Surly Furious

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

A crisp fresh salt of pungent hop kicks my nostrils into gear. Wowzer. Cascade citrus orange peels meld with bright lemony hop resins and a nip of pine. A wonderful quaf of floral and citrus, with rising heat and a nip of malt caramels in the nose. Pours a crystal clear ruddy amber, with sunset fire fringe. Foamed with creamy tan sticky lacing, sheeting the glass and floating high. On the tongue a deft hand of hops, with articulate loblolly pine resins, burning red pine sap and a whole bouquet of floral orgasm. The hop flavors are right there, as if off the vine. So fresh and ripe. Scarcely does an IPA seem to hold onto the crisp resins and hop sugars as this beer does. Maintaining a biting alcohol-fueled hop frenzy in the middle, this is a bitter beer, but only in a good west coast cacophony. Lucious, wet and sappy. This is a damn fine IPA. The malt backbone kicks in with light caramels, sweet maple syrup and drying raisin bread. A top IPA for sure. I do think that the canning has helped preserve this beer’s better qualities and many have said that it doesn’t differ from the tap version all that much.

Can at Blackfriars at my leaving Glasgow night and at chris_o’s pre GBBF TASTING!!!!!!! Aroma is exactly what i want from the american hop resin and caramalt. Taste is similar, super hoppy, just america hop goodness.

I got this can in a trade from Footbalm. I was scouring through the styro shipper, and was taken aback when it appeared Mr. Balm had sent me a can of coke. Little did I know, it was nothing short of Surly Furious! Madness.

This is a great IPA. I’m not really that into hops at all, but this is really sessionable, well balanced, extremely drinkable, and damn pretty in the glass to boot. Nothing unique in the taste or aroma, typical stuff, just very very well done.

Can (16oz). Shared with blankboy, courtesy of Oakbluff. Poured medium-walnut brown, clear, with a small lasting tightly foamy beige head. Rich blended aroma, medium dark roasted malt and citrus/acidic/funky hops - almost woody, almost like pineapple - damn that’s good - in a can! Very unusual taste sensation - initially dry toasted malt, a little biscuity, quite grainy up-front - then the acidic/bitter hops kick in - scorched grapefruit pith, a little cedar bark - complex, very long bitter finish and linger, but peat and roast notes make it quite out of the ordinary - and no can metal at all. Fairly chewy body, acidic and astringent mouthfeel, just adequate carbonation, not a huge alcohol presence, but the hops and the ABV do warm the ears - man this is pretty fine stuff. Thanks for the share!

Can Amber colour with a nice head. Lovely aroma of grapefruit, citrus and very floral endeed. Very hoppy and very bitter endeed. Incrediable that they can put so much hops in that can.

I love Furious. Such great flavors of hops. Fruity and citrus with hints of pine. Nice and chewy, great body and is so smooth. Balanced and very drinkable.

RBSG 2007 Pub Crawl – Cask at the Happy Gnome. Clear copper with a small, bubbly white head. Grapefruit and earth nose, a touch of pine. Flavor is bitter citrus, herbal, earthy, bold but not sharp. Dry earthy herbal finish.

Re-rate. 16 oz can from UncleJedi - thanks! Gushed a bit... Hazy amber with a huge beige head that descends rockily. Earthy grapefruit nose, pine and caramel. Earthy hop flavors, lightly spicy, grapefruit and rich caramel. Herbal finish. Awesome rings of thick lace al the way to the bottom. Wonderful! Bumped from 3.8 to 4.

Rerate: Tested this beer against 9 others, and this came out tiied for the 2nd best. Bitter orange/grapefruit flavor. Very nice!

Want hops...try this beer. It’s very hoppy and very good. It’s bitter, it’s piney, it’s not well balanced, but that’s the idea. If you don’t like hops, you won’t probably like this beer. Fortunately for me, I like hops, and therefore like this beer. I would say though that the variety of hops used is not at the very top of my list. Not that that makes this a bad beer, but there are better IPA’s out there. I don’t know how this gets classified as an amber ale. In my book, it’s an IPA all the way. Original Rating = 3.8