Surly Bender

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

Serve in Dimpled mug

16oz. can. Aroma of darkly sweet malts, combined with notes of cocoa, caramel, toffee, and some dark, grainy breadiness. Clear dark brown color with a very fine head. Flavor profile features a nice depth of caramel and dark, grainy breadiness, the sweetness nicely balanced with a drying quality towards the finish and a lingering, faint nutty quality. Smooth and low in effervescence on the palate, body is medium. Nice Brown!

Can’t believe I haven’t rated this yet. Pours a deep ruby brown color, with a lively frothy head. Flavor is light roast, mild coffee, vanilla bean, oats, and cream, with a nice dryness to finish it off. Medium bodied. Smooth and easy drinking on the palate. Solid session beer. Better than most boring brown ales.

UPDATED: MAY 18, 2007 II believe that merging Teabag Bender and standard Bender was an error as the beers have very different flavors, but apparently the admins don’t believe me. I rating below is for teabag bender for anyone lucky enough to find it. Spicy tea aroma, and spicy green tea flavor. It leaves a green tea flavor on the palate, and it is not as nearly as heavily hopped as the standard bender. Some lemongrass. The tea comes through quite well overall. Another successul beer from Surly. The palate however, it very light.
Earlier Rating: 4/14/2006 Total Score: 3.7
Maybe the best brown ale ever, even though it doesn’t fit into any style very well. The aroma is mosty hops and light malt, but this is fairly light. Flavor is coffee, medium sweet malt, and hops. With the dark color it is like an oatmeal stout generously hopped. As it warms the flavor changes and strange yeasty, but not bad flavors come out. An unusual creation and quite good.

On tap at the Dock Cafe in Stillwater, MN. Unfortunately, I lost my notes (damned text message clean-up...). From what I recall, this was a murky brown ale dominated by toast and chocolate notes, earthy, with a bitter finish and a touch of dark fruitskin. No single element stood out, but the sum was greater than the whole of the parts.

Very dark brown/ruby body, topped by a really nice dense tan head. Looks very nice and appetizing in the glass. The aroma is lightly nutty. The flavor is that of a brown ale, but a wee bit more hops and richness then the typical run-of-the-mill brown ale. The oatmeal really helps bolster the body making for a much more enjoyable experience all around. Good stuff.

Can courtesy of Matt7215, thanks Matt! This ale poured decidedly dark brown with a frothy mocha head. Spotty lace is left behind. The nose is all about the hops and is dominated by the cascades, and then matched with wood, milk chocolate and nutty notes. This tastes good! Sweet nutty chocolate, like nutella, with dry cocoa powder and fresh, leafy green hops. Sweet and bitter. Usually Brown Ales are too sweet for my general liking, but this is quite good. Creamy and long lived bitter finish. Yes please! Thanks for the opportunity to try this one Matt!

Can trade from shigadeyo. Poured clear brown with an average off-white frothy head that mostly lasted with good lacing. Moderate Moderate sweet toasted nut aroma. Medium body with a smooth texture. Medium sweet smooth flavor with a medium bitteersweet finish of moderate duration. I would recommend this to a freind.

Thanks to Stine for this one. Pours out a nice dark brown with a small off white head. Aroma is of vanilla, bittersweet chocolate and slight caramel. Taste is complex with a nice balance of many different flavors, light coffee, bittersweet chocolate, caramel, and some vanilla notes all come together rather well. As stated nicely balanced.