A Whale A Week: Surly Darkness 2013

Surly Darkness 2013

This week we return to our continuing A Whale A Week series on Surly Brewing's Darkness.  This beer is Surly's take on the Russian Imperial Stout, and was first brewed in 2006, in a very small batch and released in growlers.  I never got to try that first year's release, but at the time it was pretty "ballsy" to put out an expensive-to-brew RIS for a very young upstart craft brewery.  They are called Surly after all.

The second year they released a limited run of bottles (under 500) that they released in the very first Darkness Day event at the brewery.  The event went well and the beer met with high praise.  The bottle for 2007 Darkness featured a Grim Reaper, and while I have held an unopened bottle in my hand, I have yet to taste that batch.  Anyone still have one of these gathering dust in a cellar?

For 2008 Surly increased production of Darkness to around 5000 bottles, a big increase from the previous year, but still a small run.  The bottle was wax dipped and the demon label was a sticker placed on the glass bottle.  The next year they began screen printing the bottles and scrapped the sticker.  Check out my previous A Whale A Week post on the 2008 vintage HERE.

For 2009 the label featured a mummy.  They sold the same number of bottles (5000) that day, but had another 2500 or so that they released to liquor stores a few days later.   My review of the 2009 vintage is HERE.

In 2010 they increased Darkness production to about 14000 bottles, also wax dipped and screen printed.  About 7500 were released at that year's October Darkness Day, and the rest to retailers later in the month.  That year the label featured a vampire and my review is HERE.

I couldn't dig up details on the batch size for 2011.  The label art for that vintage is a very creepy zombie done by local artist Michael Berglund.  My review of 2011 is HERE.

The 2012 vintage was as usual released in October to much fanfare and an increasingly crowded Darkness Day celebration.  They gave out 1500 wrist-bands to get 6 bottles of Darkness--making that year's brewery release about 9000 bottles.  The art for that bottle was an angry looking werewolf (is there any other kind?) done by Brent Schoonover.  You can check out his cool stuff including a lot of comic work HERE.

And then our next vintage is 2013!  This year they continued the 1500 wrist-bands for Darkness day, again selling up to 6 bottles per person for $20 apiece.  And continuing with my lameness, I didn't get out to Darkness Day again.  The bottle art this year was done by Josh "Jawsh" Lemke, (the artist behind the Surly Eight label) and features the demonic horned Brewcifer.  I actually haven't tried this vintage since it was released so was excited to taste it after a couple of years cellaring.  I was out of town when this one came out and I believe I sent my wonderful mom out all over town to find me a couple of bottles for my hoard...

Cast of Characters:
For this A Whale A Week tasting, we had a couple of friends over to help us out.  Calley Donath-Beardsley and Joshua Beardsley are friends we met at one of The Happy Gnome's beer dinners and they live not to far from us.  Joshua is a seasoned homebrewer and should be taking the BJCP test based on his job with this tasting.  Matt Finnesgard, also a homebrewer who now lives in within walking distance from The Gnome, was able to come out to visit as well.  And of course my fine wife Sarajo took part as always.

Aroma:
Eric: Sweetness and malt aromas right away.  Slight oxidation coming off as oak or tannin.  An alcohol zip on the nose.  Mild coffee and a subtle chocolate as swirled.  Slight minty hop.
Joshua: Mild oxidation, grapeseed and sherry.  Cabernet fruitiness and brewed coffee.
Calley: Cardamom.
Matt: Toffee, sherry, astringent, rubber-band

Appearance:
Eric: Deep and dark--nearly black.  Fine medium tan head that stays around for a while. Opaque even up to the lights.
Joshua: Slightly darker tan foam.
Calley: Head lighter than expected.

Flavor:
Eric: Sweetness up front but balanced by hopping.  Very malty.  Some cocoa (milk chocolate?) and light coffee flavors.  Black cherry as well.  Mouthfeel is fairly thick and coating, but not syrupy.  Some alcohol warming on the back of the throat.  Balanced to the sweet side, but has some bitter and roast to back it up.  Mild oxidation adds complexity without detracting.
Joshua: Chocolate covered Indonesian espresso bean.  Wet cardboard oxidation.  Berry juice tang.  Dark malt extract.  Mouthfeel syrupy but not too thick.
Calley: Molasses flavors.  Mouthfeel light for a stout.
Matt: Weird after-flavor (cardboard).  Dark fruit--hints of prunes.  A touch hot.  Sherry/Port flavor.  Hints of flowery hops.

Overall:
Eric: The balance on this version is probably the best of the bunch, making this my favorite Darkness of this series of tastings so far. More roastiness makes this a legitimate stout, but still not a very roasty beer compared to some (Old Rasputin).  4.5
Joshua: 4.5
Calley: Aged better than the 2012.  3.875
Matt: More complex than 2012.  Good balance of sweet, roast, and bitterness. 4
Sarajo: "I like it."  4.5

Overall Rating: 4.275  (Thanks Calley for making us have a crazy overall score!)

This one was great!  Just one more in the series to go: the 2014 Barrel Aged Darkness!  Stay tuned for next week and feel free to drink along and add your own comments to this blog.

My friends Rob and Ron from Limited Release camped out for the Darkness Day 2013 release and documented the whole experience for your viewing pleasure!  Check it out below if you dare!

A Whale A Week: Surly Eight

Hey folks, time once again for A Whale A Week!  Last week we tasted Surly Seviin, and this week we finish up our series (until next year's Nine release) of Surly Anniversary Beers!

A quick recap:  The Surly Anniversary beers have been quite a mixed bag over the years, but I appreciate the brewers stretching their brewing chops to try new things.  One was a Quad/Doppelbock concoction that I never got to try.  I assume it was good.  Two was a cranberry milk stout that I first tried at a charity benefit--very tasty and tart.  That one made it to a small bottling run, but I've never actually seen one in person.  Three was a braggot, made with half honey and half grain.  I did not like that one fresh, but a year later it was much more balanced and mellow.  I'd love to try this again now!  Four was the first of these that I loved from the get-go and is reviewed HERE.  Five was their first sour and is reviewed HERE.  Syx was a 15% multi-wood aged monster, and is HERE.  Seviin was a Belgian strong ale finished off with brett and was reviewed HERE.

Let the Wild Rumpus begin!

Surly Eight

Surly Eight just came out November of 2014 and one can still run across a bottle here or there in the hinterlands of the Twin Cities.  As such it is perhaps not as rare or "whale-like" as some other beers, but I felt that I should really go ahead and finish up my run of the Surly Anniversary beers with it.  Not to rest on its laurels, Surly decided to try making a new category of beer: an Oat Wine.  This is a strong ale made a generous proportion of oats, that was then aged for many months in High West Rye Whiskey barrels.  Currently the beer has ratings of 93 on BeerAdvocate and 98 on RateBeer.  The beer comes in a bomber bottle dipped in white wax and decorated with a disturbing bit of artwork by local artist Josh "Jawsh" Lemke.  He's famous for his aerosol mural artwork and has done a couple of other things for Surly including one of their Darkness labels.  

This beer was released very late in the year (their actual anniversary is February) because Surly found they needed more time in the whiskey barrels to even this beer out.  I first tried this at Autumn Brew Review in a preliminary form before the final bottling.  At that time I felt the beer probably needed a bit more time, but was quite an unusual experience.  I've been waiting to crack a bottle and officially review it!

For this week's review Steven Mathistad, myself, and my wife Sj all gathered up in the basement bar to taste this new addition to the Surly cannon.  I served the beer in Surly stemware glasses and we got to work!  We all agreed pretty much on the review, so I just combined our thoughts together below.

Steven waiting patiently for his serving of Eight...

Aroma:

Initial aroma has a hint of unexpected sourness.  Some vanilla and toffee or sweet caramel.  Has an alcoholic zip to it.  Peppery.  As it warms I get increased tart and sourness as well as a subtle vegetal note.

Appearance:

Deep gold to almost amber in color.  Slightly hazy.  Large off-white head with medium sized bubbles.  Head fades slowly.

Flavor:

Initial sweet toffee that was hinted at in the nose.  Mouthfeel is medium, not as thick as I expected.  Lingering boozy finish rife with vanilla and marshmallow.  The end is actually off-dry despite the boozy notes.  As it warms I get more of the sourness that I can smell in the aroma.  Steven pointed out that he also got more whiskey as it warmed up.

Overall: 

The big issue here is that the beer is souring.  I remember getting a tiny hint of that tartness the first time I tried it, but I assumed that might be from the wood or the rye whiskey.  The beer is not very complex, likely because oats have almost no flavor of their own, so they don't add much to the body and flavor of the beer.  Most of the flavor present comes from the whiskey barrel, so this is pretty one-note.  I feel that this beer will probably get more sour with time.  If you have some in your stash I would probably drink them now or throw them in the fridge to slow that process.  I have four of these bad-boys and will age a couple just to see what happens over time.

Ratings: Since both Steven and I had such a hard time deciding on a score, I decided to allow quarter increments on this one.

Eric: 3.75
Steven: 3.75
Sj: 3.5  "Meh"

So that concludes our review of Surly Four through Eight!  My personal favorite?  Probably Surly Five, just because it has matured into something so much better than what it once was.  Least favorite was the Seviin--we had a bad bottle initially, but even the retry wasn't amazing.  I would say that the Surly Anniversary beers have been a bit of a mixed bag, but I do appreciate Todd Haug take some risks.

Next up on A Whale A Week:  Goose Island Madame Rose 2012 Vintage