AleSmith Barrel Aged Old Numbskull

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

2004: Pour is hazy orangey amber with a nice big billowy tan head...well carbonated...smell is sweet and oaky with caramel and molasses notes...taste is balanced between sweet brown sugar and nice oak flavors...the hops killed the regular numbskull for me, but the sweet and oak dominated the hops in this making it amazingly balanced...I met Peter at the Alesmith booth when he was just smiling and holding this...I must get more...

Thanks to Zug4abby for a bottle of the ’04 edition of this hard to come by brew. Went into the tasting with very high expectations, and even though my score is a 3.8, I wasnt dissapointed. While its true it didnt bust through my top 10 or 20, it was still a solid brew. Pour was murky brown with some descent chunks hanging around. Aroma full of alcohol, vanilla, caramel, and overall very sweet. Taste was very simialr, quite sweet, the oak coming through quite strong, alcohol quite present. Definitley a well made brew. Wish I had another to cellar.

Bottle #26, courtesy of JohnC
Aroma if a heath bar - a little chocolate, a little caramel, a little toffee. The flavor is heavily sweet, with a syrupy palate. Rich and warming, with no harness (save the potent alcohol in the nose). This is a friendly barleywine - enhanced by the oak.

Wow, Outstanding. Bottle #226 of 240. That means they got less than 15 left I guess. While at the Stone 9th Ann. Party, the Alesmith people said they expected this to be the last week it was availiable. I could dectect the wood in the nose, but the flavor was outstanding. All the molasses, and currants, and toffee, and other dark fruits, and the Barrell too. What a great flavor. Excellent Aged like this.

Bottle. Lots going on in this one. Sweet, sweet caramel, with some soy sauce stickyness. Wood/oak, raisins and of course that sweet bourbon character. A fair hit of alcohol, but relatively well hidden. It was tasty, but a bit too over the top for me i guess.

’02 bottling, Bottle 64 kindly provided by Jason. Clear brown-amber body under a thin white head. Cedar, wheat bread, vanilla all wrapped up in sort of a woody but very smooth and well-blended aroma. The barrel-aging did this beer very well. It adds a creamy, smooth, angel food cake slash whipped cream element on top of the regular Old Numbskull pruny, alcohol, depp carmel malt.

Slightly darker amber than the non-BA one. Soapier head. Some alcohol in nose, I could say that the BA gives way to vanilla and oak, but that would be a lie. All I get is a great, smooth aroma. Some thoughts are lavendar perfumey malt. After a while, some bready sweetness that reminds me of working at Six Flags Great America. Perhaps some specific caramel or cinnamon. Some slight sweet wood in taste. Flavor has something sticking out in it that is slightly different than the normal version; some fresh rindiness or something. Also some well blended oxigenation. Also some blended alcohol flavors. I think I forgot to wrap up this rating.... Overall, it was very well blended... hidden complexities all over the place. One of those beers that is hard to describe because everything overlaps to perfection.

Bottle at RBESG 2005. Pours a hazy dark amber, with a small head. Aroma is hoppy, with some sweet malts. Taste is is sweet malty, lots of hops, and with some alcohol burning. Just a hint of wood in the taste. A good beer, but i like the regular numbskull better