Surly Four

Formerly brewed at Surly Brewing Company
Style: Sweet Stout
Brooklyn Center, Minnesota USA

Serve in English pint

Four pours pitch black with a two finger tan head. Smooth looking head without much bubbles or crators. Retention is good but over time goes down to a small lacing around the glass. The smell on this beer is inviting. Very sweet aroma mixed in with roasted malt and coffee. Sweetness took the number one aroma in this beer followed by the coffee. Hints of chocolate round out the smell. Wow! The way everything comes together just hit the spot for me. If I could wake up to that smell everyday, everything would be right in this world. At 10% abv you would think some kind of alcohol would come through on this beer but nope it doesn’t. Instead the espresso comes through like a champ. Coffee and chocolate. Then the sweetness comes in and lingers in with the rest of the ingredients and leaves just an awesome aftertaste. Mouthfeel is thick and heavy bodied. Perfect. Just what you want from a big stout like this.

Cellar aged, on tap at the Bavarian Lodge, Black Friday 2011. I’ll never have this again so I’ll give it my best review now. Wow what a beer. Definately the best stout I ever had. Had this right after Darkness, and these are very close to each other, this is basically Coffee darkness. Strong coffee smell. Thick sweet coffee chocolate malty goodness. Awesome.

Bottle from a trade with StoutFest. Pours black with brown head. Aromas of espresso, chocolate and roasted malts. Flavors of roasted malts, espresso and sweet milk chocolate. Medum to full body with soft carbonation and a creamy mouthfeel. Excellent! Thanks Ramiro.

On tap at republic for beer school. Dark black pour with huge beige head. when it was being poured it looked like iced coffee. The aroma had major coffee notes with tons of sweetness. It was definitely a delicious taste. Very sweet. It was very smooth with a lingering coffee flavor. I love this beer.very excellent.

Bottle:   Nearly black, just a smidgen of light comes through on the edges, large frothy light brown head, nice lacing.   Fairly assertive sweet coffee aroma, definite beans, even a bit of dark bittersweet chocolate, hops, and alcohol.   Very smooth and rich on the tongue, wow, very silky... velvety in fact!   Strong coffee with a hefty dose of cream and sugar.   This blows most examples clean out of the water.   A little warming on the backside.   As it warms it develops more hop character on the backside.   Still can’t get over how smooth this is.   Body and mouthfeel are excellent!   Lingering coffee and hops, smidgen of peat and campfire.   Tasty stuff, and one I would recommend.   Thanks Bob!

In short: A bubbly old cup of cold coffee with milk and cream. Meh.
How: Bottle 750ml, thick turquoise wax-top. Consumed when a little bit more than one year of age. Bottle sent to me by oakbluff, thanks a lot Scott
The look: Black body topped by a medium tan head with medium retention
In long: Nose is intensely coffee, but not super-nice roasted coffee beans, more like burying your nose is a used and still wet coffee filter. Taste has some vanilla, a lot of used wet coffee leftover from a coffee filter, a lot of lactose, some fresh tobacco leafs. This beer is absurdly and overly milky. Basically this beer tastes like chewing on a used coffee filter while drinking a glass of milk, yep, that much fun. Drinking a full 750ml by myself was almost impossible. I thought that beer was just wrong. That beer sucks, I typed the entire rating using only my middle fingers.

Thanks Andy! Espresso up front in the nose. Lots of roasted bitterness in the finish. A ton. And I like it. The flavor is pretty strong. Thick palate. Yummy.

Sampled at an esbls tasting. Dark with a nice frothy tan head. A sour aroma that has chocolate. The taste is big ashes with chocolate. Cream. A nice creamy feel. A very tasty beer.