Eat & Drink Duluth Review - Ursa Minor Brewing
Ursa Minor is located in the heart of the Lincoln Park craft district at 2415 W. Superior St.
Small-batch craft beer. Delicious, wood-fired pizza. Live music and events. A covered, dog-friendly patio. Duluth-based Ursa Minor Brewing has it all.
Ursa Minor has been open since 2018, and is located at 2415 West Superior Street in the Lincoln Park Craft District. The inspiration behind the name is the North Star, which is nestled within the Ursa Minor constellation.
Ursa’s CEO and Founder Ben Hugus says that craft beer is their “guiding light,” which has propelled them into the ever-growing craft beer community. They even take their logo – which features a bear/hop combination - from the Ursa Minor constellation’s “small bear.”
Beer Flight & Beer Flight (2) - Flights of beer include your choice of four 5-ounce pours.
Vibe
I would describe the vibe at Ursa Minor as … industrial hipster-esque. Think exposed brick, open rafters, and a calming color scheme of blue, teal, brown, and cream.
After a recent expansion, Ursa now offers two bars and two seating areas, along with a great, dog-friendly outdoor patio. Indoors, you’ll find a combo of high-tops, low-tops, and several plush banquettes.
The beer and food menus are displayed overhead on chalkboards, and written in a variety of neon chalks. Laminated menus are also available to bring back to your table.
There is even a kids’ corner, where the little ones can run and play while their folks enjoy a pint. Plenty of families take advantage of this kid-friendly environment. On the night we dined (a Friday evening), there were couples, large groups, and tons of families, including children of all ages.
Ursa offers a ton of special events, including live music, Bingo, trivia nights, and much more. The new taproom space can also be rented out for private events.
Beer (And other Beverages)
Ursa offers a mouth-watering array of different beers, ranging from the haziest IPAs to a smooth drinking cream ale. Each beer is assigned a fun, descriptive name.
For instance, Pterodactyl Screams is a strong, mouth-puckering IPA, and Smoke Show is Ursa’s smoky, malty Rauchbier. They also offer a hard seltzer, aptly named Fake Summer, with flavors of passionfruit and lime.
Beer Menu - All of Ursa Minor's current beers on tap are shown and described on chalkboards
Ember is the name of Ursa’s non-alcoholic THC seltzer, which is offered in blackberry lemonade flavor. A wide variety of other beverages are on the menu, too, including:
- NA Time NA Where – Ursa’s non-alcoholic cream ale
- Fitger’s Driftwood Root Beer – Sourced from another great Duluth business
- Superior Switchel - Brewed with fresh fruit, ginger, and apple cider vinegar
- Uffda Kombucha
- Sodas from Northern Soda Company
We’ve visited Ursa numerous times and always enjoy sampling a few options. So, Mike and I each opted for a flight. A flight of beer is like a variety pack. At Ursa, flights include four choices, served in small, 5-ounce glasses. Factoring in overlap, we sampled:
- Cherry Bomb – Cherry Blonde Ale
- Buffalo Check Bock – German Dark Lager
- Cultivating Mass - Chocolate Stout
- Schwarzbier - Black Lager
- Ursa Minor Cream - Cream Ale
- Glamping – Lemon Shandy-style beer
Honestly, there wasn’t a bad choice in the mix. But we know what varietals we typically like, and went with those (we aren’t into IPAs, for instance).
The Ursa Minor Cream is incredibly smooth, and the Schwarzbier has a malty profile. The Cherry Bomb has delicious cherry overtones. Cultivating Mass tastes like a rich, chocolatey dessert. The Check Bock has a caramel-malty flavor.
We both were really feeling the Glamping, though, with its tart/bright notes of lemon and orange. When it was time to graduate from our flight, we shared a pint of Glamping.
No matter what you’re into, Ursa truly offers a beverage for every age and every palate. There is also a large to-go cooler so that you can bring some Ursa beverages home for later. They also have tons of merch for sale, offered on-site and online.
To Go Cooler - Take some beer home to enjoy! Ursa Minor offers several to-go options.
Food
Ursa is a unique brewery that offers a variety of scratch-made, wood-fired pizzas. The toppings are inventive and delicious, such as marinated kale, Applegate uncured pepperoni, house-pickled red onion, hot sausage, balsamic glaze, and more.
Pizza Menu - Ursa Minor offers a variety of unique pizzas.
We opted for the classic Margherita pizza (fresh basil, mozzarella, parmesan, and house red sauce) with the addition of Yker Acres wild rice sausage. Ursa’s pizzas all feature thin crusts, but the edges are puffed up, crisp, well-done, and a bit thicker, too—from all that wood-fired action.
Ursa Minor's wood-fired pizzas feature a thin crust and plenty of inventive ingredients.
The basil is fresh, and the cheese is plentiful. The house red sauce is smooth and mild. And the wild rice sausage is savory and adds a perfect amount of saltiness to the pie. This is a seriously cravable pizza.
Ursa also has other appetizers and snacks, too, including Bear Bread (house-made pizza crust, fresh mozzarella, parmesan, garlic, olive oil, oregano, served with a side of house red sauce), soft German pretzels from Duluth’s Best Bread, beef sticks (10 oz sticks, made with 100% grass-fed beef from Helstrom Farms out of Hibbing, MN), and Three Mad Poppers Popcorn, out of Bloomington, MN. Assorted flavors of ice cream from another Duluth favorite - Love’s Creamery – are on the menu for dessert.
Service
Rather than offering table service, Ursa is set up where customers order their food and drink from one of the two bars when they are ready. Those making a food order are given one of those “pager pucks” that flash when your food is ready, and a server will deliver it to your table.
Gene Halverson and Matt Ogden are two of Ursa Minor's friendly beer tenders.
While you don’t receive private table service, Ursa’s “beertenders” are incredibly knowledgeable about the food and all the beverages, and happy to help guide your choices. We interacted with Gene Halverson and Matt Ogden – both beertenders – and they cheerfully answered all our questions about beer flavor profiles and pizza ingredients.
Verdict
Ursa Minor is such a fun hang. The beers are amazing, and there are a ton in the rotation to sample. There are plenty of choices for those who abstain from alcohol, too.
And the food is surprisingly great. Rather than offering typical “bar food,” Ursa’s delicious wood-fired pizzas could truly stand alone at a reputable dining establishment.
The combo of the two makes for a phenomenal evening of food and drink. Add in live music and a variety of other rotating events, and Ursa Minor can easily become your favorite new destination.
For more information, please visit ursaminorbrewing.com.
Destination Duluth has also featured a full-length story about Ursa, which can be found here: Ursa Minor Brewing - Craft Beer On Tap and Much More! - Destination Duluth
___________________________________________________________________
About the Eat & Drink Duluth Editor
Andrea Busche is a Duluth and regional freelance writer credited with over 1,000 bylines in local print and digital publications. Her food column, Local Pairings, was first featured in Duluth.com magazine, and later published in the Duluth News Tribune from 2016-2018.
