Monks House of Beer has the longest tap list in South Dakota — 150 handles, give or take a seasonal rotation — and the bar is not fancy about it. That’s the first thing worth knowing before you go.
The place sits on South Minnesota Avenue, south of downtown, in a building that looks like it was a neighborhood bar in a previous life (it was). Inside, the walls are lined with tap handles and chalkboards and beer memorabilia accumulated over years, not styled for Instagram. The seating is a mix of bar stools, pub tables, and booths. It gets loud on weekends. The parking lot fills up early on Fridays.
I’ve been going here on and off for about four years, usually when I want to try something I haven’t seen on tap anywhere else in town. That’s the whole point of Monks. If a brewery is making something interesting in the region — Fernson, WoodGrain, whatever’s coming out of Minnesota or Nebraska — it probably shows up here before it shows up anywhere else. The staff rotates the list constantly, and they post updates on their Facebook page with more regularity than most bars update their menus. I check it before I go, which tells you something.
The app Untappd is worth pulling up here. You can browse the current tap list before you even sit down, which helps when you’re staring at 150 options and your brain goes blank. I do this every single time and I have no shame about it.
Pints run roughly $5–$8 depending on what you’re drinking. Some of the bigger craft IPAs or sours from out-of-state breweries land at the higher end. Nothing feels gouged. If you can’t find something in your price range, you’re not looking.
They also serve food — burgers, sandwiches, that sort of thing. It’s bar food, not destination dining. I’ve had the burger a few times and it does the job. What you’re really here for is the beer, and ordering something to eat while you work through a flight makes sense if you’re planning to stay a couple hours, which is easy to do.
Flights are available, and I’d recommend them if you’re new to the place or if you want to compare a few styles side by side. Tell the bartender what you generally like and they’ll steer you. I’ve found the staff genuinely knowledgeable, not in a condescending craft-beer-nerd way, but in a helpful, here’s-what-just-came-in way.
The best time to go is a weekday evening, honestly. Tuesday or Wednesday around 6 p.m. — you’ll get a seat at the bar, the bartenders have time to talk, and you can take your time with the list without someone waiting for your stool. Friday and Saturday nights are a crowd scene. Fun if you’re into that, harder if you just want to drink a good sour in relative peace.
Monks isn’t trying to be anything other than what it is: a serious beer bar that stocks more options than you can reasonably get through in one visit. I’ve been back probably thirty times and I still find things I haven’t tried. That’s a good bar.
