Coffee Bender - Surly Brewing Company

VncentLIFE

North Carolina

4.25/5  rDev +1.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Deep mahogany body with a thick light tan colored white head. Super lacing as well.

Lots of dry nutty English Nut Brown type smells. Loads of whole coffee beans (slightly hazelnut I do believe). Slightly creamy with strong diacetyl notes as well.

Very bitter coffee up front. All bitter espresso. Not coffee beans, but straight espresso bitterness. Sharp metallic twang cuts off the coffee notes. Following up that, is the base beer. Dry nutty roasty malts dominate, but not too much. Still get a bit of the coffee flavors here as well. Finishes dry and chewy. Very nutty late.

Feels like a malty cup of coffee, honestly. I like it. The only thing you can compare it to is maybe Cubano Espresso Brown from Cigar City. Matter of fact, theyre pretty close (and both tasty as hell).

Serving type: can

07-12-2012 14:06:19 | More by VncentLIFE

MattAnderson99

Pennsylvania

4.5/5  rDev +7.4%

06-19-2013 13:47:20 | More by MattAnderson99

BeerMeInStl

Missouri

3.5/5  rDev -16.5%

06-18-2013 03:07:21 | More by BeerMeInStl

tdmccarthy

Illinois

3.75/5  rDev -10.5%

06-15-2013 03:42:13 | More by tdmccarthy

BeerBucks

New York

4.25/5  rDev +1.4%

06-15-2013 02:36:38 | More by BeerBucks

jplopez21

Illinois

3.25/5  rDev -22.4%

06-14-2013 04:35:56 | More by jplopez21

djre4orm

Virginia

3/5  rDev -28.4%

06-13-2013 19:49:06 | More by djre4orm

oN3xM

Illinois

4.08/5  rDev -2.6%
look: 3.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4

A - A pretty deep black body with an inch of tan foam resting atop. The head is present throughout the entire pint and leaves a beautiful lacing after every sip.

S - It goes without saying, but huge bitter coffee notes dominate the overall aroma. The coffee that Surly used smells wonderful: robust, roasty espresso-like scents.

T - It's like taking a cold, carbonated espresso shot. It's hard to taste other flavors due to the very dominant coffee taste.I drank this over the course of an hour and the warmer it got, the more and more it tasted like heavy black coffee. Very tasty.

M - It leaves that bitter feeling in the back of your throat that you get after an espresso shot. Not a whole lot of carbonation, so it goes down quite smoothly. The body is incredible heavy and thick (think latte or mocha thick).

O - A wonderful beer that manages to blend coffee and beer together in a delicious way. If you're a coffee drinker, specifically espresso drinker, this beer will leave you very happy. Highly recommended. Cheers.

Serving type: can

06-13-2013 02:42:56 | More by oN3xM

falloutsnow

Illinois

3.66/5  rDev -12.6%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

From: France 44 dot com
Date: Canned 2013-04-14
Glass: Standard US pint glass

Rich, coffee-heavy, with modest accents of caramel, burnt toast, and roasted barley, this is a good breakfast beer or after-dinner drink. The coffee is, however, overly strong and creates a somewhat limited range of flavors and aromas, rendering the beer somewhat one-dimensional. I would probably not seek this out again given the difficulty in obtaining it - it's easier to just make a dark cup of coffee and add some sweetener and ice.

Pours a 2.5cm tall head of beige foam, small to medium sized bubbles, with above average retention, lasting over two minutes as it fades to a thick ring around the glass with a thin residual head resting atop the body. Good lacing, in many patterns. Body is a transparent, deep amber color, light bringing out strong red hues. Carbonation is visible rising from the bottom of the glass in moderate number and velocity.

Aroma of coffee grounds, slight chocolate-caramel malt influences, and an iron-like scent rounding things out. There's truth in the name here: there is definitely coffee in this beer, but the exclusion of much else. To me, it comes across as a bit one-dimensional.

Tasting opens with sweetish coffee, black with a substantial sweetness and touch of cream to it, somewhat stale. Mild roasted barley, burnt toast, and vanilla round out the edges. Mid-palate is like black coffee and grounds, acrid bitterness, light cumin, roasted barley, and burnt toast. Back of palate finds more black coffee, coffee grounds, acridness from coffee, light chocolate, caramel, and vanilla. Aftertaste of black coffee with marginal chocolate and caramel malt.

Beer is medium to medium-light in body, with carbonation of medium intensity, leading to a mouthfeel of light foam and general smoothness. Closes with medium dryness and astringency from coffee, with little residual stickiness.

Serving type: can

06-12-2013 14:52:15 | More by falloutsnow

ThreeKingdoms

Minnesota

4.25/5  rDev +1.4%

06-11-2013 16:00:37 | More by ThreeKingdoms

BrownAleMale

Wisconsin

4.5/5  rDev +7.4%

06-11-2013 06:29:57 | More by BrownAleMale

zestar

California

4.5/5  rDev +7.4%

06-11-2013 03:17:48 | More by zestar

uncccegr

North Carolina

4/5  rDev -4.5%

06-10-2013 22:28:42 | More by uncccegr

jarrgal

North Dakota

4.25/5  rDev +1.4%

06-10-2013 02:01:10 | More by jarrgal

Lurkerson

Pennsylvania

4.25/5  rDev +1.4%

06-09-2013 21:37:02 | More by Lurkerson

jpaulsen

California

4.25/5  rDev +1.4%

06-08-2013 04:26:42 | More by jpaulsen

MNPikey

Minnesota

3.5/5  rDev -16.5%

06-07-2013 21:20:31 | More by MNPikey

DrZeus10

Minnesota

4/5  rDev -4.5%

06-07-2013 00:45:18 | More by DrZeus10

savagepm

Colorado

4.5/5  rDev +7.4%

06-06-2013 01:15:49 | More by savagepm

pisano

Massachusetts

3.75/5  rDev -10.5%

06-04-2013 19:36:16 | More by pisano

AltBock

Ohio

4.01/5  rDev -4.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

16oz. can with a picture of a coffee mug with the Surly logo shooting off into space. The back of the can has a bright red bag with coffee beans jumping out of the bag. This bag of beans has a description of the beer on it. The bottom of the can is where you'll find a born on date.

When poured into a Cigar City pint glass, this coffee beer was not surprisingly coffee black in color. Of course that's what this beer wants you to believe. When its held up into the light, I saw that this beer was more of a dark cola brown with a burgundy center. Cool color either way. On top was a 1/4 to 1/2 inch light tan colored head of foam. This head of foam stuck around for a few seconds before it receded into a small string of rings along the edge and a spot or two of lace around the glass.

This beer smells exactly like a coffee house when they're grinding the fresh coffee beans. It's that good! Behind the rich thick roasted coffee wall was a little roasted malt, a pinch of dark chocolate, and a quick whiff of caramel. It's one of those straight to the point aromas. It's says I'm brewed with coffee so don't expect a wide variety in the aroma. Hope you like the scent of coffee!

Did it taste like coffee? Well..of course it did. The nice strong aroma got my tastebuds prepared for a big strong taste of roasted coffee. The coffee presence in the taste was lower than what it was in the aroma. The roasted coffee beans weren't the same quality as they were in the taste. The taste started off with the coffee beans. That's not surprising. Quickly following the coffee was the roasted malt. At some times, the malt character was bigger than the coffee character. After the malt had their fun, the beer finishes up with dark chocolate and a subtle taste of caramel.

This was a medium bodied coffee brown ale with a good level of carbonation and a dry roasted coffee aftertaste. The coffee taste in the aftertaste was on the weak side. It used most of its energy in the aroma, tried to out shine the malt in the taste, but it was tired in the mouthfeel. Other than the coffee taste, there was a little dark chocolate and roasted malt. This dry aftertaste will linger on the roof of your mouth for a while.

My tastebuds hated my sense of smell. My nose was the one that got the most delicious coffee out of this beer. Despite that, this was still a pretty good coffee Brown Ale. I'd drink it again if given the opportunity again. I know my nose would love it if I got another can.

Serving type: can

06-04-2013 00:21:28 | More by AltBock

MrBuckHigh

Ohio

4.5/5  rDev +7.4%

06-02-2013 16:11:49 | More by MrBuckHigh

GrindFatherBob

New York

4.75/5  rDev +13.4%

06-02-2013 12:43:06 | More by GrindFatherBob

animal69

Louisiana

4.25/5  rDev +1.4%

06-02-2013 00:01:43 | More by animal69

Rihup

Illinois

4.5/5  rDev +7.4%

06-01-2013 23:37:48 | More by Rihup