AleSmith Decadence 2007

Formerly brewed at AleSmith Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Strong Porter
San Diego, California USA

Bottle courtesy of Ibrew2or3. Pours a dark brown to black with reddish highlights and thin tan head. Aroma is malty and sweet with notes of ripe dark fruit, chocolate, brandy, molasses, slight slight notes of wood and caramel. Flavor is sweet and malty with notes of ripe dark fruit, caramel, hints of brandy, dark chocolate, some very faint hop notes in the background. Generally full bodied with a pleasing malt finish.

From bottle courtesy of dpjuart. Subtle smoky chocolate malt in the nose, with light alcohol and some bitter hop resin. Some estery Tootsie Roll and licorice. Alcohol vapors. Dark black clear with rocky roamy light tan head. Medium light watery body with medium to light carbonation. Starts sweet with caramel, licorice, chocolate and light smoky coffee. Oak and a bit of vanilla, followed by sweet lactose and a hint of butterscotch. Thin, but tons of flavor and a bit of alcohol. Really nice impy porter. Well balanced and delicious.

Deep dark brown color with a thick tan head. Cocoa and toffee in the aroma with slight floral hop nose. Taste is of fresh coffee, caramel, and some dark fruits. Some roastiness as well, creamy and smooth.

Finally, after trying this three other times I scribble down a few notes. Pours deep darkness with mocha head. The aroma is slightly chalky at first then quickly followed by full on chocolate goodness. Behind that I get roasty to burnt malts with dark fruity esters hanging out in the background. The taste is just the same with rich chocolate and a thin layer of rich dark fruity esters. It then becomes roastier with some mild burnt malts to round things out. This brew is aging wonderfully. No hops in this beer at all.

Thanks IBrew2or3 for the share. Pours a dark brown with a khaki head. Nose is malt, sugar, spice, raisin, caramel, dark fruit, some chocolate, and layers upon layers of depth to the flavor. Flavor is chocolate, earth, caramel, and dark fruit. Noticeable roasted qualities add to the depth of this beer. Finish is plenty of malty goodness. Loveable brew.

Very dark black beer with a creamy tan head. Aroma is lovely. Rich and sweet with loads of toasted caramel, milk chocolate and a light salty black licorice. Rich and sweet with toasted caramel, milk chocolate, cocoa and a bit of licorice flavour. Quite soft and well balanced. A fairly complex dark malt sweetness. Yeast is quite clean and there aren’t really any esters worth mentioning. Warming up intensifies the malty sweetness. Lots of lingering roastiness on the back and a bit of peppery alcohol as well. Rich charry/roasty finish. It’s pretty good but unnecessarily hot.

Bottle from Lone Hill. This is a challenging beer, not only because it’s extremely subtle, but because I am trying not to make this rating an argument with nbutler11’s rating (which it really couldn’t be because his rating has no substantiation except for claiming the beer contains gold). To start, the aroma is amateur. It is unlike any high-profile dark beer I have tasted as it is inundated with alcohol. Not remotely porter like. The flavor is also quite hot, which is not a problem, just different than most Porters, imperial or not. At midpoint the beer gets great: absurdly smooth and unlike typical buttery Porter flavor. You have toffee, burnt Tootsie roll, you even have a weird figgish quality a la BA Speed. I would say after 2-3 years of age, the flavor will be 9+ for me. But the finish is tinged alcohol and this kills the smoothness. Probably the best beer to age I have ever tasted.

Bottle. Aroma of semisweet chocolate, rich, nutty, earthy, and again, rich coffee, alcohol, sweet, lightly roasted cookie/cake malt. Decadence is a perfect name for this brew, and in the mouth that becomes even more evident. Incredibly rich incredibly vinous maltiness, coffee, cookie, cake, chocolate, decadence upon decadence. This is a monster, but a monster to be adored and cherished.