The Brewery: Surly Brewing (Brooklyn Center, MN)
The Brew: Coffee Bender (Brown Ale)
Availability: Cans & draft
ABV: 5.5% | IBUs: 45
Rating: 9/10
Location: Home
The Story? Fish and Chips and a Brown Ale! Well, not your typical Brown. Surly brewed this Bender with Guatemalan Finca Vista Hermosa Full City Roast and developed a cold extraction process to intensify the coffee aroma and flavor for a complex brew that still comes in at the session-level.
The Beer? This tall boy pours out dark brown with a touch of ruby color, topped with minimal off-white head up top and followed by a big nose full of malts, coffee and milk. All of the aromas come of clean, wet and eludes to a highly drinkable brew.
Coffee Bender delivers bitter, dark, and earthy flavors amidst a deluge of chocolate, finishing deep and roasty. The smooth, creamy mouthfeel and prickly carbonation is highly complimentary. This really is smack between a coffee and a Brown Ale.
Overall, thanks to Surly for making Brown Ales interesting again! I'm thoroughly enjoying this trip through their line-up and constantly impressed by the nuanced, rather than extreme, approached throughout all their offerings I've enjoyed so far.
