AleSmith Barrel Aged Old Numbskull

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

Big thanks to retorp for popping the cork on this one. 2007 vintage. A: Pours a nice clear amber hue with a small head that never really manages to build. No real retention or lace. S: Huge sweet malt aromas up front. Caramel and brown sugar dominate. The barrel then kicks in and you really pick up the oak, vanilla, and booze. Hints of piney hops hide beneath. T: Tasty stuff! Roasted malt and toffee right at the start. Subtle piney notes do manage to make an appearence as well. The barrel takes over in the finish and like all Alesmith BA brews it really brings it to another level. Wonderful marriage of oak, vanilla, and booze seem to meld into the wonderful base beer to create something that is hard to put into words. M: Rather full in body, rich, smooth, nearly flawless. D: Sip, Savor, and Repeat until the bottle is empty.

Ruby brown with a small white head. Aroma of fruit, port and sherry, almonds and a whiff of solvents. Dry and wooden flavour, lots of oak, along with a cherry note, and plenty warming alcohol.

Bottle. Blindtasting @ Thewolf. Cloudy dark amber with a small creamy bubbly head. Nose is sweet of toffee, caramel, dark fruits, oak and vanilla. Soft, smooth, vinous, prickling alcohol. Nice one but would have liked the malts to be chewier.

Bottle. Low fluffy and quickly disappearing white head. Hazy dark brown body. Vineous spicy caramel alcohol aroma. Caramel alcohol malt flavor. Alcohol too dominant. Low carbonation. Long bitter sweet aftertaste.

From bottle, blind #10, courtesy of thewolf. Pours dark brown, hazy, and with a small off-white head. Dense wineous, wooden and light cheesy aroma. Solid nutty note too. Solid dark caramelish, wineous and walnut wooden. Overripe fruit, light nutty and bitter finish - light acidic touch too.

Bottle. [thank you, after4ever]
[Bottle #10 in the Kolding Blindtasting, 20th June 2009]
Pours clear red with a small, bubbly, off-white head. Aroma has lots of almods, roasted caramel, viniousness, clear woodiness, cellar, strawberries. Low carbonation, super oily mouthfeel. Flavour is very powerful, but sadly relies too much on alcohol. Raisins, oak, vanilla, caramel, thyme. Superlong, dry hoppy aftertaste. Just a bit too much alcochol for my liking, otherwise brilliant.

2007 vintage pours rosy deep copper with brown hues and micro thin off white head. The aroma is smooth oak moving to pine hops, vanilla, caramel and bourbon soaked oak. The taste is smooth goodness with pine hops mixing with vanilla and a mild amount of bourbon. The oak picks up toward midway and to the finish with increasing bourbon and a slight alcohol burn. Yum.

’07 Bottle, thanks to fishingnet for sharing. Poured a hazy amber color almost completely devoid of head. Aroma is vinous with hints of rasin, wood, bourbon, and acetone. Very complex for sure. Full bodied with soft carbonation. Flavor is sweet and boozy with notes of wood, bourbon, rasin, and vanilla. Sweet boozy finish.