AleSmith Barrel Aged Old Numbskull

Brewed by AleSmith Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
San Diego, California USA

Rating #800 2005 Bottle #14/223 from Alesmith brewery. Pours a deep brwon with garnet highlights and no head. aroma of caramel, oak, and bourbon. Taste of caramel and toffee, the bourbon flavor not as robust as other Alesmith barrel aged beers, vanilla notes, and an alcoholic finish.

Courtesy boboski. Batch 2. 2004. Bottle 88/227. Amber/brown topped by a small, frothy, off white/light tan head. Toffee, vanilla, oak, bourbon, dried fig, light sweetness, lightly toasty malt, subtle alcohol, cookie dough. Medium/full body, just smoother than balanced, a little light. Excellent barleywine, worthy of top 50.

750 ml bottle (#65/225)

Thanks to hezron for sharing this. I can now understand why this is one of his favorite beers. If only this was readily available I’d buy another bottle in a heart beat. As it is I was glad to have given it a try. If this ever comes out again I will be doing everything I can to get another crack at it.

Aroma / Appearance - The half finger head was the color of old eggshells. The copper body let the light trickle through slowly. Oak and vanilla imparted from the barrel aging complemented the dark malts, chocolate an caramel well. Old hops, as one would expect from a five year old beer, play against a fruity sweetness. If I had to sum up the last part it reminds me of ice cream sprinkled with caramel sauce.

Flavor / Palate - Caramel, cherry pie filling and orange peel immediately hit the senses upon the first sip. A strong bourbony presence is still obvious but not overwhelming. Oak and custard play against the warmness left by a slight booziness. The mouthfeel is as close to perfect as it gets - it does not stick in the mouth nor go immediately down the throat. For reasons beyond rarity this is certainly a sipping beer that improves as it warms. The finish of caramel and cherry licorice leaves one wanting more. It was a sad realization when the bottle was empty.

Date: June 18, 2005
Mode: Bottle
Source: Ale Atlanta
Aroma: lightly sweet malt aroma balanced with earthy hops
Body: velvet body
Flavor: touch of alcohol, great vanilla character

Date: April 20, 2006
Vintage: 2004
Words: #161/240
Aroma: earthy hop aroma with light vanilla and a touch of oak, very creamy, hot
Flavor: big woody flavor, touch of sweetness, good earthy hops to balance

Date: October 10, 2007
Vintage: 2005
Words: #142/233
picking up a good balance between the bourbon and dark caramel, still lots of sweetness, touch of alcohol fades in and out,

Date: February 20, 2009
Vintage: 2007
Aroma: sweet caramel and vanilla aroma with a nice bourbon presence
Flavor: sticky sweet caramel and vanilla flavor, touch of alcohol, light oak

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 8/10; Palate: 9/10; Overall: 17/20
Rating: 4.1/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: ***4

Murky orange-brown in colour, long lasting beige coloured head, some lacing and alcohol legs. The aroma came off as quite alcoholic, some vanilla, honey, lots of caramel, hops also noticable. The flavour is again quite alcoholic, very sweet, hoppy, bourbon, some raisins. Thick and chewy mouthfeel, medium body, medium carbonation. Finishes with a huge alcohol warmth, bitter and very long. This is interesting but I feel that the bourbon takes away from an already great beer.

750ml bottle obtained in a trade with <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/ViewUser.asp?U target=blank>DarkElf, thanks Stephen.
Opened on March 16, 2007.
Bottle #196, Vintage 2002.

2002 bottle provided by Jeffin7. Clear amber body with a small beige head that fades. Nose is vanilla, caramel, light pine and tobacco. The flavor is toffee, light pine, raisins, rum and vanilla. Medium/full body is lightly carbonated with a warm finish. Thanks for busting this out Jeff!

750 ml 2004 bottle from trade with JohnC. Pours a thick sticky amber color with almost no head. Aroma of bourbon, oak, oranges and apricots.Taste is intially hot of bourbon, raisins and apricot. The wood flavor definately comes to the front once the alcohol dies down a bit. Very complex flavors abound enough to make you want to take another drink. Finishes a little on the bitter side. Nicely done all around.

2004 bottle that Walt shared with me. Poured a dirty looking brown with a soapy off-white head. Aroma is....old! Tobacco, dirty, wood, bourbon, light caramel and toffee, all held together by an inherent old dustiness. Very mellow flavor to this: some toffee and caramel, rum. Finishes equally mellow with citrus/berry, some residual hop flavor, raisins, rum, and not much bitterness at all. Med/heavy body and perfectly low carbonation, but the flavor was too mellow for me. Somehow it just didn’t register in all parts of the mouth like a beer usually would. That’s a new quality to me, perhaps it’s common in all aged beers. However unique this was, the regular Numbskull was more to my taste.