Surly Coffee Bender

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

On draft @ MacKenzie’s. Very dark brown in colour with medium carbonation. Huge coffee with cream aroma, with a bit of caramel. Coffee dominant in the mouth, but notes of caramel, vanilla, milk chocolate, and munich-ish malts start to poke through. Medium bodied, with a very smooth mouthfeel. Seemed more like a coffee porter to me, but very tasty nonetheless.

On tap at the Happy Gnome in Saint Paul, Mn. Perfect coffee infused taste. Aroma of espresso coffee and dark chocolate. Medium bodied. Very similar to the java stout from Bell’s but a little stronger on the coffee side. Well balanced hops and malts. I prefer this over the regular bender.

On tap at the Maproom Chicago. I’m glad I got to grab this one this time around. A pint for five bucks is a good deal with this brown ale. Pours a medium brown with a tan head that fades as I drink this down. Roasty nose. Coffee, chocolate, nuts, and earthy hops in the aroma. Medium body with adequate carobonation. The roast/coffee comes on strong and leads to the nutty, chocolate, and earthy hops. The flavors don’t carry the punch of the initial roast but the earthy roasty bitterness lingers after those other flavors are gone. Solid coffee beer that wasn’t all about the coffee but used it well.

On tap at Jerry’s. Dark mahogany with big, foamy brown head / Rich semi-sweet chocolate & roast coffee nose / Medium body, acidic, with balanced malts & hops, and with good finish / Flavors of roast coffee, bittersweet chocolate, and oak / A coffee porter.

Pours brown with a tan head. Aroma is very earthy. There are hints of malt, nuts, and straw as well as the overpowering aroma of coffee. Taste was mainly of coffee at first. After the coffee taste settles in, the malty and nutty flavors lingered on. The more you drink, the more the coffee is subdued for the taste of chocolate and roasted malts. Too much coffee for my liking.

GTMW 2008: Brown hue with reddish highlights. The aroma is coffee (duh), roasted and chocolate malts, walnut, some herbal hops and an earthy yeast ester. The taste is sweet malt and walnut with a straight forward coffee character. A hint of fig and juniper like flavors as well. The mouth feel has the problem many coffee beers do, thinner than it should be. Despite the weak mouth feel, I still liked this beer quite a lot.

OBF 2008. Beautiful coffee/sweet roasted malt aroma. The coffee taste is done just right, and I love it. Give me more.

GTMW ’08. Poured a clear dark orange-brown color. The head was light tan with an almost orange-ish tint. The aroma was subdued coffee. Light to medium bodied with coffee and chocolate notes. Good, but didn’t bowl me over. I preferred the regular Bender.