Darkness
(has 17 batches)
Surly Brewing Company in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States πΊπΈ
Stout - Imperial Rotating|
Score
8.27
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Our legendary imperial stout, released every October. Darkness contains monstrous notes of chocolate, coffee, cherry, and toffee, plus a non-traditional dose of aromatic hops.
Bottle, can, and box art courtesy of 2024 Darkness Artist Susan Evans.
Bottles available exclusively at Darkness Day, Saturday, October 5. Boxed 16 oz. cans go to retail around Halloween.
Bottle, can, and box art courtesy of 2024 Darkness Artist Susan Evans.
Bottles available exclusively at Darkness Day, Saturday, October 5. Boxed 16 oz. cans go to retail around Halloween.
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8.5/10
β
Appearance 6
Aroma 9
Flavor 8
Texture 10
Overall 9
2012 Bottle from my 2014 Secret Santa, finally opened at a share. Pours black, with a quick, bubbly, beige head. The nose is striking and assertive. Milk chocolate, maple syrup, basil, caramel, bread, and vanilla. Very sweet flavor, with a relatively heavy bitterness, making it startlingly balanced. Very heavy body, with a smooth, effervescent, sharp, and thick mouthfeel. This is an amazingly well done stout. Tons of character, and great balance. The years seem to have been very friendly.
Tried
from Bottle
on 30 Oct 2017
at 09:13
9.2/10
β
Appearance 10
Aroma 10
Flavor 9
Texture 8
Overall 9
Surly's claim to fame, a very highly acclaimed imperial stout I had in some special bottled edition a few years ago, but this rating concerns the regular version - which makes it sound all too trivial, which this beer very obviously is not. Yellowish beige, thick and creamy, stable head over an opaque black beer only showing warm mahogany edges in the end. Stunningly beautiful, intense bouquet with its own twist compared with many other American style imperial stouts; impressions of chocolate sauce, black cherry jam, toffee, dried blueberries, walnut oil, cured meat, black coffee, shoe polish, butterscotch, whisky. Sweet onset with again this idiosyncratic, yet beautiful, bit spicy black fruit presence of black cherry essence or blackberry coulis, balanced by a cured meat-like umami accent and some light sourishness; medium carbo, thick and syrupy, oily mouthfeel, thick body of chocolatey and intensely toffeeish malts, very clean, long and complex, warming finish, bourbon-like booze, just a tad astringent in the very end, matched with a peppery hop bitter note. It's easy to see why this beer is such a celebrity and a tasting glass from this fresh bottle of the regular version charmed me even more than that special vintage edition of it which I had a couple of years ago. If the alcohol didn't carry just a tad too much tiring wryness in the tail, this would have been even closer to a perfect score for me.
Tried
from Bottle
on 11 Oct 2017
at 15:05
7/10
Ciut zielojabca. Troche przypraw. Troche owocowosci. Nie za wiele ciala. Slodkawy. Raczej bez szalenstw, ale dobrze sie pije
Tried
at
Saska KΔpa
on 16 Sep 2017
at 18:17