Surly Barrel Aged Darkness

Formerly brewed at Surly Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Brooklyn Center, Minnesota USA

FoBAB 2007. Dark dark brown with a thick (huge) tan head. Settles slower than average. Big oakiness. A little bourbony more than stouty. Chocolate still sneaks through, aided by vanilla. Tannic still! Creamy smooth mouth. Not too thick, but not watery. Very hot, but balanced by nice tannins, sweetness, and of course, vanilla. Tannic oaky cherry. Chocolate is understated and oak overwhelms roast. This is a sipper with a nice sharp fruity cherry char bourbon finish. Surprisingly dry. One of the best I had at the fest.

Rerate FoBAB 2009: Much less impressed this time around, this one seems too boozy and bourbon driven with band-aid notes. Kills the base beer character. perhaps it is the been redone with a newer vintage? AR: -1, FL -2, OV: -2

FoBAB 2007: Opaque with a huge creamy head and outstanding lace. The aroma has notes of coffee, charred malt, chocolate, fig, oak, and vanilla. The flavor starts with rich malt, chocolate and vanilla overtones. It is kind of fruity in the middle and tart towards the finish. There are moments of smoke and wood as well. The mouth feel is a tad thin and aggressive. A solid brew and worth a try, I suspect the barrel aging thinned out the mouth feel. Look forward to trying the regular version to see how it stacks up.

on tap at FoBAB V: pours black with small tan head. nose of oak, vanilla, chocolate, and coffee. flavor is really chocolatey and roasty, with hints of oak, vanilla, and bourbon. this barrel aging isn’t overdone at all. lost that great darkness body. i prefer regular darkness but this was really nice.4.1.

8/08/08, on tap ’06 vintage. thanks to the beerspot guys for hosting and buying beer for everyone. and BA Darkness no less. anyway, the hops are what make darkness great and this has none of that, just a solid impy stout in a bourbon barrel but its not like regular darkness.3.8.

This was tasty, but as always barrel aging is a crap shoot and while this sucker was still quite good I’m not sure I would say it improved too much from aging. Still a decent hop presence and still full of flavour with a nice chewy thick mouthfeel. Bourbon on the nose and more in the flavour. A lot going on and still a great beer.

ABR 2007. Mnnn. bourbon.... mmmnnnnn.. darkness. A nice combination. The usual suspects in a bourbon aged beer, but well done and more hops survived from the darkness than I anticipated. Almost chewy mouth feel.

draft at abr..........AND WOW its good honestly i like the fierce hops in the regular stuff. but. this aged stuff is so complex and thick. cant ecev describe it.

Draft ABR 07. Oh yeah, it was every bit as good as I anticipated. Poured a thick dark black, with a nice tan head. Very nice smokey oakiness on the nose as well as chocolate, light vanilla, some floral hoppiness, and a littel coffee. Very full mouthfeel with a good dose fo the the nose coming through. A great dry oakyness on the finish as wlell. It is tough to beat fresh Darkness, but this is still very good.

I had this at the Autumn Brew Review on draught. Very dark in color. Oak and bourbon in aroma with a chocolate and bourbon flavor.