Surly Brewery

We finally made it to Surly.  Can't believe it took so long.  I think they recently changed their taproom/tour situation making it much more visitor friendly.  Instead of signing up online several weeks in advance to get a spot, you now just sign up for the tour at the brewery taproom starting at an hour before the tour starts.  You can even have your friends sign up for you if you are running late.

We hung out in the taproom and sampled a few of the beers and then bought pints to bring into the brewery for the tour.  It's always more fun to visit the taproom than just have the brewery's beer on tap at a restaurant because you get to try the unique small batches that never get distributed.   My favorite for sure was the Cacao Bender which has wonderful coffee and chocolate notes.  I also liked the Bitter Brewer and the Hell - wonderful light summer beers.

I don't usually opt for the tour - kind of a been there done that situation.  But, I really enjoyed this one because he spent more time talking about the opening of their new site than walking us through the brewing process.  The new brewery site will be right off Hwy 280 and Broadway.  They'll start brewing in September and the taproom and all it's fanciness will open in December.  Apparently you'll be able to get married there, there will be a multi-tiered deck, there will be plenty of outdoor patio space, and they are partnering with a chef from Solera to pair the beers with fantastic food.  Another thing I'm excited about - they are keeping the old brewery site in Brooklyn Center and will be using it for small scale, fun unique beers that they currently don't have the capacity to make due to the high demand for Furious.

So, good things to come.  I'm pretty excited to visit the new site when it opens.

Here's what's on tap now: