Surly Oak Aged CynicAle

On cask at the Great Taste of the Midwest (8/9/08): Pours a hazy copper bronze with a thin, airy coating of white head. Lightly noble hoppy citrusy nose has some mild pale German malty sweetness. Starts with good fullness and authenticity with a good subtle oaky complexity. Very drinkable and well-balanced.

At Darkness Day in my plastic cup. Aroma of spices and oak. Flavor is a bit more subdued then the regular version but the oak gives it a very smooth palette.

Cask @ Darkness Day, again in my brand new Darkness tulip. It pours with a hazy and shiny orange color. The cask gives it a bubbly (not foamy) head, basically just agitation of the beer and not really a head. Aroma is ester-y with fruity hoppiness and a slightly spoiled tangerine aspect. The hops go along with that tangerine aroma. There might be a ’’woodsy’’ faint aroma but it just maybe confirmation bias, if I did not know this was oaked I do not know if I would be picking it up at all. Taste is more hoppy than the aroma with sweet hops. Finish is light;y dough-y, and light Belgian yeastiness (I might be a bit redundant there). The mouthfeel just doesn’t work here. Again, why am I getting an oaked Saison on cask, what the hell was I thinking (damn constant need to try new things)? Maybe I would have enjoyed those other characteristics a lot more if it wasn’t for the undercarbonated body.

A lot like the normal cynic, but more. Much fuller, fruitier taste with a little more spice. Easy drinking. An improvement over the original but I can’t tell where the oak is.

Pours orange with what looks like dish detergent for the head. Weird. I have no clue what the oak does for this. Sweet and spicy as always, with that great black pepper aspect. Good stuff.

Pours orange with a frothy white head. Aroma was of bread, spice, light fruit, and oak. Taste started out spicy with a nice bready presence, it then was balanced out by an almost sweet oak taste. Lingering fruity taste with notes of spice. The oak made this one a tad odd, turning the beer almost sour. Althought, sour in a good way. A tad too odd for my taste, but very enjoyable and with high drinkability.

I enjoyed this a lot more than regular Cynic. Very floral and spicy aroma, adding a bit of sour twist to the flavor. Not something I would go out of my way to get, but not something I would turn down, either.

At Darkness Day in my Darkness glass. Aroma of spices and fruit, some floral aroma also. Flavor is sweet with a bit of a bite at the end. Smooth.