Surly Darkness

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

Serve in Snifter

This poured a very dark brown almost black color with a small light tan head. Aroma was almost like a barleywine, lots of dark fruits and caramel and toffee. Flavor was a bit more roasted and dark than the aroma. lots of dark fruits and toffee and some hops as well. Overall a great beer and close to worth the hype.

Bottle @ RB meeting by Joes. A black colored beer, with a thick dark beige head. The aroma of dark fruits with berries, dark malts and some hops. The taste is bitter with breaf, some chocolate cake with dark fruits some caramel sweet. The aftertaste is bitter with a predominating sweet.

Courtesy of Maniac at Ratebeer tasting @ 4/17/2010. Pour was a pitch black with a thin tan head. Aroma has a mixture of coffee and piney hops. Taste is quite sweet with chocolate which is balanced out by the significant bittering hops. The hops don’t come across quite as strong as the aroma suggests. The balance that is created is nothing short of amazing, not to mention the very smooth mouthfeel on this brew.

(Sample Date: 4/17/2010 Source:Maniac) Lots of roast, with vanilla and coffee notes - dark fruit and burnt sugars in aroma. Black with little head. Grassy hops with burnt sugars and dark fruits in flavor. Alcohol is quite perceptible in the finish. Finish is sweet with some floral grassy hop notes lingering and a moderate amount of grain astringency and high bitterness. Tasty.

Bottle @ UDRM, Oirschot. Deep dark brown color, almost opague. Caramel, butterscotch, cassis in the aroma. A fluid chocolate cake with caramel, creme de cacao and cappuccino flavors. Sugary finish with molasses an Tia Maria liquor. Sticky and alcoholic. Too sweet to be really great, but indeed a flavor bomb..

The bottle looks great, the beer in the glass much better. Deep black, nice brown head. Starts intense malty, very sweet, notes of liquorice and strong coffee. Finish much drier, not as sweet as the beginning, also bitter notes. Still complex-malty, a little bit smoky. Very drinkable. A great beer!

2009 Bottle, have had two samples previously and finally opened my own bottle last night. Dark, dark black, nice and surprisingly lighter coffee head that lingers. Aroma is of rich chocolate fudge with warmth, but I noticed a ton of citrus hops that don’t seem to be captured in most other reviews or in the beer’s description. This made it substantially different than I was expecting, and the taste slightly reminded me of Stone VE 09, only a bit stoutier. Chocolate orange flavor, the hop dominance faded at room temperature as the beer settled into a more rich, roasty familiar imperial stout territory. It was a bit thin for my liking for the style. Overall a good beer, a bit different from my expectations.

bottled shared with silphium. pours black with medium sized brown head. big, nutty chocolate nose with heavy molasses. oddly resinous, and somewhat characteritics to a dead iipa. chocolate, tangy flavor that finishes with slight molasses and caramel. bizarre. funky finish. not what i was hoping for