By John Rosnow
Friday, May 12, 2006

Not a very far trip this time.

Mark Mykkanen and I went to the open house at Surly Brewing Company.

We got there around 6:30 PM and the parking lot was full, as well the entire block around the brewery.

We entered into the tasting area and received an arm band which would be good for four samples.

They ran out of the cask of Bourbon Bender right as we got to the tasting bar. The first brew we had was Cynic Ale which is a Saison style beer made with Belgian Barley. This is the newest brew and is not yet available at public places. It started with a sharp hop bite, then got sweet, then back to a bitter finish. Excellent brew which I hope makes it way into the public offering.

Our second beer of the night was a special cask of dry hopped Furious, an IPA. Very hoppy, but it was well balanced with a full amount of malt. It had a clean citrus taste to it with from the hops.

At this point we both purchased a pint glass for $3 which we had filled with the Bender, an oatmeal stout/porter. Excellent beer to enjoy when we went on the tour.

Todd and Omar were giving tours of the brewery. Very nice and clean operation. They do a 90 minute boil to their wort and then put it into conical fermenters. Currently they are only kegging their product, but hope to start bottling in the future.

They use three different kinds of barley. Some from the UK, some from Belgium, and the American barley they use comes from home-grown Rahr Malting, a family owned malt-house in Shakopee, MN. They also use several types of hops from the Yakima Valley area as well as Noble hops from Europe.

Mark and I talked with Omar about getting a tour for the club. He was very much open to the idea. Until then, check out their website to find out where there beers are sold and stop in for a cold one, you will not be disappointed.

Pictures of the experience