Surly Bourbon Bender

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

a hell of a brew. had a few cask pours wheew a tasty route if u have the means i highly recommend picking one up GET SURLY

The last of this beer sits in a keg at the Blue Nile...and I’m drinking it! Opaque tawny brown body, creamy tannish foam coats the top... Aroma is straight-up bourbon, sweet, corny, yet rough and raw...you can feel the qualities of Bender way below..way way below... Taste: lush, lovely, smooth, then powerful, a potent blast of bourbon that keeps far apace the Bender flavors, fairly smothers them. But it’s got it’s own wonderful charm, and many rewards. Further notes of chocolate, maple, leather, nuts... smooth as Bender is, but adding so many additional pleasures from the whiskey barrel...just delicious! I could drink this all night long and count myself so many times happier. And perhaps regret the act in the morning, but what’s life without a regret or two?

HOw the hell did i forget that I had this at the grand opening of the brewery back in May. Nice slight Bourban smell, looks good, and tastes good, as all Surly does. Most beers with any sort of Bourban age-ness in them usually turn me off, but this one i could put down. Probably helped that i had one pint of every selection that day, and my taste buds were dead from to many Furious!

On tap at FoBAB 5. Poured clear, deep reddish-brown with a light cap of beige head. The aroma picked up sweet caramel and chocolates with lesser oak and vanilla.. not much bourbon was perceptible.. lighter and quite complex (especially from a brown ale!). The flavor had vanilla, sweeter chocolates, toasted oak, and marshmallows throughout.. very tasty.. drier and a touch light right at the finish. Sweet and very enjoyable on the palate.. lighter-bodied, complex, and a great feel throughout.

ABR 2007. Funky oak and bourbon of the malty nose. Vanilla, oaks and a faint sourness in the body. Some hops survived. Not bad.

First beer sampled on draught at the ABR 07 in Minneapolis, MN. Pours a semi-clear dark brown brew with a fast dissolving tan head that leaves behind an off-white head and some film on the brew top. Aroma of distinct bourbon and aged oak wood with a touch of dark caramel malt. Taste is creamy, smooth, slightly syrupy with more coconut and bourbon flavors than hops and malt. Finish has a slight hop bitterness that quickly disappears to a light bourbon aftertaste.

Draft at ABR 07. Poured a nice medium to dark brown with a tan head. Nice roasteed sweet malt on the nose, but the bourbon shines a little more on this than the darkness, and I am a little over that character in beers. Still very nice, but not as good as I had hoped.

On tap at the Happy Gnome. Chestnut brown in color. The aroma is a happy marriage of soft, subdued bourbon with lively citrus hops, pleasantly warming and reserved. The bourbon flavors are placid and refined, never overpowering or abrasively loud and bolstered by roasted malt, woods and chocolate. Smooth, almost slippery texture. Hops and bourbon in a smooth velvet shimmer. The backbone kind of collapses as the carbonation fades, but it’s really a nice brew aside from that issue.