Northern Ale Guide, Stop 9 - Bald Man Brewing

Stamp Number 9: Bald Man Brewing, 2020 Silver Bell Road, Eagan

One of the first things you notice when you walk into Bald Man Brewing – assuming you walked into the correct door, which isn’t as easy as it should be – is the giant barrels off to your right. They’re big and shiny and have the names Page, Hendrix, and Clapton written on them. Honoring those three guitar gods is Bald Man’s way of identifying their target audience: legendary guitar players bald men.

Front: Black Velvet Stout; Middle: Stamp proving
we went to Bald Man, complete with typo; Back:
Heart of Glass Blond Ale

Well, I’m not bald (at least not yet), but I am a man who likes beer. And good rock songs. And with those three names prominently displayed in their taproom, you can imagine what the music selection is in there. There isn’t a stage for live acts, mind you, but they know what to put on the radio to keep me going there.

The best part about Bald Man? The fact that it’s six miles from our house. It’s the closest taproom to us, and it’s not particularly close. That makes it the taproom that rivals Lake Monster as being our most frequently visited. But there are other reasons to keep going to Bald Man, as well. For one, we wouldn’t go back if the beer sucked. Luckily, the beer does not suck. The Heart of Glass Blondie Ale and the Tupelo Honey Brown Ale are regular go-to beers for us, and the newly released Honey Hush Kolsch is a good achievement.

From left: Abby, me and my lazy eye,
Aric, and Nicci. It was our
anniversary celebration at Bald Man.

The location is good, too. The taproom itself is in what appears to be a little-used business park, surrounded by nothing. When you’re in there, you don’t know you’re in a business park, but it’s a little disconcerting when you’re going. But it’s easy to get to, right at the intersections of Highways 13 and 77, and there’s plenty of parking, at least on the weekend when the other businesses are closed. And across Highway 13 is an outlet mall, which is what gives Bald Man such good potential: you can drop in before or after a shopping trip (or during, I guess, if you want to drop off your significant other and run).

But all those perks are bonuses to the simple fact this place is practically in our backyard. If we want to go a taproom but can't decide where, we usually end up at Bald Man. If we want to celebrate our anniversary but don't want to go through the effort to get someone to watch our kids, we end up at Bald Man. We've spent a lot of time there (enough time that when Nicci asked Abby if she wanted to get a special start-of-spring-break treat with Aric, Abby said "Yah! At Bald Man?). We'll spend a lot more time there, too. Perhaps we'll see you there sometime down the road.