Surly Brewing Todd the Axe Man

Beer Name: Todd the Axe Man
Brewery: Surly Brewing (Brooklyn Center, MN) in collaboration with Amager Brewery (Denmark)
ABV: 7.2%
How sold: 16 oz. tallboy cans
Where bought: Purchased online at France44 (Minnesota)
Price: $15.99 for 4-pack of 16 oz tallboys

Date Canned: May 3, 2016
Date Purchased: June 7, 2016
Date Opened/Drank: June 16, 2016
When brewed? Year-round beer.

Where distributed: Surly Brewing ships to select U.S. states and is usually NOT shipped to the Pacific Northwest. Click here for more!

What's on the Can: "Amager Brewery in Denmark named this beer after our head brewer and metal guitarist, Todd Haug. They collaborated to make an IPA with hop character as intense as a thrash metal guitar. Golden Promise malt provides a blastbeat background to the screaming citrus notes created by overdriven amounts of Citra and Mosaic hops. Pour this in a tulip glass and let the aromas and flavors assault your senses."

What's on the Website: "Our version of the West Coast Style IPA first brewed in collaboration with Amager Brewery in Denmark. Brewed with one malt, Golden Promise from the UK, with Citra and Mosaic hops. If you think Todd is a good brewer, you should hear him play his axe (guitar)! Named by Amager's marketing director Henrik Papsø." Click here for more!

REVIEW:

Appearance (5%): Poured a hazy peach-copper into a pint glass. Sediment suspended in the beer, unfiltered. Frothy white head. 4.5/5

Smell (25%): Tropical grapefruit with complementing malt. Addicting. 4.75/5

Taste (40%): Hop-forward, with aftertaste of grapefruit and some passion fruit. A bit of malt, yet refreshing and extremely drinkable. Tropical keeps lingering. Delicious from start to finish. For IPAs, it really doesn't get much better than this. 5/5

Mouthfeel (10%): Medium-bodied; good carbonation. Sticky on the tongue leaves that tropical bitterness on the tongue. 4.75/5

Overall (20%): A world-class IPA. I first had this beer on draft in 2015 when the Craft Brewers Conference came to Portland, Oregon. As of June 2016, this had incredible scores on Beer Advocate (99) and RateBeer (99). It was an amazing beer then, and it remains a kickass beer now. It has the right amount of malt and body for me, and the tropical citrus is incredible. Citra and Mosaic provide an unparalleled hop combination. Probably appropriate to call this unfiltered bliss. 5/5

Final Weighted Rating: 4.888/5