Surly Bender

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

Minnetonka, Mn. - Old Chicago Pizza - draft. Dark brown pour, mocha colored head with good lacing. Chocolatey aroma which carries over to the flavor. Hints of nuttiness with a coffee finish. Smooth, creamy mouthfeel. Very enjoyable.

16oz can from iowaherkeye. Thanks Joey. Served at cellar temperature. Poured a lovely clear dark brown-garnet color. Head was thick, creamy, and light brown with good retention and lacing. Aroma was predominantly of milk chocolate and malted milk balls with whiffs of raisin and peanut. Delicately sweet, medium bodied, and fairly smooth. Tasted of milk chocolate, nuts, subdued flowery hops, light raisin, and a touch of caramel. Yum. Not your typical brown ale.

Trade with noncaloric. Thick rich head on reddish-brown beer. Rich chocolate cream aroma with a hint of alcohol. Love the big cans but not a big fan of the beer inside this one. Flavour seems a bite winey. Doesn’t come of too well for a Brown or an oatmeal beer for me.

Can via trade with brewso, many thanks. Pours deep brown lighter towards the bottom with a thick two finger tan head. The aroma is malty and robust with nice sugary notes. Taste is very rich, full of roasted malt, chocolate, and some sugar. Damn this is a good brown, now if I can try Darkness and the others I’ll be excited.

Thin brown head. Deep dark red body with carbonation. Complex tropical fruit hop aroma with smoky chocolatey notes. Dry, yet sweetish, smoky chocolatey malty taste. Dry fruity hop and roasty malt aftertaste lingers for a long time. (0.47l can at Knut Albert’s.)

II believe that merging Teabag Bender and standard Bender was an error as the beers have very different flavors, but apparently the admins don’t believe me. I rating below is for teabag bender for anyone lucky enough to find it. Spicy tea aroma, and spicy green tea flavor. It leaves a green tea flavor on the palate, and it is not as nearly as heavily hopped as the standard bender. Some lemongrass. The tea comes through quite well overall. Another successul beer from Surly. The palate however, it very light.
Earlier Rating: 4/14/2006 Total Score: 3.7
Maybe the best brown ale ever, even though it doesn’t fit into any style very well. The aroma is mosty hops and light malt, but this is fairly light. Flavor is coffee, medium sweet malt, and hops. With the dark color it is like an oatmeal stout generously hopped. As it warms the flavor changes and strange yeasty, but not bad flavors come out. An unusual creation and quite good.

My first Surly beer and hopefully not the last....great beer. Pours a super dark brown with a small head. Aroma is really nice. Roasty, nutty, some malts and coffee. Flavor is just creamy and smooth as hell. Good coffee sweetness, nice malt. Damn this is good. MORE PLEASE!

In short: A milk-chocolate and toastiness abound in this very good but atypical Brown Ale
How: Can 16oz. Consumed relatively fresh, 2 months after receiving it from Stine. Thanks a lot Eben.
The look: Dark mahogany body topped by a very small beige head
In long: Nose of hot-chocolate that has cooled down. Taste has milk-chocolate, toasted whole-wheat bread, more milk-chocolate, pecans, some baked pie crust and a whole lot of leafy hops to perfectly balance it out. Very easy to drink. The fact that it’s a liquid helps in that regard.