Surly Darkness

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

Serve in Snifter

UPDATED: DEC 25, 2011 Pours opaque black with creamy brown head. Aroma is roasty, milk chocolate, dark fruit, and raisins. Taste is amazing...sweet milk chocolate, burnt caramel, roasted malts. Very smooth finish with velvety mouthfeel. This one lives up to the hype. Excellent beer.

Zombie courtesy of evanlarkin, a huge thanks for scoring this one and hauling it back. Very dark brown, dark brown head, good lacing. Aroma of dark chocolate syrup, subtle booze, espresso soda. Taste is smooth chocolate and coffee liquer and brown soda bread. Nice!

Looks and pours black and with a delicious foamy head. Chocolate and coffee most prominent but a nice and complex blend of aromas. Full body, thick feel, almost like having a full meal. One of my favorites.

Bottle to tulip. Fantastic aroma of dark chocolate and hints of raisin and coffee notes. It pours black with a nice brown head. The taste is an amazing combination of sweetness, bitterness and booziness. It’s a heavy beer with decent carbonation. Easily one of my favorite imperial stouts. I can’t say enough about this beer. I have a special spot in my heart for darkness and its probably in my top 20 or even top 10 beers.

2008 Edition. Opaque black with a medium-fine brown head. Everything is here (in both the aroma and flavor) that you would expect: bitter chocolate, coffee, dark caramel, toffee, and dark fruit. The surprise comes from the prominent malted milk ball flavor which is excellent here. Sweet, though well-balanced, with a slightly lighter body than expected. Fun.

Poured from 2011 Bottle just after Darkness Day. Pours dark black with a dark tan head. Large hop aroma, dark malt, and chocolate notes. Has a slight bitterness to it and flavours pop towards end of the bottle. Overall quite good . Surly should make this available year round .

Bottle @ ZZT’11 #2: Thanks to Hannont for getting this one for me! 2010 vintage: "Dear Shirly… I am quite drunk but I like your appearance. Please take off your golden top! Wow! You have a good looking head and a gorgeous looking black body. I like your looks. You look spicy enough to keep me warm this night, though I hope you will not only keep me warm but give my buds some equal taste as that of your lovely perfume. Let me try to appreciate your heavenly smell in your taste too. I guess it will be a pity to share you with my friends, I rather keep your gorgeous looking body to myself. I like it how you smell, but I guess to taste you is even more heavenly. Please streak my tongue with your oily body the same as you touched my nose earlier.. Oh, you’re velvet, soft, touchy, light spicy yet sweet. You thought about it all. Is that some chocolate there? Wait, it’s dark chocolate! Talking about passion. And what is that, some roasted cocao you showed me earlier? ...show me some more, baby. You have a rather roasty malted backbone. Quite roasted on the hips. I guess you like coffee too... Maybe with a bit of brown sugars or sticky sweets. Damn you are sweet to me! This might be a bit to sweet for me. I actually might share you with my friends after all. I was quite scared when I saw you were a vampire in the beginning, but damn you are sexy... Please make sure, whenever you come over again, please make sure to bite me again." Yours Sincerely, Countbeer.

Bottle thanks to Countbeer at ‘Zieke Zuiden Tasting II’. Pitch black, opaque colored beer with a great brown head. Smell lightly coffee, roasty, slightly smoke, lightly burned. Taste lightly alcohol, slightly sweet, slightly roasty, coffee, bitter, slightly hops. Great taste! Good strong carbonation, full body.