Abrasive Ale - Surly Brewing Company

jampics2

Ohio

4.58/5  rDev +1.3%
look: 5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.5

16 oz can into an open-mouth imperial glass. Big ups to Mothman for the trade the night before Dark Lord Day! Thanks, Ben - nice to meet you and swap some great beers!!

Looks absolutely perfect. Orange with gold edges, perfect one finger head that's creamy and provides amazing lacing. This is really a perfect looking beer. Great start to this experience.

Smell is hops, hops, and more hops. Citrus and peach impressions from the aroma hops, with a touch of mint as well. Pineapple, grapefruit, and some nice caramel and slightly biscuity malt backbone. This has a wonderful smell, not my absolute favorite hops, but pungent and dank. Diggity!!! Although I must say other AD/IIPA's are a bit more expressive, this gives great scents!

Taste is really good, not in the exact same category as Younger (or even Elder or Dreadnaught) but amazingly well done. I must say again, I'm not totally the biggest fan of the hops used here. I *think* I remember reading this is predominantly Columbus and most noticeably Amarillo, and there's just a bit too much tea and peach notes to be my faves. But it's a really well crafted beer!! Nice malt backbone is holding up the flavors well. I like the West coast style, pale gold DIPA's with just a bit more viscosity than water, but this is really nicely balanced. Not too much but more than I normally dig. But this makes me question by preconceptions, and that's a really nice compliment coming from me. I like what Surly did here and I'm sure that certain hop heads would make this their #1 DIPA!

Mouthfeel is amazing. Creamy and medium bodied, sticky and not ruinous but intense feeling. Drinkability is great! I've only had a few that were this intense that went down this well. A fantastic beer from Surly. Thrilled to check this off the list. Now if I could only get another 4 pack ;)

Serving type: can

05-02-2010 22:53:15 | More by jampics2

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