Surly Darkness

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

2009 bottle from Matt (madvike). Deep opaque brown-black body, thick tan head. Caramely nose, dusty and crackery, with stale bread, heavy roast, chocolate, molasses, and soy. The body was quite sweet, but felt unbalanced, with big chocolate, licorice, and honey-like molasses notes, sugary, with dark fruit, coffee, and distracting toasty cereals that lent a soggy, wavering homebrew quality to the malt profile. Some citrus and pine hops. Overall, this beer was marred by oxidized sugars, and lacked enough roast or warming alcohol to firm up the palate. After sampling the wonderfully executed, but relatively unadventurous Cigar City Marshal Zhukov’s IS, this beer struck me as messy, a tad cloying, and not very deep.

Batch 3 Bottle thanks Rciesla. Rating 666. Dark pour with dark tan head. Hopped up Russian imperial stout with roasted chocolate and malt along with strong hop influences. A stout worthy of the devils number.

Cask version at Night of the Living Ales 2010. Deep and dark black. Nose is hoppy w/ a bit of chocolate roast. Strong bitterness is resinous but still comes off as coffee like. Not terribly sweet but still a little sticky. Just slightly carbonated. Surly did a good job w/ this one. One of the best at the festival.

2009 bottle poured into my Delirium tulip. Pours a dark brown/black with a two finger caramel colored head. Aroma is of sugary malts and burnt caramel. Full bodied and a bit creamy. Taste is sweet with a sweet caramel, chocolate and finished with and a decent amount of piney hops. The booze is very well covered. Overall a great and complex beer.

’08 bottle. Pours a black body with a finger-width, very creamy, dark brown head that dissipates slowly and leaves tons of lacing. Gorgeous. Aroma is a little boozy with plenty of molasses, creamy chocolates, raisin, piney hops, nuts, and some softer roasty coffees. Flavor is sweet chocolates and molasses with lots of piney hops, but a nice balance with the malts. Raisin, cherries, nuts, sugary citrus, and less booze than the aroma, but still a slight warmth. The roasted coffees are clearly present, but do not overpower, allowing the sweetness to shine. Finishes rich and dry with a good amount of citrusy bitterness and an aftertaste that lingers forever. Surprisingly medium body, but very luxurious feeling and extremely mouthcoating. Overall, I had this side by side with Dark Lord and can say this easily takes a back seat. Still a great impy though and definitely world class.

’09 Bottle. The first thing that hits me is a very strong hoppy bitterness which fades quickly to a nice candy-like sweetness. Really tasty, and pretty unique. I’ve never had a beer with this blend of flavors.

2009 Vintage A: The pour is viscous, black, and wonderful. It fills the glass with a fluffy mocha colored head on top of the thick liquid below. S: Generally with an RIS (or any stout, really) you don’t expect citrus and pine hops to be the primary aroma, but that’s just what we have here. The malt and other traditional RIS aromas don’t come through quite as much as I would have liked. Still, the malt and chocolate and coffee do come through at times. T: The hoppiness is still present on the tongue, but not quite as intensely. A good roasted malt background with some hints of coffee and chocolate. Perhaps a bit of dark fruits as well, which go interestingly with the hoppiness. M: The body is nice and full and the beer feels quite creamy on the tongue. The carbonation is at a moderate level. D: The booze is hidden very well by the myriad of flavors that are present. I wish, however, that this was more RIS like and not basically a black DIPA.

Tap @ Blue Nile (rating from notes Dec 2006). A solid black color with a big foamy brown head. Creamy, chocolaty, plum, raisins and caramel. Lighter chocolate and coffee elements than I would have expected. Strong cherry flavors that finishes with a long bitter chocolate and tart fruits.