Minnesota's first commercial brewery, the Yoerg Brewing Company was founded ten years before Minnesota became a state in 1848. It was one of the cornerstone businesses that helped build the city of Saint Paul.  Anthony Yoerg was the first in the Midwest to produce his beers Bavarian style (in caves along the Mississippi River downtown Saint Paul) and they were the main reason Saint Paul breweries were as revered as those from Milwaukee and St. Louis before Prohibition. The brewery closed in 1952 when the last surviving Yoerg son passed away and the brewery was crippled by a historic flood.  In  2016, the Yoerg Company was brought back to life, and here is their story.

A visit to the Yoerg Brewing Company is like taking a Time Machine back to the 1940s and '50s when the local 'Saloon' was the 'Cat's Meow'.   Located on the Historic Dayton's Bluff hillside just outside of downtown Saint Paul's 'Lowertown', The Yoerg Brewing Company has returned.  We are brewing the legendary Yoerg Beers on premise as well as working with some of the finest, and rarest Old World European Breweries (in many instances, Yoerg is the only place serving their beers in the Midwest).  A superb wine by the glass program with 14 unique, artisanal wines under $8.00 a glass.  We also have a splendid food menu of old world treats;  Bratwursts from the legendary Usinger's in Milwaukee, a wonderful selection of pub pizzas, charcuterie plates, pickled eggs,  soft Bavarian pretzels, Dutch Pretzels (hand rolled) and an atmosphere unmatched in the city.   We've been called "the most photographic" pub in the Twin Cities for good reason.  There really is nothing else like it.

The Yoerg Brewing Company also holds the distinction of being the finest European beer bar in the State of Minnesota (if not the entire Midwest).  Outside of our wonderful Yoerg beers we produce on premise, we also carry close to 100 different beers from the old world (with a large emphasis on Belgium and Germany).  NO ONE has a larger selection of Monastery beers IN THE COUNTRY than we do, and every beer you order comes in a glass direct from the brewery (or Monastery).  And when you combine our "one of a kind" ambiance, there is no better place to sit and have a beer than the Yoerg Brewing Company.

We hate $15.00 glasses of wine.  Mainly because we know we can find a wine just as good, and sell it for half the price.  And that's what we do.  We search the globe looking for these great wines.  France and Italy will always dominate the "by the glass"  list, with Spain, Portugal, South America and our West Coast getting their share as well. Please see our current list on our 'Menus' page.

We are adding a new category to our wine program:  Red Burgundy.  Now Burgundy is not only the most cherished wine region in the world, the wines are also the rarest, and most expensive in the world (with the top wines selling for thousands of dollars a bottle).  The biggest problem aside from price, is availability and where to find the hidden gems.   And we know where all the hidden gems are.  We know the little villages right next door to the famous ones (and whose wines sell for a fraction of the price).  And that's what this rotating list consists of.  The great bargains of Burgundy.

The Yoerg Rathskeller at the Brewery

The Yoerg Brewing Company: 1871 - 1952

The Yoerg Brewing Company: 1848 - 1870