AleSmith Decadence 2005

Formerly brewed at AleSmith Brewing Company
Style: Old Ale
San Diego, California USA

Sampled at GABF and the NJ, Pocono, Philly YEHa!’05. Chestnut body with fine dense particles. Aroma is of caramelization, oak, chestnuts, sweet wort, and alcohol. Sweet brown sugar flavor with prominent alcoholic heat and medium bitterness. Good, not great.

(on bottle at CPH Yeha05) Aroam of wet wood, raisin and heavy malts. Rustyred, white head. Extremly good maltflavour, along with port, glögg and black cardemomme. Perfect mouthfeeling. Powerfull alcoholiv finish, very nice beer, not like ant old ale I´ve ever had.

Bottle at rich’s YeHa 05. Sweet, mildly vinous, sugary aroma that almost smells barleywine-ish. Mildly hazy amber/copper color with a small yellowish head. Pretty harsh, boozy start. Mildly sweet, turning a little roasty and bitter to finish. Decent, but not overly impressive and certainly doesn’t live up to its name.

Bottle at Aaron and Kathy’s Holiday/YeHa Party on 12-3-05. Courtesy of me. Slightly muddled copper. Nose is toffee, rum cake, dark rum-soaked fruits and light alcohol. Taste is sweet with light hops and wood, creamy malts, toffee, rum-soaked fruits, angel food cake, caramel, brown sugar and alcohol. However, it wasn’t as "hot" as I was expecting, though it is several months old. Body is thick and syrupy but again, has no hotness. Finishes with more toffee, raisins, alcohol, rum cake, caramel, and light herbal notes.

So, this made it to Ohio, Cinci got it a while back, and I never saw it (or made an attempt to.) So it was a nice surprise to find this still in the Columbus area. So it pours a dark red with a thin cream head. Aroma has some roasty malt and chocolate with a decent presence of some berry and dark fruit. There is a nice balance in this beer’s aroma. There is a pretty decent hop presence towards the end of this beer, but it comes off after a good malt sweetness that keeps that together. I got a small aftertaste of yeast and fruity sugar feel after the hops fade and the alcohol presence fades. A fine brew, something that would be stellar in about 5 years.

Shared by beeryum: Pours a slightly hazy dark copper with an off-white, frothy and well-lacing head. Rich, sweet, complex toasty caramel malty palate has some mild, light fruitiness. Body starts with sweet sugary caramel and nice malty complexity, but has a warming alcoholic finish. This should be nice in another year.

75 cl bottle. Amber colour with a nice head. Malty aroma with some hops. Great flavour of malt and hops perfect balance, also notes of chocolate, sugar, caramel and toffee. Ends up with a warm nice feeling from the alcohol. Very nice and powerful

Sampled at Argo and Kathy’s ’05 Holiday Gathering. Dark copperish brown with a light beige head. Aroma of wood and toffee. Flavor has notes of oak, toasted malt/caramel, some chocolate and some alcohol presence in there as well. Very rich and full on the palate with subtle carbonation. Very nice stuff.