Surly Furious

Re-rate coming soon. This is an extremely good beer. Here’s my old rating until I find my notes: It’s really hard to reconcile the intense deliciousness of the beer with the punishment in the accumulating bitterness on the tongue. The deliciousness always wins, and you take another swig. It’s a good beer to acclimatise oneself to superhopped American beer. I wish I could get this in Halifax.

draft at clark street alehouse. this was a breath of fresh air last night. the only good beer in a sea of... i dont know, something. anyways. orange/copper color with a nice off white head. intense aroma of grapefruit and citrus hops. taste is decently balanced, pretty damned bitter back end. no doubt it’s an IPA, and a massively hoppy one at that. why it was $6 for a snifter i don’t know. i’m pretty much just rating it so i don’t have zero ratings for february 2008

Thanks to Stine for this one. Pours out cloudy orange/copper color with a nice off white head. Intense aroma of grapefruit and citrus hops. Taste is well balanced with a nice citrus hop smack right in the face with some other citrus and light floral hops on the taste. Nice sweet malts in there for some balance, just the right amount as it allows the hops to be the feature in this beer. This is a very solid IPA, I need to find me some more of this.

Can. Pours burnt amber with a nearly non-existent off white head. Nose is filled with caramelized sugars, sweet malts, with spicy, floral grapefruit hops dominating. Taste is a blast of astringent hops, so spicy, with an amazing malt character. Sweet, just enough to balance out the bitterness, mixed with some grains, and caramel that bring up the rear. This sports a full bodied and creamy palate that leaves your mouth a bit sticky and dry. While this is plenty complex and rich, it is still fully sessionable and goes down easy. With this IPA, its not so much the hops, as it is the malts. Two thumbs up!

On tap at Lunar in Villa Park. Clear light amber pour, frothy off-white head, lacing. Lots of grapefruit in the nose. A variety of hops in the mouth, decent mouthfeel. Perhaps a bit too hoppy for my personal tastes, but my buddy who loves IPAs loved it. Definitely worthwhile.

Trade with ketchepillar. 16 oz can poured a deep amber color with red highlights. A small head that disappeared quickly sat in a ring around the glass. Great grassy and hop nose to the pour. The smell even reminded me of sweet herb (so did the flavor). Some sweet malts as well. First taste was a grassy bitterness that was not overwhelming. This was followed by a great maltiness to balance it out. Very nice IPA. It is not way over the top like some IPAs are moving. I hope Surly will soon be in MD.

Pours a very thick, cloudy red/orange with a creamy off-white head that will not die. A very attractive looking beer. The aroma is thick with citrus hops - mostly grapefruit I think. The flavor is very intense - hugely bitter peppery grapefruit hops hit the tongue immediately. Fortunately there is a very sturdy malt backbone to keep the hops from overwhelming the flavor - still though, this is a very, very bitter brew. The palate is fantastic - thick and creamy. Overall an excellent beer. Another very solid effort from Surly.

Beautiful poor with a huge creamy head and dark amber body and great lacing all down the glass. Citrus, pine, and floral hops aroma. The flavor has a really nice kick to it that is beautifully balanced by the malts even if it is 100 IBUs. NIce thick mouthfeel. Superior beer.