We are from out of town and visited several beer stores in Minneapolis. This place is where we gladly dropped most of our budget. There is a great collection of growlers, and they had the original half acre growler AND the new one. Any time I see that, I’m SOLD (living on the north side of chicago). And the Russian River growler, etc, etc, etc. The man working the beer side of the store was extremely knowledgable, and another one of the customers was a certified beer tasting judge. It is a great place. Stop here if from out of town.

Good selection of singles with fair prices, with not many past expiration that I noticed.

nice little store, helpfull staff

I live out of town so I’m hitting all of the "essential" craft beer stores in the Twin cities. Have to say, Ale Jail was a let down. They have a good selection of everyday beers but I wasn’t blown away. Having been to some other places in the area, I’d rather go elsewhere. The one shining spot is the massive selection of singles to make your own six pack. Beyond that, no real reason to go out of your way to get here

I’d read a lot about them and seen their website several times, so had pretty high expectations for the place. It was a bit of a let-down, to be honest. The wine and beer stores are crowded into rather smallish locations in two older, side-by-side neighborhood stores. The selection wasn’t bad, but things were crowded in there so much I felt like I might knock over a display if I turned too fast. Service wasn’t bad, but I knew what I was looking for (and largely found it, too). Price was maybe a bit higher than similar stores specializing in unique beers and local microbrews. Not sure it was really worth the extra effort to seek out.

Very cool store that is well stocked and organized. Far pricing on a huge wall of singles and a great selection of locals and imports. Will definitely be checking this place out regularly.

stopped here off a tip from BVery, thanks! a well laid out store with wine on one side, beer on the other, all beers are arranged by style, some in coolers some on shelves, some on tables. Some truly unique beers I had not seen on my travels around the MSP area, including Mikkeller 1000 IBU, staff asked if I needed help but then gave their distance when i had said no.. prices were fair for the market and would be a great store to have in the area.

This is my local shop now--right around the corner from work, and a great place to shop. I find the organization somewhat difficult to navigate when hunting for new beers (esp. in the singles shelf, where it is by style rather than brewer), but the selection is great. Best of all, they post new beers on facebook and make it first come first serve--unlike some local places that hold rare beers for favorite customers, such that you never even see some beers on the shelf. Good sampling and annual backyard tasting festival, too.

Mark has done a hell of a job taking over after Adam left about a year and a half ago. Selection is outstanding. No BMC at all (you can’t count PBR pounders). Has all the local bases covered, plenty of US crafts and boatlaods of imports. The selection isn’t the biggest, but it’s certainly one of the best in the entire metro area. The wall of singles is enormous. Staff is incredibly knowledgable with plenty of tastings to boot. I’d put the Ale Jail easily in the top 5 beer stores in the state.

Why is it that this place has been around since at least 2007 and I’m just hearing of it now? The only reason I heard about it was that I did a random search for one of my favorite beers that was retired a few years ago, Capital Eisphyre, and saw that it was no longer retired. The distribution page said that someone had gotten it at the WTAJ, and then I heard that another beer I’ve been searching for that just came out of retirement, Odell Saboteur, would be having a special tasting there last Friday. So I was able to get the two beers that have been eluding me at the same place. Really nice beer store; the beer side has a much larger selection of beer than the wine side has of wine. The beer side has everything you want in a great beer store: large selection, hard-to-find beers, singles, AND a pretty good selection of refrigerated beers in 6 and 12 packs. For all of those qualities, I’m not sure it has an equal in the Twin Cities other than Blue Max. Firkins lacks the packaged variety and is higher priced.