Surly Furious

Brewed by Surly Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Brooklyn Center, Minnesota USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

For my money, this is hard to beat when it’s fresh. Piney, citrusy and bitter. Terrific lacing, great ruby color, and the taste stays on your lips for hours afterward. If I lived where I could buy this, I’d be hard pressed to drink much else.

16 ounce can that poured a ruby grapefruit color with aromas of pine, citrus, and grapefruit. Flavor is all bitterness with some pine, grapefruit, and pineapple. Real nice beer.

Can to glass. Aroma of piney and citrus hoppiness. Very attractive on the nose. Pours a ruby color with an excellent white head. The beer has a great pour. The taste is bitter but with a little sweetness that is also there. It seems to be almost perfectly carbonated with a medium body. Overall, furious is one of my favorites. As a native minnesotan and beer geek, this beer means a lot to me.

I poured a 16oz can into a tulip glass.

Appearance: One of the darkest IPAs I’ve ever seen: pure ruby gem color with massive haze. Forms a small, foamy head which retains and laces fairly well.

Smell: Like a pine forest with tropical fruits growing on the trees. Distinct resin aroma with underlying fruit juice concentrate.

Taste: I did an experiment while tasting Surly Furious for the first time. I had two cans: one was only 11 days old, the other was four months old. I noticed the older can was more in line with a typical West Coast style IPA of grapefruit citrusy bitterness and candy sweetness. The fresh can was more East Coast with rich piney resin bitterness. It’s really interesting how just a few months, even in a can, will affect the flavor of the hops.

It begins with a sharp dry bitterness which gives way to malty sweetness. The fresh can is slightly toasty with syrup-like taste for a moment. The older can was like orange juice with distinct tartness and an almost sugary cereal-like sweetness. Both palates end with a sharp hop bite and lingering aftertaste. The fresh can was resiny and cloyingly sweet; the older can was dry acidity. Both palates were very tasty with plenty of qualities I enjoy in a good IPA. I felt that there was a noticeable mildness, almost as if the palate is trying to restrain itself. The can indicates it’s 99 IBUs, but it doesn’t seem quite the high to me. Still, a very satisfying and unique IPA.

Mouthfeel: Slightly thin and tepid (under carbonated?). Hops definitely linger and dry out the tongue.

Drinkability: The well balanced palate combined with the thin mouthfeel make Surly Furious extremely drinkable. It’s refreshing while in the mouth, but the hops and sweetness can be a little cloying in the aftertaste. Still, it goes down extremely smooth and lends itself to big gulps rather than sips. A great beer to pair with a meal, but it works perfectly as a beer own its own.

Delicious.Looks like a nice dark pale ale with good sized head. Great hop forward aroma. Has a good bitter front, some nice malt in the body and an extremely crisp clean finish. Shame I can’t get it mroe often.

Pretty good stuff. This is a pine/floral tasting IPA and not very citrusy like most american IPAs. I enjoy the cascade/centennial/citra IPAs out there but this was an interesting change and very well made. A bit malty and sweet but it still worked nicely.

This one goes in the pantheum of ipas. Great appearance, strong piney smell, and smooth yet bitter taste. Yum.

16oz can, Needless to say I’ve had Furious on many occasion, but decided recently to review. A complete opposite of my Halloween from last year when I ran a 6 beer gammit that ended with 08 Darkness. The only thing I had on 10/31, but was fantastic. Big hops and pine aromas, perfect lacing in the DFH 75 min glass. Color is a perfect copper, the palate is balanced, the flavor is amazing, biting resin hoppiness. I wish to god that Surly was available where I was, my god they make great stuff.