Surly’s Brewing Company in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota has been brewing awesome beer for Minnesotans for over 7 years now. With head brewer Todd Haug in creative control, Surly has brewed up quite a following. Each year the number of Surly lovers has grown substantially and to mark each awesome year brewing, Surly has released an anniversary brew. While not all of their anniversary beers have been bottled, the most recent 4 have been along with Surly Two.
In the same way that Surly has generally thrown style guidelines to the wind with their year-round and seasonal beer offerings, the anniversary beers are don’t fit a specific style of brew to but define their own. Why constrain yourself within style guidelines anyways? Deliciousness knows no style requirements.
No bottling of Surly One. Surly Two was offered in just 89 bottles, sold one per person at a rate of 3 per day, 3 Saturdays in on a cold winter day at the brewery. I’m sure some others also remember making that trek to the brewery on those days and waiting in the short line to get a bottle. Three wasn’t bottled, then Four was the first to see in-store distribution. Since then the size of the releases has increased though they have sold out with a quickness. While the number of bottles increases, it still comes nowhere close to being enough to satisfy the ever growing number of fans out there looking to get their hands on bottles for now and some for the cellar.
With the release of Five, the brew was so good that Surly brought it bad as a yearly release called Pentagram. Great move as it’s a wonderful beer. If only some other favorites from previous years would make a second appearance.
If you’d like to know more about each of Surly’s anniversary beers, you can find that info here on their website.
