Surly Darkness

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

Serve in Snifter

Thanks to eaglefan538 for hanging on to his bottle until I was available to trery. Dark as night pour, nice reddish brown head. Huge aroma of dark chocolate and huge fruitiness. This one is not your typical huge coffee/roasty stout. Huge vinous flavors, plums. These aren’t flavors I typically gravitate to, but for what it is, it was well made. Lots of bitterness in the finish, but no typical citrus or pine ir resinous hop flavors.

Bottle. Pours black, medium tan head, spotty lacing. Nose is licorice, cappuccino, sweet chocolate, tootsie roll, light roast. Flavours are rich and explosive, very sweet, with a choco-Tootsie roll assault that set me back on my heels. Rather boozy, and the example I had could use time, but this could be killer, given 18-24 months in the bottle.

Bottle shared at RBSG. It’s got a sour tang to it that works nicely, like sour cherries, with chocolate. Very sweet, toffee, not that burnt, but a nice beer. Somewhat basic, but does everything right.

08 bottle thanks to dmac. Pours black with a thin tan head. Has a chocolate and a little coffee. Taste is about the same with chocolate being being the dominate flavor. Pretty tasty however the 09 version I thought sucked,

Bottle sample. Pours black with a thick tan head. Aroma is coffee, dark fruits, and booze. Flavor is dark fruits, wood, chocolate, and raisins. Full body and amazing warmth...like a bonfire in my mouth. Great. Lived up to the hype.

4 oz sample. Pours a jet black with a dark brown head. Aroma is dark chocolate with roasted malts. Caramel and vanilla notes. Taste is good with sweet maltiness. Coffee and cocoa. Palate is good with a medium mouthfeel. Nice finish. Overall a pretty good brew

Bottle: Poured a pitch-black color stout with a large deep dirty brown color head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of roasted malt and black chocolate with some light liquorice and dry coffee notes is quite enjoyable. Taste is also a heavy mix between some roasted malt with light bitter notes with rich black chocolate notes and very subtle notes of liquorice and dry fruits. Sweetness is very well balanced and not nearly as cloying as Dark Lord. Body is full with good carbonation and warming notes are perceptible though nothing too heavy. Well done and still retaining some balance even though it is an extreme beer.

2009 bottle signed by Omar and Todd. (thanks for the hook up supercolter!) Poured into a tulip glass A: Pitch black body. Massive dark brown-khaki head. Lasted for a few minutes before crashing into a thin, frothy skim. Rather dense lacing up and down the glass. S: So many things are going on here. Molasses, chocolate, coffee, citrus hop bitterness, caramel. With each inhale the molasses seems to grow more dominating. If that was toned down just a bit everything else would come together flawlessly. T: Sweet milk chocolate, brown sugar and molasses are prevalent up front. Slight undertones of coffee and dark chocolate. Lively bitterness throughout. Some fig and raisin like fruityness. M: Surprisingly thin at first. Not exactly "watery" though. But it didn’t have the weight and consistency I was expecting though. No booze burn. As the beer warmed more heft was apparent. D: I originally poured this into two glasses to share with the lady, but I stole what was left of her half after I finished mine. The sweetness, in the end, killed me as it wasn’t as easy to get through the last few ounces as it was with the first dozen or so All in all a top notch stout that shows you can do big bold flavors without making it a flammable bourbon barrel aged brew. Reminds me of an amped up Victory Storm King Stout.