Surly Oak Aged CynicAle

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

On tap at Stub and Herbs. Cask CONDITIONED and dry hopped with Slovenian Celeia, the first of its kind according to head brewer Todd. Smelled of typical cynic, and the taste was amazingly smooth with nice fruity esters with a slight bittering effect of the hops. A great way to have this beer!

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.