Dear Replicator,
Growing up and attending college in Minnesota my main exposure to beer was brands like Grain Belt, Schmidt, Schlitz and Pabst. I thought all beers tasted pretty much the same and wasn’t particular about which one to drink. In the early 90s a job offer relocated me to southern California and I made two big discoveries — beers could have marvelous flavors (I’ve become a hop head) and you could brew them at home! This winter a buddy of mine came out to visit to escape the cold winter and brought four cans of a beer called Furious from the Surly Brewing Co. Whoever the brewer is he must have come from the West coast because this beer is hopped higher than many of the IPAs out here. Wow, what a beer! It’s a “hop fix” in a can. I am hoping you can talk to someone at Surly and get the recipe so I can duplicate this wonderful brew.
Steven Peterson
San Diego, California

Steven, your request is one of the easier ones I have had to fulfill. Coincidently, I flew to Minneapolis to visit a friend this past September. He shares my love of good beers and we devoted a day to touring three of the local breweries. I was familiar with the Surly Furious and made sure that brewery was one of our stops. There we met the owner, Omar Ansari, and the head brewer, Todd Haug. This made for an easy follow-up phone contact to get the details on Furious.
           
Omar gave me the background of his experience plus the origins of the brewery and then routed the call to Todd for the brewing information.
           
Omar’s infatuation with flavorful beers began at age 14 during a trip to Munich and the Hofbräuhaus with his mother. This experience stuck with him and he vowed that some day he would make good beer too. He received a homebrewing kit as a gift in 1994, which became the start of his dream. His first batch of extract red ale was a success and he was hooked. With two major suppliers (Northern Brewer and Midwest Supply) in his backyard, quality supplies were readily available. He graduated to brewing all-grain batches and purchased larger equipment. Soon he had outgrown his garage and needed more room. His parents owned an industrial abrasives company in a warehouse district and this spot became the new home for his 1⁄2-barrel system. He began to envision a full-fledged brewery and decided that he needed an advanced brewing education. After attending the American Brewers Guild, he spent a week at the Otter Creek Brewery in Vermont and an apprenticeship at New Holland Brewing in Michigan.
           
Omar met Todd Haug at the 2004 Craft Brewers Conference. Todd was brewing for the Minneapolis Rock Bottom Brewery and had a lot of brewing experience, including completing some Siebel Institute courses, brewing for five years at Summit Brewing and for ten years at Rock Bottom. Omar related his vision of a new brewery and soon convinced Todd that he should be a part of it. After a year of converting the industrial space and adding an office and tasting room, the facility was ready. They located a 30-barrel system in the Dominican Republic, and after much international paperwork wrangling it arrived. Soon after, in February of 2006, the first beer was produced. Since then growth has been phenomenal. Last year’s production was 9,000 barrels and projections are for 13,000 this year. Current distribution of kegs and cans is limited to Minnesota, western Wisconsin, Chicago and Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
           
Todd reports that Furious is a hybrid recipe that originated from a more subdued IPA. This is definitely a hop forward beer with an aroma of fruit and pine. The aggressive dry hop additions create a rush of intense hoppiness as soon as the top is popped. A dense, rocky head sits atop a beautiful dark amber brew with garnet highlights. Todd claims that the blend of four hops adds to the complexity of the bitterness profile. This is definitely a hoppy IPA but drinks more smoothly due to a residual caramel sweetness.
           
Now Steven, you can get your Furious “hop fix” because you can “Brew Your Own”.  For further information about the Surly Brewery and their other fine beers visit the Web site www.surlybrewing.com or call them at 763-535-3330.  

Surly Brewing Company
Furious - IPA Clone
(5 Gallons/ 19 L,
    extract with grains)
OG = 1.060  FG = 1.014
IBUs = 99   SRM = 15  ABV = 6 %

Ingredients
6.6 lbs. (3 kg ) Muntons light, unhopped liquid malt extract
1.5 lbs. (0.68 g) Hugh Baird or Simpson Golden Promise malt
10 oz. (0.28 kg) Belgian aromatic malt (25 °L)
12 oz. (0.34 kg) crystal malt (60 °L)
2 oz. (57 g) roast barley (480 °L)  
3 AAU Ahtanum hop pellets (first wort hop) (0.5 oz./14 g of 6% alpha acid)
20 AAU Warrior hop pellets (60 min.) (1.25 oz./35 g of 16% alpha acid)
4.8 AAU Warrior hop pellets (2 min.) (0.3 oz./8.5 g of 16% alpha acid)
1.5 AAU Ahtanum hop pellets (2 min.) (0.25 oz./7 g of 6% alpha acid)
2.5 AAU Amarillo hop pellets (2 min.) (0.25 oz./7 g of 10% alpha acid)
3.2 AAU Simcoe hop pellets (2 min.) (0.25 oz./7 g of 12.8% alpha acid)
0.25 oz. (7 g) Ahtanum whole leaf hops (dry hop)
0.25 oz. (7 g) Amarillo whole leaf hops (dry hop)
0.25 oz. (7 g) Simcoe whole leaf hops (dry hop)
0.1 oz. (2.8 g) Warrior whole leaf hops (dry hop)
1⁄2 tsp. yeast nutrient (last 15 min.)
1⁄2 tsp. Irish moss (last 30 min. of the boil)
White Labs WLP 007 (Dry English Ale) or Wyeast 1335 (British Ale II) yeast  
0.75 cup (150 g) of corn sugar for priming (if bottling)

Step by step
Steep the crushed grain in 2 gallons (7.6 L) of water at 153 ºF (67 ºC) for 30 minutes. Remove grains from the wort and rinse with 2 quarts (1.8 L) of hot water. Add the liquid malt extract plus the first wort hop addition and boil for 60 minutes. While boiling, add the hops, Irish moss and yeast nutrient as per the schedule. Now add the wort to 2 gallons (7.6 L) of cold water in the sanitized fermenter and top off with cold water up to 5 gallons (19 L).      

Cool the wort to 75 ºF (24 ºC). Pitch your yeast and aerate the wort heavily. Allow the beer to cool to 68 ºF (20 ºC). Hold at that temperature until fermentation is complete. Transfer to a carboy, avoiding any splashing to prevent aerating the beer and add the dry hops. Allow the beer condition for one week and then bottle or keg. Allow the beer to carbonate and age for about two weeks and enjoy your Furious IPA.

All grain option:
This is a single step infusion mash. Use 8.0 lbs. (3.63 kg) 2-row pale malt to replace the liquid malt extract and increase the Golden Promise malt to 3.0 lbs. (1.36 kg). Mix the crushed grains with 3.75 gallons (14 L) of 170 °F (0 °C) water to stabilize at 153 ºF (67 ºC) for 60 minutes. Sparge slowly with 175 ºF (79 ºC) water. Collect approximately 6 gallons (23 L) of wort runoff to boil for 60 minutes. Reduce the 60-minute hop addition to 1 oz. (28 g) Warrior hop pellets (16 AAU) to allow for the higher utilization factor of a full wort boil. The remainder of this recipe and procedures are the same as the extract with grain recipe.
Note: If you have difficulty locating Golden Promise malt, substitute Maris Otter.