Surly Bender

Brewed by Surly Brewing Company
Style: Brown Ale
Brooklyn Center, Minnesota USA

Can courtesy of Matt7215, thanks Matt! This ale poured decidedly dark brown with a frothy mocha head. Spotty lace is left behind. The nose is all about the hops and is dominated by the cascades, and then matched with wood, milk chocolate and nutty notes. This tastes good! Sweet nutty chocolate, like nutella, with dry cocoa powder and fresh, leafy green hops. Sweet and bitter. Usually Brown Ales are too sweet for my general liking, but this is quite good. Creamy and long lived bitter finish. Yes please! Thanks for the opportunity to try this one Matt!

There’s a lot of wood in this one, and a slight astringency. Ruby color. Fairly dry. I didn’t like this as much as the Furious.

The appearance is a dark brown with a light brown head. Flavor is a combination of coffee and caramel and a little vanilla. It is a great beer with a little dry finsh that suites teh beer well.

Can’t believe I haven’t rated this yet. Pours a deep ruby brown color, with a lively frothy head. Flavor is light roast, mild coffee, vanilla bean, oats, and cream, with a nice dryness to finish it off. Medium bodied. Smooth and easy drinking on the palate. Solid session beer. Better than most boring brown ales.

Can from jrob_21 - thanks!. Big hoppy nose with Cascades and some must, a lot of roast/toast malt with heavy waves of bitter chocolate and nuts. Caramel. Dark mahogany pour with a unique orange-brown head that creams and rocks itself deliciously. Taste is - yessir - heavy, thick chocolate malt and prickly Cascades, has enough Black Sun in it for comparison, but then veers off in its own direction, with silky, syrupy oatmeal strands, caramel, and cocoa. Bitter and nutty. Finish and after have a slightly acidic fruity tang, otherwise dry and rindy. Thinnish, flattish body. Cocoa reminds more of a porter than of a brown ale. Robust session actually worthy of everyday drinking. Layered, complex, delicious!

Every single person who saw me drinking this said I would like coffee bender better. So, I felt like I was missing something. That being said: Can shared by tytoanderso: Pours a dark brown, with a white and quickly dissipating head. Aroma of flat vanilla, some caramel, and actual coffee beans -- not roasted coffee, and table cream. Flavor is smooth roasted coffee, maybe even a little under-carbonated, and a tinge of hazelnut. Slight wooden flavor that seemed misplaced. Overall, very good brew.

Scored a few cans of this on my trip to Minneapolis. Pours from a 16 oz. can a dark brown with a REALLY thick brown head. I had to make an emergency run to the sink because the beer overflowed my glass. Aroma is very simple a bit of sweet cocoa, some hops, and a bit of oat malts coming out. Taste is hoppier that I expected which gave a few extra points but largely this beer was very simple. Caramel and a bit of chocolate come together for a weird mix then you get blasted by hops which was a crazy change and maybe does more harm than good. I dunno this was just ok, just brew your average ho-hum brown ale and double the hop profile and you’ll have Bender. I’ll be honest I hate Brown Ales, they just suck. This being said this was probably the best one I’ve ever had but it still isn’t that great of a beer and I’d rather have many more others than this one.

A dark brown color with a fizzy thin brown head. The aroma has a lot of sweet brown sugar malt and some mild hop character. The flavor is strong roasted malt with some chocolate and caramel. There is a bit of a hop profile in the finish, but doesn’t leave much on the tongue. Medium bodied beer.