City Pages has released their “Best of the Twin Cities” and much to our surprise, MNBeer.com made the cut as best blog (specialty), most likely beating out local blogs about dogs, cats, gardening and the likes. Seriously, though, we’re honored and plan on celebrating with some local brews this weekend.

If your tastes have matured beyond the King of Beers, and you’ve grown bored with even the finer European imports, MN Beer will be your guide to finding local breweries, microbreweries, beer-related events in Minnesota and Wisconsin, homebrew information and pubs that serve unique and tasty microbrews from all over the country. Launched last September, the site also tracks which bars are serving new and interesting selections, and steers the reader to local press features on the pub scene. MN Beer pays homage to our state’s brewing history with short pieces on Shell’s, Finnegan’s, and other breweries with touring schedules and current product lines. There are also fastidious updates on the beer menus of Twin Cities microbreweries. Whether you can tell a Maibock from an oatmeal stout or not, thanks to MN Beer you need never drink a lousy beer again.

Other picks that we like to enjoy with a local brew include Mikenastics (enjoyed with something strong like Summit’s Oktoberfest), The Turf Club (Hamm’s, Bell’s Summit… you choose…), P.O.S., Atmosphere, The Midnight Evils (enjoyed with no less than two gallons of local beer in your belly, be it Pig’s Eye or Schell’s Pale Ale), Al’s in St. Louis Park (we suggest Summit EPA or Amber, as that’s what they have on tap. Bring cash or check as Al’s doesn’t take credit/cash cards. And if we smoked, hell, we’d smoke at Al’s. And for what it’s worth, my uncle refers to Al’s as SLP’s Stand Up Franks), Blue Max Liquors (The BEST reason to visit Burnsville), The Riverview Theater (which we often enjoy before or after a beer or three) and The Muddy Pig (uh… DUH!).