Bender
Surly Brewing Co.

12oz can, painted label. Date stamp on bottom is 'BEST BY: 9/11/26'.
Brown colored body. One finger of beige colored head, which reduces to islands and a full ring. Leaves behind scattered lacing spots.
Aroma of roasted malts with a bit of char, coffee, cacao, and vanilla.
Taste is roasted malts that exude sweetness, with a bit of char. Flavors of coffee, chocolate, caramel, and vanilla. Creamy oats arrive late. Hops provide a bitter note. Aftertaste stays sweet with roasted malts.
More than medium mouthfeel, with a smooth oat texture. Noticeable metallic note. Coats the mouth. Good carbonation.
Enjoyable balance among the roasted malts, slightly bitter hops, and oat malt creaminess.

Do you have any idea how long I've waited to try Bender? Until recently, the opportunity wasn't around, but I'm glad to see Surly Brewing has come to its senses and revived it as part of their 20th Anniversary Mixed 12 pack. We're live, and now on to the beer:

Pours out amber brown with a tint of orange, appearing more leather brown when it sits in the glass, topped with a soapy two finger's thickness of head which slowly settles.

Aroma is soft and sweet; toffee crisp with a dry crackery edge, fudge, and a few whispers of citric and grassy hoppiness.

Tasting it, you get the sweet, you get the hoppy, and they work together. Dry toffee upfront, with a wave of hop bitterness drying out the sweet, before turning back over to sweet, and then I'm telling myself to take another sip. It's almost a perfect circle, and when it's swimming in a smooth medium body,

Bender is a testament to the aughts when the brown ale was at its height of popularity . The 2020s needs fewer hazies and more Bender's.

See previous reviews of Coffee Bender and take away the big javaliciousness allowing the oatmeal to come forward. A great, well balanced brown with good mouthfeel and a slightly sweetish, lingering backend. Very quaffable.

 

 

The coffee and hops are way too intense for my liking.

 

 

 

 

 

Sweet aroma, dark fruit, slight aroma of dark malts. Deep ruby with rising bubbles topped by a 1/2 inch tan, thick head, leaving nice lacing as it slowly settles. Thin feel. Mild taste with a subtly bitter, dry finish (despite the sweet aroma) that hardly lingers at all in the aftertaste. Taste is also subtle: dark fruits, mostly, touch of roasted malts. Very middle-of-the-road brown ale. Easy drinking. OK, but far from outstanding. I bought it because it was Surly's first beer, I've never tried it, and Surly is stopping canned distribution. This beer is all about subtlety, subtle aroma, subtle taste, subtle hops, subtle malts. In summary: ordinary tending toward macro level. Ratings here must reflect the Surly mystique rather than this actual beer. This is a nice beer, but only nice. Good for an evening at the pub, but not to seek out. I am astonished, given the ratings here, how pedestrian and mediocre this beer is. It is better than Newcastle, but only just. Understandable why Surly is making it tap only.