularly Midwest Nice name for the state’s fair. Along with Great Ape grape-flavored seltzer, the strawberry syrup rimmed The Funnel Never Neds, and Cocabanana chocolate and banana beer, there are plenty of returning favorites, like a bright green apple-flavored seltzer in a cup rimmed with caramel.
For years now, the Minnesota fair has been known as a place to get just about anything deep-fried or on a stick—corn fritters, cheese curd tacos, hotdish, and of course foot-long corn dogs—but the event has also become a hub of creative, exclusive craft beers. Some years the gimmicks don’t work: Think limp bacon oozing grease into a beer. Then there are years-long victories like a sugar-rimmed mini doughnut beer made by Stillwater, Minnesota’s Lift Bridge Brewing, which celebrated 10 consecutive years on tap in 2023. It’s truly a place to revel in fun and unique craft beverages.
I’ve been going to the Get-Together since that first year of Lift Bridge's mini-donut beer, and my wife has joined me nearly every year since 2014. For the past two years, the journey to the fair from Wisconsin has included our son, and this month’s trip was the first he was able to enjoy some of our favorite foods: pickle pizza, corn fritters, duck wontons, and a bucket of Sweet Martha's cookies. He scarfed down a traditional Hmong-style steamed bun, the Galabao, with us.
With the help of an app created specifically for the event, we have all our beer and food destinations plugged in and ready before we arrive. That makes it easier to navigate a space among thousands of people, but also helps us get back on track as we inevitably run into people we know. It’s dizzying, seeing a wave of people engulf the fairgrounds yet we can still find familiar faces among the throngs of people scarfing down novelty foods and rushing to their next ride.
While we enjoy the Wisconsin, Iowa, and Alaska state fairs, Minnesota’s event is the biggest and best. And it's one that really highlight's the state's craft beer, with Minnesota's guild even hosting an entire section to pour flights, feature speakers, and hand out swag. On the way home, we always read the best- and worst-of lists to see how others’ tastes compared to ours: agreeing, disagreeing, or wishing we had tried something. But those food items just make the list for next year.
Words + Photo by Louis Livingston-Garcia