AleSmith Decadence 2006

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

This is a rich little sipping beer. There’s a syrupy quality, caramel and brown sugar dominate the malt profile. There’s a bit of hopping, although it becomes an indistinct bitterness in the back with all of the sweet malt flavors. There is also a noticeable heat in the finish.

Good News- Ross was placing an order at High Times and I ordered two bottles. Pours a deep mahogany with a beautiful retentive tan head. Aroma of rich caramel malts, fruity esters, and vanilla. Medium bodied (bordering on full) with a nice chewy and earthy texture. Initial flavor of caramel, cherry, and tobacco, countered but a perfect amount of sweetness and piney hops. Finish is semi dry with some yeast and notes of grains and dough. Very Barleywine or Old Ale in character, and nice balance. Does Peter brew anything that sucks? You San Diego folks are so damn lucky. Oh! The bad news. I have to send my other bottle to Shigadeyo.

750mL bottle aged some, 3 months, drunk on 10/5/07
Stunning appearance like all AleSmith beers. Large, dense, light-tan head that refuses to recede throughout the entire bottle. Full lacing. Leaving the sediment behind, the beer is a mostly clear, deep black cherry with chocolate brown hues.
The hops come first, as expected, and are fat and juicy, enlivening the aroma with pear, lime, lychee, and mandarin orange. Resin begins to creep in, towards the end, but it only really gets a bit too much towards the end of the bottle (which is hardly a complaint when you’re drinking a whole bottle to yourself). Mounds of gooey-sweet malts lie below, rich and full of caramel and cookie dough. Phenomenal extraction, as always, giving a malty, rather than sugary impression. Vanilla courses through the aroma, after some more investigation, and the citric hops blend with the base malt sugars to give a cherry-like appeal, very sweet and fruity. After 3 months sitting warm on the shelf, this is still a very impressive hop aroma and, most importantly, it dosent kill you with bitterness or fusels, like the 2005 did when young. Medium-high, to high strength of aroma, no flaws, low alcohol apparency. The absolute richness of the malts seems to preclude them from yielding more deeper, complex aromas, but that’s ok. My only complaint, as has been steady with AleSmith’s strong ales (except for speedway), is the strong, plasticy-popcorny yeastiness (some call it mineral, some celery, some dirty). Kind of reminded me of Bells Batch 7000 in that regard, though much less of a factor here, and only really obvious at the end of the bottle.
I had to practically chew my first mouthfull down. Damn, this is some seriously thick beer, definitely among the likes of Expedition and Dark Lord. With the low, but natural, tight carbonation, and huge malt richness, the mouthfeel is rendered vastly creamy and supportive. Pillowy, with caramel, moderate chocolate and soft fruits emanating underneath the well-displayed hops on top. Cherries, mangoes, peaches, limes, lychee, etc...It’s all here and very nicely done. A fair amount of bitterness, but nothing the malt body can’t handle here. Stays malty to the last drop, with lots of cookie dough sweetness, but, importantly, I was never put off by the sweetness and easily finished the bottle. Alcohol didn’t get in the way. I speak mostly of bad characteristics it lacks, and to some extent, it does more right, but not doing it wrong, than really doing anything amazing (aside from the mouthfeel, which is just awe-inspiring). Yeast gets a bit plasticy/dirty again, but these things happen with bottle conditioning, quite often, and I’m willing to live with it. It didn’t help that the store it was stored in is fairly warm.

Bottle. Dark garnet body, big beige head with good retention and lacing, malty nose with chocolate notes. Malty body, sweet, with chocolate, candy sugar, liqueurish notes. Hides alcohol well.

thanks to pantanap- cool red color with a thick tanish head. where are the hops I heard so much about? candy sugar, chocolate flavor, malty sweetness dominate/ extremely smooth and drinkable considering the abv. not bad, but not close to this brewer’s other fantastic offerings.

It was great to get to meet dsnowden and thanks for bringing this delicious Alesmith offering. Pours clear copper with tan head. Hey, smells just like Evil Dead Red, YUM!! The aroma is a combination of crystal malts and big pine to orange juice to grapefruit hoppiness. Thick and inviting odor. I also get faint tart cherry note in the nose too. Yep, big pine and some grapefruit hop, flavor is much the same as the little version, with sweet caramelized malts that get quickly run over by a load of pine hop bitterness. The hops and malts arrive together toward the finish and create a tasty gathering.

Pours with a medium sized head that dissipates quickly. it has a rather sweet , malty aroma. It tastes of brown sugar and little else. The sweetness obscurs the alcohol. A late appearence of hops during the aftertaste. A nice enough beer in its own right but it is a victim of AleSmith’s success... that is, it is mediocre by there standards.

YUM. With just a couple months on it, this beauty has really started to mellow and allow its complexity to shine through. While rich initially, it was slightly too hop-forward for the style (at least to my taste). Now that brightness is still there, but blended into a very deep and complex malty brew. A gorgeous ruby pour with a lively head (and profound retention), the nose gives a hint of the toffee and caramel splendor within. Long finish, with a faint trace of smoke and citrus at the back. Fantastic brew, sure to get even better with age.