Surly Bender

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

Tasty and well-put-together dark ale, rich enough to sip and ponder but just light enough to gulp if you want. Pours dark brown with amber-red highlights, tall and lovely tan head. Nose is lighter chocolates with some sweeter notes like cola and sugared coffee with cream. Flavor offers a nice balance of roasty, moderate sweetness and an equally moderate, sneaking bitterness. This all rides on a soft and creamy, fairly thick mouthfeel. Would be a natural match for a nice cheeseburger.

Can out of the cooler while camping Labor Day weekend. Pours much darker than a "Brown Ale". Flavor is much more deep than the style. Bready, malty, chocolate and a slick mouth feel. Quite nice and another great effort. Update 2/8/2008 - Can pours dark black with a decent head and lots of lace. The aroma is yeasty, dark chocolate, roasty, lactic, and coffee. The flavor is roasty, very dark chocolate, ale fruit notes - increases as it warms, some light hops, nutty (oats?), and vanilla. The palate is rich and slick. Overall, much better than when camping. I like it. Good session.

Lots of malt really stands out in the aroma.Pours medium brown with some reddish highlights.Has a light tan head.Lots of sweet malt and brown sugar dominate the flavor.Medium mouthfeel with a big sweet malt/caramel finish.

Perfect pour into a nonic. Deep opaque brown with a perfect crest of tan foam. Gobs of lacing on the glass, and pretty nice retention. Great sweet malt aroma with a dose of nuttiness and a hint of hops. Malt flavors up front with toasty caramel and a bit of chocolate, then nutty/oaty notes wash through, leaving a mild hoppy finish. This would make for an incredible session beer if I had more than one here in California. Really smooth in body and taste.

On tap at Ike’s in the MSP Airport: Pours a ruby brown with a demium creamy tan head. Aroma is light chocolate and hazelnut, some woody hop bitterness and a light burnt vanilla. Flavour is nice dark roast malt, again hazelnut and bitter bakers chocolate. Hop tones balanced out with the roast nut flavours well as you drink. A little thin on the palate for me which kept it from being really really good.

Somehow I’ve never tried this one. Near black pour with a medium sized light tan head. Aroma is chocolate and a bit of hops. Flavor is heavily malted, lots of toasty malts, molasses, coffee, chocolate, vanilla. Finishes creamy. This was pretty darn good for a brown, I usually don’t like that style.

Thanks to JuiceIsLoose for the taste of Bender. We did a side-by-side with the Cigar City Maduro Brown. Just check the rates to see who won. Freshness could have been a factor, though. Aroma is nutty and slightly roasted. Not nearly as strong as I would want. Flavors and dry toast and oats. Pretty good.

One of the best Brown Ales I’ve had! Full of roasty chocolate malty flavors. Pours clear brown with minimal white head. Goes down smooth, with sweetness, wood, smoke and chocolate all in the flavors. Pretty clean and yet sweet and, well, brown!