Surly Bender Clone?

boodyrischous · 05-28-2009, 05:47 PM

Anyone have a good recipe for this?

Thanks!

boodyrischous · 05-29-2009, 05:24 PM

Anybody?

<crickets>

**toastermm** · 01-07-2010, 06:52 PM

Lately, I have been trying my hardest to come up with a good brown. I have heard great great and wonderous things about this surly bender or surly coffee bender. Here is what the website lists about the bender:

Quote:

This oatmeal brown ale defies traditional categories. Bender begins crisp and lightly hoppy, complemented by the velvety sleekness oats deliver. Belgian and British malts usher in cascades of cocoa, coffee, caramel and hints of vanilla and cream. An easy-drinking ale with many layers of satisfaction.
IBUs - 45
ABV - 5.1%

And the Coffee Bender:

Quote:

Utilizing the latest technology, the Surly brew team has developed a cold extraction process that results in intense coffee aromatics and flavor - bringing together two of our favorite beverages. Your only dilemma will be whether to finish your day or start it with a Coffee Bender.
IBUs - 45
ABV - 5.2%

I would be very interested in a clone as well.

Martin2D · 01-07-2010, 09:05 PM

Coffee Bender is ridiculously good. Would love to see some attempts for this beer as I made a coffee Indian Brown Ale, which was ridiculously good! Problem is its nowhere near as good as the subtlety of Coffee Bender.

**jdauria** · 05-10-2012, 03:49 PM

Not sure if there are any legal issues in regards to posting a recipe from a company's kit, so will not post the recipe I have in BeerSmith. But if you go to the Northern Brewer website and select the Surly Bender (partial mash or All-Gran) kit, then click on "additional information", it opens a PDF of the recipe.

Will say I did make the partial mash version and it was delicious. Surly beers are not available in MA, but based on the description of the beer on their website, I was getting a lot of the same flavor profiles. Even after 8 months in the bottle, I even got a 3rd place finish in my club's Brown Ale competition.

bobbrews · 05-10-2012, 03:54 PM

No idea how accurate of a clone this will be, but here's a good start for small batch extract:

http://hopville.com/recipe/623550/american-brown-ale-recipes/surly-bender-clone

Feel free to amend and tell us about it.

**MNDan** · 05-10-2012, 04:48 PM

The Northern Brewer recipe is the actual recipe.

bobbrews · 05-10-2012, 06:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MNDan

The Northern Brewer recipe is the actual recipe.

I'm trying to get to the bottom of this because I don't feel it is accurate...

NB Version: http://hopville.com/recipe/1359371/american-brown-ale-recipes/surly-bender-version-1
Tweaked Version: http://hopville.com/recipe/1359212/american-brown-ale-recipes/surly-bender-version-2

Northern Brewer's all-grain version, under a 60 minute, 6 gallon full volume boil / 5 gallon batch yields less than 30 SRM and off whack OG/FG/ABV. The NB recipe also neglects to include dark crystal. And even with some of the darker English equivalents from Muntons and Crisp, the SRM still hovers around 30-ish. Perhaps they also add some real dark chocolate as well... or just more chocolate malt?

From Surly's website:

"Here's what happens when substance meets smooth. This oatmeal brown ale defies traditional categories. Bender begins crisp and lightly hoppy, complemented by the velvety sleekness oats deliver. Belgian and British malts usher in cascades of cocoa, coffee, caramel and hints of vanilla and cream. An easy-drinking ale with many layers of satisfaction."

STYLE: American Brown Ale
MALT: Pale Ale, Aromatic, Medium Crystal, Dark Crystal, Oats and Chocolate
HOPS: Columbus, Willamette
YEAST: English Ale

OG: 14º Plato
ABV: 5.5%
COLOR: 45 SRM
IBU: 45

It appears these stats change quite a bit each year.

**jdauria** · 05-11-2012, 01:44 PM

Didn't realize when I responded to this thread that the last post was 2 years old! Oops!

The only other thing I can say on the Northern Brewer recipe is that Surly worked with them to create the "clone" recipe, so it's not a guess by Northern Brewer. But as for the numbers not matching exactly the numbers of the real Surly Bender, I could see that. I could see the brewery not wanting to give their full recipe out, so instead they created a clone recipe that comes close to the flavor.

Looking at my numbers in Beersmith, while I did the partial mash version only, my IBU's were 43.5 and my ABV was 5.8...so not that far off from the Surly numbers on their site.