Surly Oak Aged Bender

7oz sample at Stub & Herbs. Murky ruby brown pour with no head, but my sample was poured out of a pitcher that was already half poured at the bar. Aroma is brown sugar, spice and a touch of vanilla and citruis. Flavor contained a lot of the oak, roasted nuts, molasses and some vanilla.

Draft sample at Stub & Herbs. Ruby brown in colour with low carbonation. Aromas are of oak, exotic fruit, vanilla, and some savory spice. Very oak and vanilla forward in the mouth, along with cooking spices, caramel, and some toasted nits. Slick mouthfeel. A bit too much oak seems to thow this one off balance. Not bad in a smaller serving size, but a whole pint of this stuff was too much for me.

Draft old rating. Pours a dark brown body with a tan head. Coco, caramel, some roasted caramel malt, with a bitter and woody tone. Accented with vanilla and brown sugar. Nice just a bit light and thin.

Cask @ Darkness Day: Dark brown pour with a finger of creamy tan head. Great lacing. Nose is heavily sweet and bourbon filled. Flavor is subdued, some sweetness from the bourbon, light oaky notes, roast, and nutty. Comes accross a little weak in the end and finished really soft... just ok.

Cask at Darkness Day. Pours flat brown with little head. The nose smelled like a weak bender with a bit of 2x4. I took a couple drinks and something seemed off. Josh mentioned it tasted like tea. That was it. I don’t like tea. I guess it was a fine beer, just not something for me.

(Cask) Pours a brown body with a small beige head. Aroma of caramel, cocoa, and toasted grain. Flavor of nuts, cocoa, light herbs, oak, and caramel malt.

Maroonish colored pour w/ a whispy large bubbled head and no lacing. Pal is overly thin but does coat well. Flavor is lightly bitter, some dry wood on the backend.. the aroma is very mild. Not impressed.

Sampled at GTMW 2009 (Madison, WI). Pours a hazy copper with some brown, natural carbonated head that laces minimally. Aromas are bender glory of light coffee, brown sugar, nuts, caramel and toffee with decent floral hopping and touches of oak and vanilla. Initial is light, nothing cloying about this with bown sugar, caramel, chocolate, some faint coffee, light oak and vanilla. Light bodied which the cask seems to change the strength but not complexity of this brew, not bad at all. Not as good as regular Bender in my opinion.