AleSmith Barrel Aged Speedway Stout

Brewed by AleSmith Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
San Diego, California USA

Bottle 101/115 graciously provided by DrunkAsaSkunk. Tasted at Larry Pitonka’s September Tasting in Seattle
Dark brown color, black edges. Tan lacing with light head. The nose is lightly coffeeish with some astringent roast and woody antique guitar notes (no pun) with a bit of cobbwebb. Very rich and creamy, lots of caramel and a touch of soy sauce. Nice, very nice. I think this aged nicely and it really is quite a different animal than the original.

Pour is black with a thin tan head...smell is coffee and hints of smoke and vanilla...taste is like a muted version of the regular Speedway...the over the top flavors are merged together with a nice vanilla chewy smokey flavor...delicious...thanks egajdzis!!!

Big Ups to Blake for opening bottle #13: Opaque with a a sticky oily film on my Ratebeer tulip. The aroma has notes of bourbon, vanilla, wood, plum, prune, smoke, coffee, and some mocha. The taste has a pop of coffee bitterness, burnt smoky malt and alcohol that attacks the palate before a richer and softer chocolate and vanilla character smooths you over. The back end is earthy and lingers some ripened fruit before the long espresso finish. The mouth feel is oily, sticky and lush. While this is very very good, some may be in shock but I would rather have a regular nicely-aged Speedway over this. The BA version seemed to be TOO BALANCED with the coffee too muted, I am not joking.

Aroma was near perfection of the combination of rich high quality bourbon and the wonderful roastedness of a first class stout,taste did not quite measure up to that fantastic aroma, that wonderful bourbon was a little to dominating, and the malt roastedness came on as a little to one dimensional,didn’t the the various coffee and chcoclate flavors that I’ve had in other brews I’ve rated in the upper 4’s,still a brew I would go out of the way for

04’- Huge thanks to Blake for sharing this one at the Pre-GTM gathering. Having had the earlier version (and at the time much more aged) I was not such a fan of this one, though I’m guessing with time It will be just as awesome. 02’Thanks to Gordo for this one! Pours a pitch black, small medium brown head. Aroma of whiskey, fresh roasted coffee, almost overpowering. Flavor is full of whiskey/barrel, coffee, with the alcohol and coffee taking a backseat compared to the regular version. Damn fine brew.

Wow, what a treat to see this one at Rich’s Yeha (huge thanks to EDA). ’02 vintage, bottle #15/115. Poured a dark black color with a small sized tan head. Aromas of coffee, roasted malts, wood, bourbon and some vanilla. Tastes of coffee, roasted malts, light vanilla and bourbon. Very good, but not as good as the regular Speedway I had on tap in CA (don’t get me wrong, I’d kill for another bottle of this one).

2006 750 ml bottle (#37/235) I picked up at the brewery a year or so ago - I have a friend who has ALS (Lou Gehrig disease) and I thought it was time to start breaking out the good stuff and share it with him. Chances are he won’t make it to the end of the year, so I’ll be drinking several of my prized beers over the next several weeks. Anyways....This beer doesn’t have much of a head or lacing. The aroma is fantastic. The flavor has your typical strong barrel aging presence like the other Alesmith BA beers. I’m not going to go into details about the beer since I really wasn’t taking notes. It’s a very good beer, but I think I like the regular version a little better. Cheers Steve.

157/228 2004 courtesy of kmcnair from that other site. The aroma is muted chocolate, light oak and roasted malt and while it smells good it doesn’t really wow you either. The body is deep black with a fading, but initially quite thick and creamy, mocha head. The curious thing about this head is that unlike many BA beers you can always tease this one right back up to impressive stature. <P> The fore is hot with spicy oak notes, black chocolate, burnt malt, espresso, some light bourbon and oddly some fairly nutty notes. The coffee seems much less concentrated than in the regular version. The mouthfeel actually has held up quite well and this is a world class beer, but sadly it isn’t quite the wonder beer I have dreamed for over two years. Perhaps that is my fault, but while it’s great it’s not the beer I hyped it up to be in my mind. Which still leaves a wonderful brew.