 MaltOMeal (182), h-town, Texas, USA
May 14, 2008 bottle shared thanks to zinister. Pours red with an off-white head. Typical red ale smell. Complex flavor. Mouthfeel is medium and carbonated with slight alcohol. I liked this more than the 2007 I had earlier, but was getting too intoxicated to take good notes.
BMan1113VR (504), Los Angeles (and Dallas, TX), California, USA
May 14, 2008 My 500th rating. Pours with a largish, very tight and creamy, light brown head. Extremely dark and murky red to brown hue. Monster lacing, a ring as history of each sip. Aroma is pretty amazing with fruity elements (plums, pears and candied dates), malts, plenty of caramel, and spices. Taste is a a nice, strong, but clean caramel flavor with some fruity tang towards the finish and a nice level of alcohol warming. A really well crafted taste. No signs of aging or oxidation at all (been cellaring this beer since last summer). Extremely creamy smooth mouthfeel, with perfect levels of carbonation. A good choice for #500.
PilsnerPeter (1217), Flushing, New York, USA
May 12, 2008 Bottle at Paul’s Hoboken Gathering: Amber with a strong tan head. The aroma has some carmelized malts, subdued/aged hops, and a papery oxidized suggestion. Fluffy/creamy body with a rich malt presence. Lots of caramel with little hop character left. A bit peppery and earthiness comes through to balance the earlier caramel sweetness. It aged pretty gracefully.
rustychiles (213), Mesa, Arizona, USA
May 10, 2008 Rating #200
750ML Bottle
Been saving this one for a while, and it lives up to the hype.
Pours a nice hazy red with a large tan head. Aroma of malt, molasses, caramel, figs, chocolate, hops, dough, rasins, clove, brown sugar.......you name it it’s got it. This brew has a nice full body, sticky hops, fruits, chocolate, toffee, bread and caramel all come together in amazing balance. I feel un-worthy to rate this beer, so much is going on and there is no way my feeble palate can detect it all. That said, amazing brew.......another winner from alesmith. YUM!!!
Marsiblursi (1176), Göteborg, Sweden
May 1, 2008 (Bottle, thanks to WeeHeavySD) Pours beautiful deep dark red with a medium light brown/sand coloured head. The aroma is massive yet elegant with light burned caramel malt, dark fruits like plum and fig (marmalade) and lime-citrus/earth/floral/mild resiny pine like hops up front. Some lychee and star fruit. Undertones of vanilla ice cream (typical Alesmith), cookies, mango and ripe pear esters, hints of raw potato, chocolate roast, wet gravel/minerals and maybe a touch of subtle spices. The flavour is a well balanced mix of fat caramel/toffee-ish malt and earthy/mild citric hops. Wide fruit spectra of lime, figs, pears, oranges, mild pink grapefruit unripe mango and star fruit. Undertones of bread, cookies, chocolate and vanilla. Also some vinous hints along with a good alcohol warmth. The mouthfeel is fat malty soft and smooth with a rather sharp carbonation. The finish is dry, numbing and bitter which is a good thing because of all the sweetness. Medium to full sweet and medium to full bitter. Near full bodied. A very interesting blend.
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