Surly Darkness

Brewed by Surly Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Brooklyn Center, Minnesota USA

22 oz bottle, graciously shared by MrBendo, thanks Todd. Dark brown with a coating tan head. Nose is caramel, molasses, grass and some citrus peel. Medium body with mild carb. Taste is molasses, chocolate chips, dark fruit and citrus with a muted hop bite. Very tasty with lots of sweet notes. Could use a touch more dark roast to balance.

Thanks to tytoanderso for the bottle, about 8 months old. 2008 bottling I believe, with Satan drinking from a skull pictured on the label.
Dark brown pour with a medium foamy head. Aroma of chocolate, some roasted malt and coffee. The hops seem be be totally gone in this. I’m a little surprised at just how absent they were, but not too disappointed because I generally don’t like hoppy stouts. A lot of dark fruit (prunes, dates) in the taste, and I could swear I tasted some wood. Thick texture, rich and complex, but not as much as I would have thought. Definitely not the heaviest stout out there, but it’s probably changed a lot in the 8 months sitting in my cellar. Mellowed, I would think. Good (if not earthshaking) stuff.

750 ml. 2008 vintage. Shared with SpudClampDawg and Pete. Inviting deep brown to black body below a dark brown head that slowly diminishes. Aroma is sweet with notes of chocolate, molasses, roasted grain. Just a hint of resin. The flavor is heavily sweet and lightly bitter. The finish is moderately to heavily sweet and lightly bitter with some light acidity. Full body with a creamy, milkshake like, texture. Lively carbonation. Lacks complexity. The sweetness overwhelms everything else to the point of becoming cloying erasing any chance of depth or complexity. Overall, a bit of a mess. Very disappointing.

22oz 2008 bottle split with jcr and UnclePete: We saved this bottle to drink for both my dad and myself’s 1000 rating. I don’t want to be the guy that rags on a beer just because it is rare and rates high, but this was absolutely lackluster to me. It was a complete sugary trainwreck that was nearly undrinkable. I’ve had lots of high ABV imperials before that simply blow this away. Finesse was not in the brewer’s mind when this was made. None of the three of us could finish our 7oz portions. We saved our 1000th rating for a different beer. Bummer.

Oil can black pour with a great, thick mocha head. The nose is appealing, as the sugary sweet chocolate and raisin notes literally jump from the tulip. The first sip goes down harsh - an unexpected gulp of white sugar sticking to all sides of the mouth. The coffee and chocolate notes that are present are nice, but the cloying, viscous liquid is way too sweet to appreciate them. The bitterness does attempt to balance things out, but fails miserably under the weight of the sugar. Undrinkable.

Interesting side note - after we all drank as much of our portions as we could, we decided this beer would be the perfect candidate for a "beer float." I grabbed the vanilla ice cream and we each added a small dollop to our remaining portions. What I thought would be a super-sweet treat ended up completely different. I don’t know if some strange chemical reaction happened, but the sugars in the beer and the sugars in the ice cream must have neutralized each other as all we could taste was bitterness. Very strange.

A guest beer at For the Love of the Hops! 2009 festival at Two Brothers Brewery in Warrenville, IL. Pours a dark black with a very massive, dense, deep tan head. Carbonation is very fine and perfect for the style. Aroma is a mix of chocolate, light coffee, a solid pine resin note and then the sweetness, the most dominate part of the aroma, comes through as raisin and prune juice. Flavors mix superbly with the chocolate and prune flavor really complimenting the later resin notes that come through. Very smooth and creamy feeling. Honestly was the BEST beer at Two Brothers festivities and is probably one of my top three favorite beers now of all time. Overall would highly recommend getting a bottle to try out!

Thanks to theisti for this great beer. Thick black pour with a tan bubbly head. Wonderful aroams of raisins, chocolates, cherries, toffee and hops. Flavor is just fantastic...basically the same as the nose, but with some mocha as well. Full bodied. Just a great body that I enjoy more than Dark Lord.

My Bottom Line:
This gargantuan Imperial Stout achieves stupendous flavor nuances with its coating molasses and dark chocolate malt character blending into piney and citrusy hop elevations, all in the most luxurious body where alcohol barely tickles the palate. This is gum-licking goodness.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A veil of foam tops the pitch blackness.
-Its decadent body is never obese.
-Peppery spiciness seems to stem from the gorgeous malt-hop union.
-It had been a while since I hadn’t gotten so excited by an Imperial Stout!
-This is more drinkable than Dark Lord and almost as complex as Expedition Stout. Very impressive indeed.

Bottle.

Really different - Dark fruit reminscent of brandied, candied fruit, a surprisingly potent hop profile, smooth with chocolate, toffee, roasty, smooth.