This past weekend, the wife and I decided to take another short trip out of town, and of course, breweries were a part of the weekend. We headed down to Winona to check out a couple of places down there, including one that just opened a week ago. On our way down we decided to go through Rochester (MN), and we stopped in at a brewery just north of the city that we hadn’t been to yet, LTS Brewing Company.

LTS stands for Life’s Too Short, and based on my first impression of the beers at LTS, I 100% agree. They have an impressive tap list, and since we were just passing through I only got to sample 4 of them on a flight. Overall, the direction of their beer trends European, with many Belgians, dunkels, and bocks. For my flight of four I chose an Irish red, a dunkel lager, a bock, and a Scottish 80 schilling.

The Irish red came served on nitro, which I honestly wish more breweries would do with their amber and red beers. The smoothness of nitro really complements the deeper, more earthy, character of many red beers. That was no exception in this case, as my first taste confirmed that this place knows what they’re doing.

The next beer on my flight was a dunkel lager, cutely named ‘Dunkelstiltskin’. It was smooth yet rich, and ended up being the beer that I bought a half-growler of to bring home. I followed this up with their bock, which hit all the right notes that a bock should. It was deep and malty, with a clean finish. The final beer on my flight was the 80 schilling, and although this is a unique taste, it’s one that I enjoy. It was nice and peaty with that traditional Scottish yeast flavor.

If you can’t tell, I really liked what LTS was serving. Everything was well made and, despite some minor adjustments for uniqueness, matched the category of the style they were aiming for. I highly recommend making this a stop if you’re passing through Rochester, MN and sampling their wares. Life truly is too short when there’s so many good beers like what you find at LTS!