Surly Bender

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

Thanks to mcbackus for bonusing this one to me. Pours a light brown body with ruby red highlights. Thin head. Nutty aroma, with malts, roast and hops. Pretty thick mouthfeel for a brown ale, with roasty, nutty flavors dominating. Long, dry finish. Surprised to find this one has oatmeal in it, probably where the thick body comes from. Very nice.

Can: Pours a dark chocolate brown with a minimal cream head. Very complex nose consisting of baker’s chocolate, oats, nuts and has an underlying hoppiness to it. Medium bodied mouth feel...flavors consist of fine cocoa, oats, vanilla bean, nuts and finishes mildly hoppy. Just an amazing brown ale that’s right up there with the best.

A big thanks to theisti for bringing this one back from Minnesota for me. Pours a clear beautiful ruby/brown with a frothy, tan, diminishing head. The aroma is heavy roasted caramel malts, chocolate, light coffee and faint vanilla notes. So, yes the description on the can is actually pretty accurate, for a change. The mouthfeel is medium-bodied and creamy-smooth. The flavor is sweet roasted malts, chocolate, coffee and a lightly bitter roasted finish. A tasty brown. Thanks again, Tim.

Poured from a 16oz can supplied by tytoanderso and served in an English pint glass. This brew poured a deep, dark mahogany color with a frothy tan head that quickly faded down to a thin layer of lasting bubbles. Just a touch of faint lace was left around the glass. The aroma of the beer was mildly roasty and made up of milk chocolate, caramel, and also some light vanilla notes. The flavor included oats, caramel, cocoa, and lightly roasted malts. Also a hint of chocolate, finishing up lightly bitter. The mouthfeel was medium-bodied and creamy with a nice dose of tingly carbonation. An excellent beer with a wonderfully balanced flavor. This beer brings some excitement to a style that tends to be a bit mundane. Well done!

Can, courtesy sdeth. Pours a dark caramel red color, big white head, creamy white lacing. Caramel malt aromas, brown sugar, toffee, fairly strong and aromatic overall. Big roasted caramel malts pound the tongue. Sugar, chocolate. Some hops in the finish. There’s some coffee in there, too, albeit off in the distant. Bright, thin-bodied, but satisfying, and very easy to drink. One of the better browns around.

Almost a creamy lite porter taste in it. Nice and easy drinkability with no real detectable alcohol in the drink.

Can. Pours cranberry and brown with a nice off white head. Aroma is pretty malty and a surprisingly complex mix of coffee, cocoa, and prune. The taste is a little more straight forward. It’s a wonderful bitter maltiness. This beer has a great palate that’s a real mouthful. Where this beer really shines though is in the finish. The taste is initially coffee but then becomes a bitter cocoa like an excellent chocolate bar. Surly makes, without doubt, the best beer to ever come canned.

On tap at the Barley House my first surley brew color was a dark brown and clean with small head aromas of coffee,carameled malts and hops,taste was smooth and clean with flavors of coffee,caramel and chocolates malts very easy drinking thin in body and alcohol