Surly Bender

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

16oz. can. Aroma of darkly sweet malts, combined with notes of cocoa, caramel, toffee, and some dark, grainy breadiness. Clear dark brown color with a very fine head. Flavor profile features a nice depth of caramel and dark, grainy breadiness, the sweetness nicely balanced with a drying quality towards the finish and a lingering, faint nutty quality. Smooth and low in effervescence on the palate, body is medium. Nice Brown!

Sampled at an STL beer gathering. Pours mahogany with a crimson hue and a tannish head. The aroma has roasted nutty malt, light butter and some sweetness. Medium smooth body with smoothness and a bit of grassiness and small frothy carbonation. The flavor starts with roasted nuttiness and lots of hops for the style - very smooth enjoyable flavors. The finish has more sharpness, more hops and then lingering mild coffee. Thumbs up for this choice brown ale.

If you don’t like this beer, you can BITE MY SHINY METAL ASS! Does anybody make Futurama references anymore? Anyway, clear brown, no head. Bready, spicy aroma, and what I’d call typical brown ale flavors - chocolatey, bready, and lightly spicy rye-ish note at the finish.

Poured a clear dark brown color with a reddish hue and beige head. Sweet caramel aroma with some toasty notes and coffee thrown into the mix. The aroma was full and nice. Semi-sweet malt flavor with caramel and fruity notes. The finish was sweet. Another tasty beer in a can. I love that.

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.

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.

On tap at the Dock Cafe in Stillwater, MN. Unfortunately, I lost my notes (damned text message clean-up...). From what I recall, this was a murky brown ale dominated by toast and chocolate notes, earthy, with a bitter finish and a touch of dark fruitskin. No single element stood out, but the sum was greater than the whole of the parts.

Very dark brown/ruby body, topped by a really nice dense tan head. Looks very nice and appetizing in the glass. The aroma is lightly nutty. The flavor is that of a brown ale, but a wee bit more hops and richness then the typical run-of-the-mill brown ale. The oatmeal really helps bolster the body making for a much more enjoyable experience all around. Good stuff.