Dark sour ale – essentially a broadening of the Flemish ‘oud bruin’ category – by this classic craft brewery in Minneapolis, aged in red wine barrels, thanks to tderoeck for sharing. Some loose, off-white bubbles around the edge, but quickly gone into complete ‘headlessness’; hazy dark mahogany brown robe. Aroma of passionfruit, dry sherry, sour plums, candi sugar, fig jam, pech, brown rum, wood glue, old red wine, brambleberries, brandy. Fruity, estery onset, sour with a sweetish core, impressions of blackberry, fig and sour plums, soft carb, strong lactic sourness drying the palate, over a caramelly, softly bready malt backbone; woody tannins add further dryness in the finish, with a strong and evidently unsurprising impression of dry and tannic red wine (‘gecorseerd’ as we say in Dutch), quite complex, woody, fruity long and warming. Maintains relatively high drinkability whilst adding considerable complexity, like the best Flemish ‘oud bruin’ beers; among the best American interpretations of this style I had so far. Experienced and acclaimed Surly never disappoints, it seems.