Monday, September 29, 2008

Few Words On Surly Bender

This is only the 2nd beer I've had from Surly, that small brewery in Minnesota who makes what I hear is an "ok" beer called Darkness, and uses cans for most of their beers. A little over a year ago I tried the famous Surly Furious, an IPA that was pretty good. Bender is a 5.1% ABV brown ale that adds a bit of twist with its 40+ IBU's. Those hops really do come through in the flavor. For the most part I get the chocolate and caramel malts, a hint of roasted barley, but there's definitely a lingering hop flavor and bitterness in there as well. Unlike most brown ales that might linger a little sweet, this lingers bitter (just enough, not too much). It's very drinkable... a session beer with a twist if you will. Yeah this would be a regular for me if I lived in Minnesota.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fuck yea, Minnesota love! Yea as you say no one likes Darkness ;) and Surly does can all of their beers, the only exception being the Darkness and their 2nd annual brew fittingly called "Two" which have both been bottled in 750ml and sold at one time yearly events. This years Darkness Day occurring in just 5 days, I plan on cellaring most of my bottles so if you ever make it over to Minnesota your welcome to come give it a try. I had the pleasure of getting my hands on some brew from your state just the other day. Some Stone IPA sits in my fridge waiting for my to indulge, and I'm quite excited as I've never had the opportunity to sample their brews (had to go to Wisconsin to buy it). Cheers.

Anonymous said...

Darkness has a HUGE following here in MN. Bars have entire events structured around releasing it.

Bender, Furious, and Coffee Bender are awesome. Can also get CynicAle in cans year round and they also a rye beer in October called SurlyFest which is extraordinary. Wonderful, creative brewery.

Steve said...

Anonymous- I think you didn't detect the sarcasm in calling Darkness an "ok" beer.