Surly Oak Aged Bender

Brewed by Surly Brewing Company
Style: Brown Ale
Brooklyn Center, Minnesota USA

Firkin. Muddy looking brown with a good sized head. Aroma of caramel, nuts, and oak. Nice flavor, seems more mellow compared to the regular bender.

Firkin at Small Bar. Poured just slightly hazy medium brown with pretty much zero carbonation or head left. The aroma was soft with subtle, well-placed oak accents.. toasted caramel and nutty notes beneath.. light spicy herbal and lemon accents.. quite nice! The flavor had toasted nutty notes, caramel, and sweeter chocolate at the core.. tart grainy oak and vinegary tartness rode the edges, with an oaky, well-balanced finish. Light-medium bodied with low carbonation.. enjoyed the tart, oaky impression on an already great beer!

From a small gravity-pull keg at Small Bar. Pours a deep cloudy red with a really small head comprised of giant bubbles. This seems to be still. The aroma is confusing with hints of almonds, weak citrus, cheddar, and lots of vanilla/oak character. I get a little caramel and nuttiness perhaps, but mostly a solid wooden flavor all around until an almost vinous finish. This is very, very weird. (but not bad)

Pouring a dark brown body without much of a head, t5he malt in the aroma was strongly covered by scents of oak and vanilla. The malt came through more clearly in the flavor, sweet with a touch of cocoa and light stone fruits. Not bad, but this brew may have been a bit lightweight to handle the oak aging.

<font size=-4><a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/events-detail.asp?eve of the Living Ales IV, Goose Island Wrigleyville, Chicago, IL - 3/1/2008<font size=-1>

cask at night of the living ales. remarkably unexceptional, cloyingly malty with too much oak, like something from the swamp. i don’t think i’d have guessed it was a brown ale, kinda a mess of a beer and it didn’t take the cask well.

on cask at Night of the Living Ales IV, nose was loaded with vanilla from the oak aging, way over the top, the malt was a tad vegetal and i dont think held up to the oak, caramely notes. really odd and doesn’t work with the great brown ale that is bender.

From the cask at Night of the Living Ales in Chicago. Strong aroma from the oak...a little overpowering. Nice malt taste though and I thought it was very smooth.

I’d like to have it again. A pretty malty brown with some good depth, but I don’t think the flavors marry very well. I think you get BROWN and then OAK. Not as unified as I would like.