Our Philosophy
The most commonly asked question about the brewery is "What kind of beers are you going to brew?" Good question. We plan to brew the best beer we possibly can.
Surly will begin by brewing two beers for the Twin Cities market. We're not gonna tell you what the beers will be like; you'll have to find out for yourself. We also plan to have a rotating seasonal beer.
Brewing the best beer we can means formulating beer recipes that are not devised with ingredient price in mind. It means we will use premium American grown barley and large amounts of imported British, German and Belgian malt. The American barley we use comes from home-grown Rahr Malting, a family owned malt-house based right here in Minnesota.
It also means we will formulate our recipes in a way that we think makes for the best beer -- we won't focus on conforming to someone else's style guidleines. It means that we will brew beers we love instead of brewing beers we think will be best-sellers. It means that we are not going to sacrifice flavor by filtering or pasturizing our product.
It means we'll have the freedom to take chances with our beer: We're going to cask-condition and bourbon-barrel some of our beers, and we'll brew small-batch specialty beers, including beers aged more than six months.
All of these decisions will create unique brews that leave an impression. Taste one today and see what we mean.
News and Updates
Beer of the Week, Coffee Bender & Darkness!
Oct 08, 2007
Furious is beer of the week at Buster's on 28th. $3.00 pints of Furious all week, but that's not the best news. Wednesday at 7:00, Busters will tap a firkin of Tea-Bagged Furious. $3 pours for Furious on cask.
Next Monday night at the Triple Rock Social Club they will be pouring pints of Coffee Bender. If that is not enough, Sarah Lawson of Surly, employee #3, will be performing with her band - God Came From Space. Also perfroming that night: Six Six Crush and Carbellion. No cover! Music starts at 9:00.
Darkness returns - come try this year's Darkness at the The Blue Nile on October 30th. See you that evening
News and Updates
ABR Line-Up
Sep 07, 2007
Here are the beers we are planning on pouring @ ABR.
Tapping times to follow.
BAD ? Barrel Aged Darkness
BAO - Barrel Aged One
Double Bender (experimental-brewed just for ABR)
COAF - Cask Oak-Aged Furious
Coffee Bender
Bender
Furious
Cynic
SurlyFest
Go to http://www.mncraftbrew.org to order tickets.
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News and Updates
Where's the Fest - Stub & Herb's
Sep 05, 2007
SurlyFest will be rolling out next week, September 11th and onward! SurlyFest will be at your favorite Surly bars in kegs and liquor stores in cans. We only brewed a few batches, so it will go fast. Prosit!
We will be kicking off the Fest and Stub & Herb's at the U of M. Check out their new lineup of Minnesota craft beers next Tuesday, Septmeber 11th. Furious and SurlyFest both only $3 and the first drinkers that show up will get a Surly Pint glass to take home.
The Surly Open - A Recap
Aug 06, 2007
Thanks to all that came out and made the "1st Annual Surly Open - Leave Your Balls @ Home" tournament a blast. We blew through 5 kegs of beer including onr keg of Coffee Bender (sorry morning players). THe tournamnet was pretty full and things went great.
A special thanks to the hole sponsors that donated prizes for the event:
MacKenzies Pub
Grumpy's - NE
Papas Pizza
The Happy Gnome
Pizza Luce - St. Paul
Buster's on 28th
Photos will be coming shortly and yes, there will be a Surly Open #2.
Growler Fill Schedule:
Saturdays @ Noon - 2:00
Limit of 2 growlers per brand
April 28th - noon-3:00 bender & furious
May 5th - noon - 2:00 bender & furious
May 12th - noon - 2:00 bender & furious
May 19th - noon - 2:00 bender & furious
May 26th - noon - 2:00 bender & furious
After working for 15 months, talking to the city, the state and rewriting the entire Brooklyn Center city liquor code, Growlers are here!
'What is a growler?' you ask. As any craft beer-loving junkie will tell you, a growler is a refillable, reusable, glass beer jug of your very own, meant for taking 64 oz of beer home with you... again, and again, and again. You bring it in, we fill it up. Repeat.
Growler sales will go something like this:
1) At the brewery every Saturday, Noon - 2:00.
2) Growlers of Furious and Bender will be available. Occasionally, we will have a limited release.
3) Cost - Furious $9, Bender $8, plus the growler ($3).
4) We prefill the growlers. We purge them with CO2 then fill them slowly. For refills, we will exchange your previously-owned Surly growler for a newly cleaned and filled one.
5) By law, we can't fill growlers from other breweries. So don?t bother bringing them.
6) Yes, we are happy to take your money in any form, including credit cards. And yes, you can give us more of your money for t-shirts, hats, sweatshirts and glasses.
Now, since we aren't a brewpub that is open all day everyday, and there are still only 3 of us working here (with a couple other things on our plates), our filling times will be specific and limited — Saturday's, 12-2pm. Most Saturday's will NOT have tours, just fillings. Check the tours link for specific tour dates.
Come on by and take some kick-ass beer home with you. Your friends will be glad that you did.
Lets talk growlers
We purge all our growlers with CO2 before they are filled. This is needed as the oxygen in the air reacts with the beer to form some not so yummy flavors. Once you open the growler at home, the air starts reacting with the beer. In addition, the beer starts going flat. We are not saying you have to drink all the beer at once, but it does start to lose some of its special crispness that we worked so hard to deliver to you.
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Bitter Brewer
One-time Release
We brewed this batch in April and dry-hopped it for about 14 days. This beer is brewed in the tradition of an English Style Bitter. Here is a definition of the style from www.beeradvocate.com:
English Bitter
Description:
The Bitter style came from brewers who wanted to differentiate these ales from other mild brews, enter pale malts and more hops. Most are gold to copper in colour and are light bodied. Low carbonation. Alcohol should be low and not perceived. Hop bitterness is moderate to assertive. Most have a fruitiness in the aroma and flavor, diacetyl can also be present. These are traditionally served cask conditioned, but many breweries have bottled versions.
Average alcohol by volume (abv) range: 3.0-5.0% [ ? ]
We only brewed 30 barrels of this beer, so it will go fast. We filled as many pins and firkins as we had. Look for this beer on cask, it should really shine.
Help Name our New Limited-Release Beer!
Apr 20, 2007
Surly Brewing will soon be releasing a new limited release beer and we need your help in naming it! We have been debating the name around the brewery for awhile, so we figured Surly Nation could help out. The beer will be a little different than some of the beers you might associate with Surly. This one is brewed in the tradition of English bitters with a Surly kick. Todd describes it as an ASB — American Style Bitter. Brewed with lots of Golden Promise and Pale Ale malts with a touch of Oats and light hazy gold in color. Ultra crisp bitterness from Warrior hops, with Glacier hops adding the peach,orange and apricot aroma. We dry-hopped this one because...we like hops.
Only one batch of this guy was brewed so it will be on tap around town and go pretty fast. I'm looking forward to drinking this one on cask.
New Tanks Shipping!
Mar 13, 2007
Yes! There will be more Surly beer. We ordered 6 new brewing tanks from JVNW in Canby, Oregon and our tanks shipped today! Check out the Surly Photos for more photos at www.surlybrewing.com
Can News
Mar 11, 2007
People tell us all the time that they won't drink our beers out of cans because cans make the beer taste different. We think that's crap. We would not have spent a couple years building a brewery and making great beer if the can changed the taste. Breweries that can their beer tell people all the time that the can does not change the taste, but that's no suprise, what would one expect them to say?
So, we did a little taste test during our last tour. The results showed that people had no preference for beer from a bottle, a can or fresh out of the tap. To quote from the study:
Study Purpose
The purpose of this research is to test consumer preference for Surly branded beer in different delivery forms ? cans, bottles, or tap. Surly tested its Furious and Bender branded beer.
Summary of Findings
In our opinion, these study results support the claim that consumers have no preference for any particular form of beer. There was no significant difference for one form over the other.
So, if folks won't drink the beer because they think the can changes the taste, you can tell them they are wrong.
More help arrives soon at Surly!
Mar 04, 2007
We hired a brewer to help us out!
Arriving soon from Austin,TX.............we give you.........Callaway Ryan
Look for him around town and at upcoming fests.
Meet and Taste with the Brewer
Thursday ,Feb.8th,Cafe Twenty-Eight
6:30-8:30pm Beer Tasting
Taste the Surly Love with the MasterChief brewer at his lovely wife's micro-cafe(I just fix the stuff they break).Try some "Cranberry One" made with cranberries from our friends at Sleight's Lost Lake Cranberry Bog.Also taste Coffee Bender as fresh as it gets......coffee roasted by Jim at Coffee and Tea Ltd. ............Tea Bagged Furious too..........
-If you plan on having dinner , please make a reservation 612-926-2800-
cafetwentyeight.com
Surly Radio
Jan 29, 2007
Omar got interviewed by Cities 97 as their entrepreneur of the month. We enjoyed some Coffee Bender and talked a bit about the brewery. Thanks B.T. and Lee for inviting me on down.
Click here to listen to Omar's interview on Cities 97
Artist of the Year - Thanks
Dec 28, 2006
Free Cask Beer at Triple Rock Social Club - January 3rd.
The winner of the Surly Anniversary Dinner tickets is..... Paige Fitzgerald! Thanks to the Happy Gnome for two complimentary tickets to the Surly Anniversary Dinner. See the calendar page for details.
Surly Nation continues to spread the word, thanks to the City Pages and Kevin Murphy for naming Omar an Artist of the Year. Now I'm gonna have to track down my 8th grade art teacher and have her bump up the C she gave me. More thoughts on this soon.
Free Surly!
Dec 14, 2006
The Surly cask beer train rolls onward! We had a great turnout at The Groveland Tap in St. Paul last night. We will pouring more Free Cask Beer @ Acadia Cafe next Wednesday, December 20th. The tapping happens at 9:00. Sow up early to grab a drink ticket.
This pin of tea-bagged furious contains one pound of hops in the pin, split between amarillo and simcoe hops. Look for a different hop load for subsequent cask beers.
A Surly Christmas
Dec 07, 2006
Get Surly at Groveland Tap on Wendesday, December 13th.
Here are the reasons to come:
Bender Pints $3
Furious Cans $3
Swag Giveaways
Cask Furious - Free!
Yes, free cask beer, so you better get there early. The fun starts at 7:00 and goes to 10:00. The cask tapping happens at 9:00. See you there!
Groveland Tap
1834 St Clair Ave, St Paul, MN 55105-1641 (651) 699-5058
ATTENTION ALL SURLY DRINKER'S!
GET IT WHILE IT LASTS!
Surly Grumpy's
Dec 01, 2006
Coffee Bender 12-3-6 at Grumpy's - NE. Stop by for a
caffeniated bender before it runs out!
Turkey Day Tour
Bring your turkey, stuffing and empty growlers for refilling, and pie - pecan pie, I l-o-v-e pecan pie. We are going to have a tour the Saturday after Thanksgiving. That would be the 25th of November. Tours at 12:30 and 1:30. Growlers of Bender, Furious and the last SurlyFest on the planet. Yes, SurlyFest - about 29 growlers of 'em.
Thanks to all of Surly Nation that showed up last weekend (Nov 13, 2006)and purchased over 200 growlers! The wait was a bit long, and we will work on shortening that next time. Over 300 drinkers showed up and went home happy.
We will be selling growlers this coming weekend - November 18th - noon-2:00. That will include 29 growlers of Coffee Bender! They will go fast. We are only selling growlers at this time. No tours, No tastings. That's the way we roll.
We will be selling growlers every Saturday from noon-2:00. Check the Growler page for specialty releases at the Surly site..
ClickSurly Brewing Co.to get to the site.
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