Surly Coffee Bender

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

on tap at busters on 28th. Pours a very dark brown color with little head. Smells of obvious coffee and smoked wood. The taste is instantly of coffee but has a bitter aftertaste. I was a alittle disapointed with this beer. I enjoy a good bitter beer but this one wasn’t nice on my palate maybe cause it was at the end of a long tasteing menu I will have to give this another try though.

A great inclusion from skinnyguy. Opaque brown color. A nutty and woody aroma as you would expect from a nice brown ale. The coffee comes through nicely in the flavor and mostly in the finish with a bitter roastiness that lasts for a nice long while. A hint of cocoa on the back side too is interesting and unique for the style. A touch of roasted coffee but very faint in the aroma. Well added and subtle coffee flavors.

Can, thanks to tytoanderso. Really nice roasted coffee bean aroma with a hint of nutty malt beneath. Flavor keeps the coffee coming, great dry roastedness, pure coffee goodness, with some sticky fruitiness there as well. This is the first time I’ve had this having hammered into my head that it’s a coffee BROWN ALE, not stout or porter, and having gotten that into my head, I’m quite impressed with the bold, dry, smooth coffee presence.

16 oz can. Pours a cloudy dark brown body with a one inch frothy beige head that left some nice lacing. Very nice clean coffee aroma that mixes great with the dry nutty malt. Throw in the moderate hoppiness and yet get greatness. The flavor is just as well balanced, hard to tell where the coffee stops and the beer begins. Did Starbucks make this? Hoppy cold coffee? Did they make this just for my tastes? Medium bodied with a nice crisp hop bite on the finish with the coffee lingering on even further. I love the subtle light-roast coffee flavor, there’s no astringency or burnt flavors at all. I hope they keep making this, I love it.

Aroma is of sharp coffee (go figure). Flavor is coffee but not much else. Not the most complex.

Draft at ACBF09. Pours brown with a small head. Aroma of sweet malt and light coffee grounds. Flavor is sweet initially with a coffee ground finish. I would have liked to see a stronger malt backbone to balance out the bitter coffee but perhaps that is expected when using a brown ale as the base instead of a porter or stout, which I am more used to. Anyway, it was very good for a brown ale. 7/4/8/4/15 (3.8/5)

Brown and opaque like coffee with a yellowish tan head. Aroma is chocolate, coffee, and sprucey hop notes. Taste is the same as aroma with hops on the leading edge with more coffee in the finish. Not really as coffee forward as I expected with rather tea-like elements, and rather typical brown aleness. Perhaps the can aged too long and the intensity died down.

16 oz can from Skinnyguy. Pours a brown color with a small off white head. Nose is sweet malt with some nice dark notes. palate is fairly simple with a light velvet feel. Flavor is all coffee, where was this in the nose? coffee overpowers the flavor, its actually kinda nice...nose is malty, flavor is coffee...blends nicely.