LTS (or Life’s Too Short) Brewing, founded in 2013 by owners Brandon Schulz and Jeff Werning, opened its taproom last month in Rochester. Located outside of the Mayo zone, LTS has a fairly large industrial building with plans to even add a restaurant.

When we arrived, there were about 10 beers on tap, ranging from the predictable to the more creative. The interior is fairly stark, with several high-top tables and very little décor. The taproom is clearly a work in progress, but nonetheless it was not uncomfortable.

Flights containing four beers were priced at a reasonable $6.





The four beers seemed to suffer from the same minor issues – namely being a bit too sweet. It wasn’t clear if the wort wasn’t given enough time to ferment or if this was intentional.

The Karma Kolsch, besides being sweet, was very tasty. There were clear honey aromas which added some personality to this beer. I would have preferred a crisper, cleaner finish. That being said, it certainly was not bad.

Second was the creatively named CTRL+ALT+DEL altbier which was clearly done in the northern German style. It was malty and sweet with some cereal and bread notes. This was a fair altbier with no clear off-flavors or fermentation issues. It would have benefitted from more early and late addition hops to keep the malt in check. But the clean character from lagering was spot-on.

The most exciting beer of the bunch was the Petite Sasion d’été. The Belgian yeast sung out clearly in this one and the clove and spice aroma was ideal.

Finally, we were the first customers to taste Madelia, described as a wet hop harvest ale. Sadly, it was quite one-dimensional though it showcases local Cascade hops. It would please the average hop lover but perhaps not the wet-hop seeker.

LTS, despite its groaner of an abbreviation for a name, has what it takes to improve and broaden within the Rochester community. Whether it will become popular Minnesota-wide is not clear as none of the beers blew us away; they did not seem to have a clear voice or vision. That being said, I look forward to the future of LTS and their lack of infancy brewery problems (sanitation, inappropriately scaled-up recipes) is promising to say the least.