Surly Smoke Lager

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

Serve in Dimpled mug, Lager glass, Stein

Wonderful dark smokey beer with a full and complex aroma that manages to be both very strong and easily drinkable. Beautiful dark pour, full flavor in a relatively light body. Only drawback is the quickly disappearing head. Not many can for dark beers like Surly can.

Tasting @ Home with J&C, October 2011. Bottle from a trade with tytoanderso. Many thanks Tyler ! Very very dark brown almost black with a nice lasting brown head. Roasted malty aroma, smoke, ash,caramel, oak wood,coffee. Amazing ! Taste is amazing, at first an ice smokey blact, then comes the roasted flavours, wood,caramel. Great one !

black pour with minimal head. aroma of smoke, charred malt, and raisin. flavor of smoke and indistinct malt with little else...thin

750 ml bottle. Pours dark brown in color with a small beige head. The aroma has rich caramelized malts, roast, and light smoke character. The flavor had roasted malts, caramel, smoke with a mild meaty quality as well. The smoked character grew as it warmed. Medium plus bodied and very smooth. I liked the drinkability of this and would welcome another bottle.

A. This bear pours a beautiful pitch black color, with a light caramel head about 1 finger thick. It faded to a nice thin ring, with a little lily pad making it’s way around the center. S. Smells of light caramel, strong bacon and of course, smoke. The bacon smell is really dominate. Almost the same as when you first set a piece into a hot pan. I can almost hear the crackle when I smell this beer :) S. A noticeable hickory comes out first, that holds through even after your done drinking. A a smoked, almost burnt toffee taste comes through extremely smoothly. It isn’t at all overbearing. The malts are noticeable, but not a dominate trait. M. Very smooth flavor, that is not at all hard to drink. The flavor is thick and bold, but it still feels light on the tongue. Just a hint of dryness on the finish. O. Overall this is a complex beer, that is extremely smooth and very easy to drink. I could see spending many hours at a bar not trying anything else if this was on-tap. It delivers everything you expect from Surly. Unlike a lot of their beers that tend to take a style to it’s extreme, I think this hits spot on for what I would expect to see in a quality baltic porter. This is by far one of the top beers I have ever had! It is amazingly smooth and easy to drink. The flavors are bold, but also complex. It’s not a one sided smoke flavor like often what happens with Porters. The tastes changes and matures in your mouth. I look forward to having this beer again and again.

Great stuff overall. Ive had this beer sitting around for a while without even knowing it was a baltic porter. Really tastes great with smooth sweet roasted notes and a light smoke that is fantastic. good stuff.

Date: January 7, 2012 Mode: Bottle Source: AV3 Description: Opaque dark brown pour with some head. Wife is drinking this in our Surly Pint, while I got mine in my FFF XV glass. Aroma is smoky, meaty and dark fruit (predominately raisin). Taste starts smoky, then moves into some dark fruit then comes back with some more smoke and finishes with a little oak / wood and mild bitterness. 2011 vintage, great brew and pretty sweet bottle.

Thanks to mattyb83, amazing aroma. Big smokey aroma. Thick creamy light body. I think the lager yeast here allows you to have thick and light. Great great beer