Surly Darkness

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

Serve in Snifter

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.

09 bottle at Hophead22 tasting. Aroma was soy sauce, chocolate, alcohol and prunes. Poured a dark black color with tan head. Taste was very toasty with some cherries, toffee, and alcohol. Pallet was low to medium. Overall very good. 2008 vintage was much sweeter aroma and taste of wort. Seemed like an entire different recipe. 2007 vintage was more roasty and toasty than all.

2008 bottle. Lots of rich sweet yet bitter black strap molasses character with a shot of espresso. There’s some milk chcoclate that comes out in the middle and it finishes with a long bitter black coffee finish. There was a hint of soy I didn’t care much for though. The body is sticky and full with moderate carbonation.

Bottle, 2009, thanks to tytoanderso. Aroma of pine, resin, chocolate, caramel, sweets. Flavor very chocolatey, not too roasty, with lots of resin to battle with a chewy sweetness. Decadent, dessert-like, despite the also-strong hop character. The resinous quality in fact seems to blend rather than battle with all the sweet character. A unique impy, and quite tasty.

Bottle@RBNAG 2009, Vatlandsvåg. A black beer with a creamy, ruddy-brown foam on top. Rounded and complex aroma of roasted dark malts, cocoa, milk-chocolate, dark dried fruits and vanilla. Much of the same flavorwise; taste is rich malty and complex, and has a refined, honey-ish sweetness. Well balanced bitterness. Fat-bodied and smooth in the mouth. Malts and hops lingers in a lasting finish. Harmonious and powerfull. Very nice.

UPDATED: NOV 17, 2010 22 oz. bottle shared by shawnm213, 2009 edition. I’ve wanted to try one of these for a long time, thanks Shawn! Pours very dark brown with a one finger brown head. Aroma of molasses, tobacco, hops, smoked wood, and we recognized bacon as the glass got low. A lot going on in the nose- really cool to smell. Flavor of molasses, roasted malt, hops, cola, dark chocolate, and alcohol. Sweeter than expected, and Shawn and I agreed we would rather have had it roastier than sweeter. The sweetness leaned more toward the molasses and chocolate rather than any fruits, which seemed to be muted out to me. Rich and medium-full bodied, with a syrupy mouthfeel. Excellent beer. RE-RATE: A 2010 bottle showed up at a Royale Tuesday night beer showcase- thanks, Don! The main difference I picked up on from the 2009 was that the hops seem to be more muted this year, but there is a ton of chocolate. More hops show up in the flavor, actually, than what I get in the nose. Also, lots of prunes, earth, sweet caramel and brown sugar. Full-bodied, with a chocolaty mouthfeel and smooth carbonation. Still great, rating not moving a bit.

Brewed in the USA !!! Courtesy of FooFaa, thanks Dan. ( 2009 bottle)Pours a very dark brown almost black in color with a thin beige head. Aroma of toffee, dark malts, chocolate, citrus and earth. Taste of molasses, bitter chocolate, citrus, hops and prunes. Mouthfeel is thin in body and there is a lingering hoppy bitterness at the finish. Alittle bit dissapointed overall in this R.I.S. Not robust enough for me, and thin on the palate. Yet still very enjoyable to drink !!!

2009 bottle from skinnyguy. THanks! Pours a deep dark brown with a small creamy tan head. nice legs. aroma of floral hops, chocolate, molasses, tobacco, smoke, and bacon. Flavor is sweet, dark chocolate, roasted malts, creamy, dark fruit, rum cake, molasses. very drinkable. could use more roast. This wasn’t overly sweet, but the sweetness seemed a bit out of place. Could use some more roastiness to compliment the hop character. Great beer with a lot going on. Glad to try it.