Surly Darkness

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

Serve in Snifter

Rating #2800! 12/23/10. Huge thanks to DalzAle for this one! Sweet raisins and dark fruits with licorice, dark candy sugar, a touch of booze, and plenty of chocolate. Sweet chocolate up front with plenty of coffee and dark fruits in there as well. Very nice!

750ml bottle thanks to grub. 2010 Vampire vintage.
Appearance : Pitch black with a small head.
Aroma : Lots of malt with great hops. Not so roasty. Light molasses. A bit sweet but rather balanced betweeen hops and malt.
Taste : Awesome silky carbonation. Awesome hops with nice roasted malt and molasses. Great hop kick on the finish. A bit resinous but not a lot.
Overall : Different and outstanding. Packed with flavours but rather easy drinking. Awesome carbonation and overall palate. Silky. Great balance, not too sweet. Felt much better than Dark Lord 09 I had the week before. Much more elegant and refined. Appearance was a little bit disapointing... pretty much the only negative point. Nose could be a bit more present. I need to have a full bottle of this on my own at home to give it true justice.

2008 bottle. Beer is black with a thick brown head of small bubbles that leaves a lot of lacing on the glass. The aroma is sweet and some roastiness. Smells good. The beer is sweet and has a definite chocolate bitter / semisweet flavor to it. There is a nice maltiness to the beer that is really nice. Beer overall has a medium body and as it warms there is more caramel in the palate. Drinkability high and mouthfeel is high. I’d be interested in the other vintages. Serving type: bottle

750ml bottle, 2009 edition (Mummy), courtesy of Guerde. thanks so much for this one, Andy! aged for damn near two years i figured this would be a great beer for rating #900! pours a gorgeous, silky, jet black with a huge, creamy, khaki head with great retention and thick, glass coating lace. aroma is wonderful with huge, bitter, dark chocolate, rum cake, raisins, dried figs, and raw molasses backed by black coffee, piney hops, and a hint of grill ashes with notes of tobacco and vanilla as it warms. flavor is absolutely wonderful as well with massive roasted malts, milk chocolate, mocha coffee, and rich dark fruit notes of dried cherry, fig, and raisin up front backed by sweet, nutty pralines, cigar wrapper, and burnt brownie ends with subtle hints of vanilla, walnuts, and grassy hops on the back end. palate is wonderfully smooth, almost milkshake like, with a great balance of sweetness and roastiness and no trace of the 9.6% abv making this a ridiculously easy to drink imperial stout. overall, a fantastic, world class beer.

I tried all years of this thus far and don’t plan on stopping. This is a great beer!!!! Pours from a 750ml bottle jet black. Smell is very sweet and chocolately and roasty. The taste is incredible. So much going on. It’s sweet and dark chocolate and toffee with a hop finish. Wonderful beer!!! A must have for everyone

Enjoyed this with Brian the Beer Pimp, Uncle Tom, Barrister Bob, Uncle Steve, and the Czar of Stouts, DrBayern. Poured black, with a tan, light head. The aroma was that of malts and hops. It was very smooth, with the coffee flavors coming thru. The mouthfeel was very gentle. Head disipated before I finished my glass. This was a really good beer.

750 ml brown bottle. Vintage Vampire 2010 thanks to CLevar. A very black beer with a very big and nice frothy head. The aroma is big with lots of citrus hops, piney but at the same time coffee and chocolate cake. Man this is hoppy. The taste is surprisingly smooth and really goes down too easy for 9.6% ABV. The taste leaves notes of tar, lots of dark fruits, and lemony which I suspec comes from the hops. The mouthfeel is thick, slick, and somewhat oily. I am really curious how an intentionally hoppy Imp Stout ages. The high amount of hops must help preserve and helps in the aging process. I’m sure down the road the citrus/pine flavors will give way to more chocolate/coffee flavors as it develops.

2010 bottle drank into my Darkness tulip...A dark as midnight night with a huge dark tan head. The head is amazing as it literally arises from beneath the beer foaming up a full four fingers. The head is two colors, dark tan on the bottom with a lighter color on the top. The retention and lacing are amazing...The aroma is muted from the 09 version in terms of the hops as they do not show through. Very malty, lots of sweet milk chocolate with a hint of grass on the back. Not what I was expected, but still pretty decent...The taste thankfully brings out more of the hops as this has a grassy hop backbone from start to finish. A lot of the sweetness is gone, only a little is left but as it warms the hops disappear too. This turns into a really boring beer, so disappointing.