Surly Furious

Brewed by Surly Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Brooklyn Center, Minnesota USA

Draft at Surly, can at home. Copper pour with light amber glints, beige/gray head, small but well retained. The aroma is hop centered, with grapefruit notes, pine resin, oranges and dried flowers, it’s really all over the board as far asd the hop profile goes. Plenty of malt in the nose too, fresh caramel and toasted grains lurking underneath the sweetness. The flavor is nicely balanced but not really that interesting. Medium sweetness is tapered well by agressive but never overpowering hops that lend a steady and moderately high level of bitterness throughout the flavor. The finish is long and sweet, bitter hops lingering and eventually changing sweet to extreme dryness, quite the velocity shift at the end. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, sticky, creamy and boasts aggressive carbonation that’s only noticeable upon first sip. This is very well balanced, a well executed recipe but it’s just too boring. I don’t need aggression here, but I need something memorable. Nothing stands out however, not even a feeling of satisfaction or ease of drinkability.

Really enjoyable. Pour quite a dark amber color, almost brown. Head is creamy and light tan in color. Malty, caramel, toffee, lots of piney hops, bitter, citrus, and very well balanced. Slightly earthy and a nice creamy mouthfeel. Very good.

Thanks to hellomynameis for this one - what a cool beer. Darker brown (looks like a Scotch ale) with an off-white head. Aroma is a nice mix of earthy-floral hops and smoky malts - lots of peat and wood in there. Flavor is really nice - smoky, peaty, woody, sweet malts mixing with a nice herbal-earthen-floral hop blast. A wonderful cross between an IPA and a good Scotch ale. Reeeealy good. Sorry Sly Fox and Oskar Blues, but I just found my #1 favorite canned beer.

These canned beers have totally helped me forget the crap of the past that once dominated all. Hops up front and through and through with good balance (not all hops) to boot. Wish this were available locally so I could say, no thanks, I had it when it was cool.

Canned. Beer is medium caramel-brown colored, clear. Head is average-sized, beige frothy/creamy. Slowly diminishing and mostly lasting. Moderate lazy lacing.<P>The first impression on the nose is heavy hop, malty ballast. Malty with light notes of buttered toast, toasted grain, moderate cookie and caramel; Hoppy with heavy notes of resin/pine, moderate herbal grapefruit oil, trace of lemon; Yeasty with a trace note of dish rag.<P>The flavor is lightly/moderately sweet, moderately/heavily bitter, lightly acidic with a long, moderately/heavily bitter, lightly sweet finish. Grip doesn’t let up.<P>The body is medium, the texture is watery/velvety and the carbonation is lively.

Can. Head is initially small, frothy, off-white, mostly lasting. Body is hazy medium to dark amber. Aroma is lightly to moderately malty (toasted grain, cookie), moderately hoppy (resin, grapefruit), with light notes of peach and black tea. Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, lightly to moderately bitter. Finish is lightly to moderately sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, moderately to heavily bitter. Medium body, velvety/creamy texture, lively carbonation, lightly alcoholic. I can see why it’s well-liked; it’s nicely balanced for the style (very bitter but plenty of malt to back it up) and assertively hoppy in the nose but has malt character to keep it from being one-dimensional. Nice creamy mouthfeel too. A very good rendition, even if not the most appealing sort for me.

Draught, at MacKenzies, Minneapolis, June 2007. Amber colour. Rather murky. Not surprisingly, this is all about the hops. The aroma is very intense with big pine and resin, but also a very leafy, herbaceous, floral character. Perhaps a little less intense on the palate. Relatively smooth and drinks quite easily. Despite all the hops, its not an outrageous "hops at all costs" beer and comes over as nicely balanced..

Thanks to Badgerben for this one. Dark amber – chestnut pour with more carbonation than I expected and a medium foamy head. The aroma is big! Lots of powerful malt, caramel, syrup and nougat. Hops just help it along with pine and citrus. A good malt body greats you along with your first blast of power hops. Burnt malt, caramel grains (even a hint of chocolate…or am I imagining) with big pine/spruce hops throughout with citrus peal well represented at the finish. The bitterness is two fold in this one as it seems to be coming from both the hops and perhaps some tannic grain husks. Some metallic hints as well. Body is medium in general though the mouth feel is a bit more watery than the flavor initially leads you to believe it will be. Good.