AleSmith Barrel Aged Decadence 2007

Brewed by AleSmith Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Strong Porter
San Diego, California USA

A HUGE thanks to Sparky27 for sharing this with the Phoenix crew. Pours a deep brownish black with a nice tan head. Aroma is bourbon barrel, roasted malts, chocolate, nuts, vanilla, bourbon. Flavor is bourbon, oak, vanilla, roasted barley, coffee, chocolate, nice creamy mouthfeel with just the right balance of bourbon and just the right sweetness. This is liquid heaven in a bottle, what a fantastic beer. Almost perfect.

Sampled at the Ohio group tasting on DLD eve ’09. Huge thanks to Brad and/or Mike for sharing. Dark brown pour with a medium tan head. Whole lotta bourbon in the nose with some vanilla and licorice. Vanilla and oak flavor up front with a rush of bourbon to close it out. Not bad, but will probably be excellent with a bit more age on it.

750ml, 2007 vintage, courtesy of Bman1113vr) The look is brown to black in color with a decent beige head. The smell is alcohol, wood, malts, vanilla, cofee, chocolate, dark dried fruits. The taste is sweet, malts, vanilla, wood, malts, and alcohol. Strong and good.

Bottle at RnH Drink for Charity. Thanks to everyone who brought great beer to this. Dark red with head and lace. Alcohol brown sugar wood aroma. Brown sugar whiskey wood maple syrup flavors. Nice mouthfeel. Very good, but a lot of burn.

Bottle shared by Ethan. Thanks brotha! Another big, barrel-aged beer from Alesmith. But when I compare this to the BA Boris I had before this, it doesn’t even come close. This beer needs to sit for much longer in my opinion so it can mellow out. All the flavors are big but what comes out the most is just an overwhelming alcohol character that I don’t dig.

Bottle at the “Drink for Charity” event at Rattle & Hum. Ryan brought this one. Pours a dark black with a thin to medium tan head. Smells like rubbing alcohol. Seriously. I sat around with this for about 4-5 minutes just sniffing it, and all I could get from it initially was rubbing alcohol. On the merits of previous reviews alone did I actually keep the stuff… if I had it blind I probably would have dumped it right there. Eventually the isopropyl slowly picks up a rather hefty vanilla aroma (probably because after a few minutes the nose becomes immune to certain overpowering smells), with a touch of coffee and then eventually bourbon, which takes over as the big glaring distracting/detracting smell. Rich caramel and coffee flavors almost make up for the aromas, but not quite. Finishes with a light bitter roast and chocolate. I was quite excited about this one initially, but it turned out to be a big letdown. Way too much bourbon/rubbing alcohol going on.

Bottle 599/817. Pours a black body with a tan head. Chewy sweet etoh latent fruit plum raisin and whiskey all over this bastard. Very hot and chewy but not overtly sweet which would have been more deterring to me other than the obvious over barreling of the base beer. Dark roast y coffee beans and yes more Jack Daniels. If i was to style rate this it would be more like a 3.5, but since i like big boozy beers i still thought that this was still good all overall. Anyway as usual don’t believe all the hype.

750 bottle at Toncatcher’s house, shared with Padrefan, Fordest and a few others. A dark black pour with a very small tan head. The aroma is strong with whiskey notes dominating the senses. The The flavor is more of the same, this could easily be a Jack Daniels, coffee and porter mix. That is how it came across to me. The mouthfeel is smooth and creamy. The finish is long with lingering whiskey. Overall: The bourbon flavor was way over the top, but for some reason I really enjoyed this brew anyway. Very good stuff.