Surly Wet 2009 & 2010

Formerly brewed at Surly Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Brooklyn Center, Minnesota USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   update pic

Can thanks to Josh! Pours a clear orange amber with a white head that dissipates slowly to the edges and laces slightly. Aroma has a nice light pine and grassy hop note backed by a bit of light grain. Flavor has a bit more pine but it is mellowed by a grass note and is backed by just a bit of sweet grains.

[16floz can, courtesy of cgarvieuk] Pours a clear gold, thin head. Decent hop aroma – plenty of citrus and tropical fruit on the nose. Good bitter hop flavour follows, as you’d expect. Plenty of citrus in there, with a satisfyingly bitter finish. Good wet hop beer [08052011]

Sampled at Freetail at the La Muerta bottle share. Poured a clear straw body that was leggy and left some sticky lacing from a good head. HOLY SHIT!! Smells like cat pee (hops)!! Bitter, piney/resin up front with a bit of melon showing through the pee smells. Flavors of piney, resinous hops, caramel (lightly) and a medium bitter finish. Thin to medium mouthfeel. Sorry, too piney/bitter for me. Not my thing.

Can:   Deep golden, a little hazy, moderate white head, frothy, spotty lacing.   Little bit of a dank/mealy like aroma, hoppy but not terribly bright.   Some citrus rind as well.   Somewhat of a wet cardboad/paper start, hoppy but not biting or real sweet.   Seems, well, not so fresh.   Seems like a little bit of basement.   Getting citrus rind out of this one too.   Body and mouthfeel are moderate to full.   At least its not thin!   Slightly grainy on the backside, moderate sweetness, dank, cardboard, with some citrus rind.   Yeah, not real bright, flavorful, but a little un-fresh if you ask me.   Thanks Bob!

on tap at maproom. pours slightly hazed copper with creamy off white head. the aroma is very earthy and green, some grapefruit notes as well. the flavor is incredibly bitter, green, earthy, light citrus, and again loads of hop bitterness that is extremely drying and taxing on the palate. there’s really not a lot of complexity or interesting hop aromas and flavors as this is so unbalanced.

In short: A wet citrusy and grassy IPA with a few problems. An ok beer overall
How: Can 500ml. Consumed fresh soon after the beer release, 2010 batch. Can sent to me by oakbluff, thanks a lot Scott.
The look: Clear golden body topped by a medium off-white head
In long: The not-so-hoppy nose has nice pleasant citrus fruits, oranges, grass and also a light tangy sour character reminiscent of lactic acid. Taste has graham cookies, some caramel, grass juice, movie pop-corn, fortune cookies, grapefruits, leafy hops. Far from the leafy/grassy juice character that I find in many harvest ales are. Bitterness is lacking assertiveness. An overall sensation of drinking a beer that is somehow muted. I had a few cans of this beer that I drank within a few weeks. I thought I really liked that beer but when I was down to my last can and it was time to rate it I decided to have it as my first beer of the day. That when I started to notice a few things not quite right with this beer. Was my last can a bad can or is there some problems with this beer (diacetyl-ish) that are light enough to go unnoticed by an not fresh palate? I will need a can from next year batch because I’m not sure why my appreciation of this been changed so much between two cans. I think this beer is supposed to be very good so I’m really doubting my opinion here. As usual the best thing about me is my insecurity and I hope it doesn’t bother you.

Meh. An over-hyped brew/experiment. The results suggest that hops shipped directly from the fields on the west coast and dumped in a brew-kettle is more gimmick than substance.... I love Surly, but regret their slip back into the juvenilia of brewing and brew naming with "Wet", an ill conceived and unbalanced brew. I wish that micro brewers were beyond the foibles of ordinary mortals. I want them to have the inventiveness of 25-year-olds and the wisdom of 55-year-olds. Guess that will happen when the low-cal, low-fat ham and cheese omelet hits the market. Pour is crystal-clear orange-yellow with a medium-coarse foam head. Nose is all hops with only the slightest hints of malt to balance. Mouth-feel is about the same as the flagship Furious with a fairly brutal hop bite, but no offsetting sweet malt viscosity to offset. Finish is a bitter dryness that just doesn’t sit very well. After seeing the 4+ ratings that this beer was getting, I waited until the third day and the third can of this one to rate it, and I just can’t justify anything more than my 3.3. It just ain’t there, guys. And for $16/ four-packs - The rest of mine are trade bait and nothing more.

16 oz. can. Pours mostly clear with a dark orange-amber tint to the body. A small head of frothy beige foam forms, slowly eroding to a thin but lasting blanket and leaving jagged-edged sheets of lacing all over the glass. The aroma is maltier than expected, giving notes of salted caramel, sweet bread dough, and some buttered sourdough. Hops are very dank, suggesting some sticky cannabis, green grass, and resinous pine cones. Flavors follow suit, giving malty notes of buttered toast, caramelized bread crust, and sweet dough, with an oncoming wave of bitter pine resins and dank, sticky, peppery grass. There’s a little diacetyl in here, indicating some laziness in the brewing process. The caramel is a good deal more prominent than I’d hope for, and the hops are not as pronounced or citrusy as I’d like, with just a little grapefruit coming through on the back end. On the palate, the body is medium-plus in stature, with low to moderate carbonation and a drying, surprisingly alcoholic finish. A hint of astringency sets in, and the grassy hops tend to concentrate after the swallow. Overall, I’d call this brew a letdown. Seems like it was conceptualized and brewed in hasty fashion. It’s certainly not a West Coast style IPA as the can proclaims, as it is far too malty. Decent, but far from great.

Extremely good aroma--fresh, floral, really engaging--but the rest of it was very pedestrian. Moderate hop finish, not particularly resinous, rather light in color and not very penetrating in its flavors. O.k. but nothing more. (On tap, Common Roots Cafe, Minneapolis).

Can. Gold color with a quickly fading medium head. Light vegetal hop aroma, and mostly citric ones at that. Flavor is dominated by plant. Like drinking a greenhouse. Moderate bitterness. Light citrus.