AleSmith Barrel Aged Speedway Stout

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

Bottle (96/228): Courtesy of Styles. Outstanding aroma of chocolate, caramel, vanilla, mild roasted coffee, a hint of black licorice, subtle bourbon, and light wood. Pours a dark brown, virtually black, with a small tan head that leaves great lacing behind. Starts with chocolate, caramel, and vanilla. Very mild and subtle bourbon flavors really mesh well with the base beer. Finishes with mild roasted coffee that lingers on the palate. This is a very well done BA beer. This beer forced me to adjust a few ratings of some of my higher ranked beers.

Thanks to JohnC for trading this bottle 104/228 of black beer. Great looking black beer with a brown head, the aroma is just fantastic, complex, a bit roasted malt, chocolate and wood, some vanilla and licorice, and the taste is perfect, smooth also chocolate, vanilla and licorice, wood and a hint of coffee. I´m just glad it came in such a big bottle, it´s the best beer I have had so far.

2003 12 of 225. Csbosox finally breaks this thing out, and it was well worth the wait. Pitch black with not too much head. A good swirl got nothing. The aroma is full of coffe, vanilla, oak, dark fruit, and so much more I just couldn’t wrap my head around. Same with the flavor. Everything mentioned in the nose was present in the flavor. All very well blended. There was some concern at the table that the coffee would not make its way through. It was there and stood tall. The palate was a touch on the thin side, yet very fullfilling. Big thanks to Chris for sharing such a wonderfull beer. I hope my nagging didn’t ware on you too bad. This stuff is great.

Aromas of chocolate, coffee, whisky, wood. Taste is coffee, alcohol, whisky, malt, caramel, vanilla. Just an extremely good beer.

2004 BOTTLE 54/228 opened with a regular Speedway. We went through so much to get this, had to drive to San Diego, get a hotel, wake up relatively early to wait outside the brewery with some awesome people. We waited 2 months to open the first bottle, and here it was... thick like a milkshake, but with no head. Kind of bitter and you can smell as well as taste the alcohol. It wasn’t very carbonated. The aroma was really nice, smelled like dark chocolate. As it sits and increases in temperature, it gets smoother. Great, but I prefer the regular Speedway.

2004 Bottle shared by the ever generous OhioDad: Black pour with a dark tan head. Aroma, bourbon, chocolate, some coffee, oak and vanilla. Flavor, Oaky, chocolate, some dark fruits, bourbon and coffee. This stuff was amazing, smooth doesn’t begin to describe it, just a silky rich palate, very thick. My only complaint is that I didn’t get to keep the bottle.

2003, bottle 12 of 225. Wow. This poured very dark black with no head. It smells like slipping into warm blankets on a cold night -- lots of oak, vanilla, malt. I can’t smell any coffee in this beer, despite how much I tried. The flavor is nice and sweet, with a heavy mouthfeel, The flavor is where to find the coffee -- there’s a lot of it, and it follows through to the aftertaste. There’s very little carbonation here, which makes the beer smooth and almost milky. I couldn’t taste the alcohol at all, except long after I’d set the glass down, I could taste it lingering. The beer has a drier finish, but pulls through with an overall sweet character. I’m more than grateful to csbosox for sharing this taste of heaven.

2004 bottle generously shared by Ohiodad and brought to Ohio by zug4abby, thank you both! Pours black with a dark tan head that doesn’t stay long. Nice aroma of bourbon, coffee, oak, vanilla, and some chocolate. The flavor was full off bourbon without overpowering the chocolate and the coffee...there was also some vinous notes in there as well. Very smooth over the palate with a nice richness and a soft carbonation that makes you wish they put out more of this stuff. The best part was after the bottle mysteriously disappeared, two Maudite snifters took its place...it was absolutely magical.