Surly Darkness

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

All right lets see what the hype is all about. Bomber from Erocks. Pours black with soapy one finger dark tan head. Aroma is loaded with grapefruit and hops with chocolate, roasted malts, toffee and some dark fruits. Flavors of grapefruit, pine, tons of bitter hops, loads of roasted malts, some chocolate and coffee mixed in with some caramel and toffee flavors to round it out. This is a very, very hoppy imperial stout if that what you want to categorize it as. It is almost an imperial black IPA but there is still a huge roasted malt backbone that brings a nice balance. Has very hoppy aroma and flavor, yet is extremely smooth without the huge bitterness you would expect from the hop bill needed to generate these hoppy flavors. I am truly impress by this brew. There is really no other brew that I can compare to this. Huge props to Surly for creating such a brew.

draft: pours black with a thick tan head, malty tobacco aroma, roasted malt flavor, very dry, some dark chocolate, coffee, full bodied, I am really lucky to have come across this!

25oz bottle, 2009 vintage. Black with tan foam, decent retention and lacing. Little bit of stale hop in the aroma, and some dark roast. Big fruitiness, little bit of cheesy hop, very subdued roast. Maybe a bit too quaffable for the style

3 year vertical tasting thanks to Hophead22. Favorite was 07, so I’ll rate that. Pours black with a creamy, cascading beige head. Aroma is sweet and roasty with caramel, chocolate, and some dusty hops. Flavor is more chocolate and roast, still very bitter but also sweet, slight alcohol, big and bold. Palate is thick and creamy with moderate carbonation. The 09 was very similar, only a little more hoppy and the 08 tasted like a completely different beer...syrupy sweet, almost like wort, and much less bitterness.

2009 traded bottle relatively fresh with Moose and Terri. Maybe a little too hoppy for my taste in imperial stouts. Just seemed to overpower all the other flavours including the coffee. Lots of resin and hop oils that dominated the aroma too. Still great with tons happening but I’ll re-rate with 2008.

Im sorry, I had the 2009 version and my experience doesnt seem to be anything like anyone elses. But, whatever. This beer pours almost black, with a frothy tan head. Smells like a satchel of hops drizzled with grapefruit juice with maybe a smidgen of roasted malts if you trick your brain..but seriously, i tried and tried and tried to smell an imperial stout, and I was smelled was ruby red grapefruit juice. This would start the endless confusion of my darkness experience. I mean, i liked the nose, but i dont think i liked that nose coming from an imperial stout. An IPA, maybe...but an imperial stout? Unfortunately, the flavors did nothing to solve my issues. This tastes like a black IPA to me. There’s a touch of a dark malty edge behind the hop flavors, but all those deep, sensual, imperial stout-like malty flavors everyone else is getting, they were nowhere to be found in this bottle.

#900 2008 bottle, pours thick black with a tall dark tan head. Strong mollassis and coffee with roasted malt nose. Sweet burnt sugar and maple syrup flavors with faint coffee notes. Amazing how sweet this is, it’s almost too much sweetness for me.

750 ml bottle sampled@RBNAG 2009, Vatlandsvåg. Black body with a thin brown head. Strong aroma of roasted malt, molasses, soy and hops. Flavor is sweet, dark malt, roasted coffee, chocolate, molasses, honey, alcohol and bitterhops. Very complex, heavy and pleasant, but in moderate volume.