Tonight I want to Share the story of Surly brewing with you. Why you ask because it is such a great story! It is a story about a home brewer and a pro brewer who joined forces to make great beer. They were tired of all the bland boring beer that surrounded them. They decided that when you cant find a good beer you get SURLY! It starts with the owner Omar who is a home brewer and is working in his parents abrasives factory in Brooklyn Park Minnesota. He brews a beer to announce the birth of his child his friend's love it and urge him to go pro. His partner Pro brewer Todd cut his chops as a brewer in Oregon and learned commercial brewing big batches at Summit in St Paul. Feeling his art was suffering while brewing the big batches he quits Summit and chooses a suburban Minneapolis branch of Rock Bottom to practice the art of brewing. Omar finally convinces his dad there is more money in craft beer then sand paper and talks Todd into joining forces with him the rest is history! Along the way they are challenged they find it is not so easy to turn and abrasives factory into a brewery open a brewery. They had to clean the factory from top to bottom, they cut a water line with a concrete saw, and the industrial park they were located in was not zoned for a brewery! So Omar starts to lobby local politicians to change things and he wins the zoning. He also is faced with Minnesota's backward liquor laws where you still cant by beer on Sunday which is LAME and you cant sell beer at a brewery? So last year they start this huge grassroots effort and it pays off with the passing of the Surly bill. This bill will allow a brewery to sell beer and food on site. Omar then announced plans for a 20 million dollar destination brewery, beer garden and events center that will increase there production 10 fold. If you have not tasted there beer I will tell you it is fantastic!

There stable of beers is bold and in your face. Bold malts up front and highly hopped finishes all are delicious! There is Cynic a peppery Saison, Furious a hoppy red (my favorite)Surly Bender a brown and then my wife's favorite Moe's Coffee Bender. They also have several seasonal releases the highly sought after Darkness a bold RIS that people camp out for, Wet (fresh hop ale), Surly mild, Abrasive (DIPA)and many many more! While in Minnesota I was lucky enough to get a tour of Surly! Tours are announced on Facebook 3 weeks in advance and all 125 spots book up in about 5 minutes!!! The tour is very laid back each person gets 5 beer tokens and is then allowed to roam around the brewery on there own. A brief and informative history/ QA sesion is conducted and then its back to drinking it is very informal and a lot of fun! While in the cities we had great experience of all thing beer but the trip to Surly was the icing on the cake! Once again Special thanks to my Wife for putting it all together! Maybe we can go back next year ?? ; With there current layout the have managed to brew an impressive 18,000 BBL with a small canning and keg line. They still have some room to grow in there current location. However they have there eyes on the prize! They plan on becoming the Stone brewing of the Midwest and I look forward to there destination brewery! Currently you can only get there beers in Minnesota so if you visit pick some up! ( and get some for me as well!) I have 1 can left in my fridge and I am saving it so it can be used to compare my home brewed version of Surly Cynic with there's! Until next time CHEERS!!!

A row of fermentor's

Another row of fermentor's full of Surly goodness

 They filter there beer  with a centrifuge!!

Pallets of Furious cans await filling