Surly Brewing Company's "Smoke"

Dylan at GABF 2011

Two years ago, I had my first run in with a smoked beer, and I distinctly remember that strange day. My buddy Dylan, beer enthusiast, video-game assassin, and fancy carpenter, cracked open a bottle of beer and said, "Try this...It tastes like sausages." Sausages? That wasn't exactly a description that got me anxious for the first sip, but who am I to turn down a taste of a unexplored brew? I was given the glass of the dark ale...or was it a lager?...I don't remember...nonetheless, I was given the glass and immediately sensed the smokiness in the aromas. It did have a BBQ quality to it that I had never smelled on a beer, so my interest was peaked. Sure enough, the thick, smokiness filled my mouth on the first sip and a meatiness lingered through the finish. Dylan was right. It did taste like sausage, the good kind that are charred on the grill.

Fast forward to today. I now have a few smoked beers under my belt. The Stone Smoked Porter and Left Hand Smoke Jumper really got me into the style. Both examples have a lot of smokey characterstics but without an overwhelming ammount of meat, which makes it more approachable to the smoke-newbie. I also got my hands on the Rogue and Voodoo Donought's smoked collaboration (which I talk about here). The Maple Bacon Ale is delicious, but after a half pint it starts to taste like you are drinking liquid pancakes and bacon. This brings me to the beer of the day...Surly Brewing Company's "Smoke."

Surly founder and owner, Omar Ansari, started the same way most homebrewers spend their days: dreaming about opening a nano-brewery. Ansari developed a passion for fine beers early in his life, which prompted him to start homebrewing in 1994. Ansari evolved from extract to all grain brews, acquiring the endless amounts of equipment along with it, and he ended up taking over the space from the old family business to use for brewing. After completing an educational program with the American Brewers Guild, Ansari opened Surly and began selling his canned and bottled beers.

Surly's "Smoke" is a Baltic porter that lives up to its name. In the glass it pours dark, impenetrable brown, bordering on black, with a thick, mocha brown head. The smoke is the star of the aroma show, with some hints of meat. I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted with hints of chocolate and dark malt flavors up front, as opposed to being smacked in the face with smoke right away. The smoke and a bitterness appears in the middle, and last through the finish where it is joined by the slightest touch of smoked meat. The mouth feel has a creamy quality (I'm assuming from the oak-aging), which paired with the black malt and chocolate notes has taste buds begging for another sip of the smokey goodness. This is a very tasty, well balanced Baltic Porter, with its deceivingly high ABV of 8.3%!