Aug 19, 2019

Surly Temple

Surly Brewing’s BC Small Batch beer for the month of August is an interesting one. Surly Temple is a 9% ABV kettle-soured ale that has a ton going on within its murky depths. It’s also not a beer for every body, but those adventurous of you out there will probably dig this one.

This imperial sour also features an array of pomegranate, mango and peach additions, as well as vanilla bean and lactose – not to mention a Citra dry-hopping. Confused? My tastebuds certainly were at first. All of those flavors do surprisingly work well with one another. I was initially worried that Surly Temple was going to be a muddled mess with all of those ingredients at play. And, honestly the combination of light fruit blend, and moderate tartness worked well enough for my personal preferences, but the amount of vanilla was a bit much for my own liking.

The lactose added a nice bit sweetness to counter that sour bite and cut the alcohol warmth a great deal – this beer drinks much smaller than it actually weighs. In fact, Surly Temple is quite a dangerous beer in that regard.

While, I did enjoy aspects of Surly Temple, the beer really wasn’t for me. It just present a bit too much vanilla for my tastebuds. I will say (again) that the flavors presented here really do work surprisingly well to create a cohesive profile. As a small batch release, this is the perfect beer. It presents both a unique opportunity for the brewers’ to play, but also for you all to try something completely different, or as the company puts it, “weird gets pro.”

This is a review of a promotional sample.