Surly Two

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Courtesy of tpd975. Pours deep dark brackish brown with thin tan head. The aroma is roasty dark malts and chocolate blending into notes of cranberries, ripe strawberries and other assorted fruits. Pleasing mild mix of aromas. The taste starts with a quick pulse of dark malts to chocolate malts to thick sticky malt sweetness and turns quickly toward somewhat unripe fruit tartness. This fruit tartness persists and rides all the way to the finish with notes of dark, sweet and chocolate malts showing up from time to time and growing some into the finish.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Wow! I must say first of all, there's no way in hell I would ever be able to try this if it weren't for the generosity of Todd from Surly. Truly a treat, shared among good friends at the dinner table of his beautiful wife's restaurant Cafe Twenty-Eight. Poured into my glass, shines a dark mahogany brown with no head. Aroma is of bourbon, oak and cranberries. The taste was close to dessert like. Creamy, spicey, and well crafted. Absolute treat. Thanks Todd!

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Sampled GABF 2008
Quite a dark, concentrated amber-brown color that is topped by a tan'ish frothy head. This is very strongly aromatic, with lots of Bourbon-like notes (vanillin, coconut, a hint of butterscotch and some light spicy oak that kicks in towards the finish along with some nose burning alcohol). There is a touch of non-descript fruit character underneath the strong barrel aromatics; definitely a bit too dominated by the barrel character though.

This beer is lightly tart somehow and not nearly as sweet or rich as I was expecting. There is a spicy oak and alcohol burn that is fairly evident in the finish and is more dominant than the other barrel-like notes that I noticed in the aroma; there is a touch of butterscotch here though. The beer is actually quite astringent, with a quite noticeable tannic quality to it in the finish. The body is a touch thinner than I was expecting, though it certainly makes it more drinkable. The noticed tartness adds / accentuates some flavors of tamarind, tart raisin, cranberry and sour prune (this last a product of the tartness and some rich malt notes).

This is not bad, but certainly not quite what I was expecting; the tartness and barrel character seem to mix in odd ways at times and it is missing the malt richness that could carry both notes a bit more. I had no idea while drinking this beer that it had cranberries in it, but the tartness certainly makes sense now.