Surly Bender

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

Pours like a porter. The nose is sweet with coffee, chocolate, and light toffee notes. Comes across the palate with caramel and light chocolate. Very smooth finish a slight porter after taste.

a great double ipa. this is a must try. many might be unwilling to try since it’s out of a can, but it’s a truly great beer.

From a can. Pours with almost no head. Not viscous at all. Deep brown, barely allows like through. Smells like malt, coffee, burnt toast. Delicious, rich, and complex. Flavor is malt, barley, coffee, and molasses. The best part of the beer is the way it fills your whole mouth. The flavor is greatly enriched by chewing the beer and allowing every part of your tongue to taste it. One glass lasted an hour and a half and was enjoyable all the way down. Here’s hoping Surly begins to take off. Can’t wait to try Darkness this winter.

Poured from can into Nonic Imperial Pint. Very dark ruby-brown with an inch thick tan head that very slowly recedes, leaving fine lacing down the glass. Aroma of sweet caramel, citrus hops, some roasted malts. Slightly sweet caramel, roasted malts, oats, slight coffee and chocolate, and a very nice citrus hop counterbalance. Finishes on a moderate bitter note. Low carbonation, rich medium body, dry body. Very smooth for such a low abv beer. At 5.1% abv, this is the ideal year round session beer in Minnesota. It is also the best Brown Ale (whether English, American, India or hybrid) that I have had.

Oct. 2007 - I was really liking this one. Dark brown pour, nice head and lacing. Strong aroma of coffee, english malt and roast. As many stated, this defies style, part brown ale, part porter, part oatmeal stout...the best of each part. Caramel malt with roast, chocolate, oatmeal and nutty notes as well. Some sweetness, maybe bubblegum with a bitterness and even a sourness that was strangely pleasant. Wonderfully smooth and thick mouthfeel. Amazingly complex. Really excellent.

A huge and massive THANK YOU for lb4lb and pintsize for just happening to have one and giving it to me, thank you. 16 oz. can poured into my happy stein- poured semi transparent when held to light source, very dark brown with red tint in color, off brown ring around the glass with some lacing for a head. Aroma of nuts (walnuts?), finely roasted malt that was not burned to a crisp, brown sugar, and pure beergoodness that makes you want to swim in it. HIts the mouth with a low-wide body, coffee like taste hits the tongue at first, sweetness the like of brown sugar comes wandering in the middle and lingers, finish is very smooth, solid, and asks nicely to have another sip with a twinkle her eyes. I am a sucker for a great brown ale, and this one did not clear the fence, it cleared the stadium!!! HOME RUN!!!

16 oz, can. I would have tried this much sooner, but beer in a can makes me hesitant. I however over came my narrow minded snobby view of beer in a can and gave her a whirl. Bender is dark brown with a red hue, and has a nice caramel-colored head that slowly fades. It has a slightly sweet chocolate/coffee aroma with a little hop in there. The flavor is very well balanced and much more complex than I was expecting. The complement of flavors that danced across my tongue was chocolate roasted malt, caramel, and a little bit of nuts. There is a slight hop in the middle that adds the right amount of bitterness to round out the smooth, long lasting finish of this excellent brew. The body is medium to full and feels creamy and substantial. As I drained the glass Bender left small tracks of lacing, which didn’t last long because I poured another can of Bender into the glass. I really do enjoy brown ales and overall I feel this is one of the best. I feel lucky to have happened across this most remarkable find. Hats off to Surly!

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!