AleSmith Evil Dead Red Ale

Brewed by AleSmith Brewing Company
Style: American Strong Ale
San Diego, California USA

This beer has a frothy light tan head that sits atop a deep amber colored beer that is quite clear. The aroma is fortifingly hoppy with notes of pine, grapefruit and a nice herbal note. Oh yes this is packed with hops, bracingly bitter from the get go. I get notes of orange peel in the finish as well. There is some sweet malt here as well, but it is almost drowned out by the pure hoppiness of this beer. The hops are quite refreshing though, after a night of hopless beer sampling. This beer has lots of herbal hop notes to it, there is citrus character here as well, but it really is most evident in the finish once the malt sweetness is finally able to assert itself. I get notes of candied orange in the finish, this beer is almost abusively bitter, yet it is still quite appetizing. My only complaint, this beer could use a bit more malt complexity to stand up to the hop onslaught.

I can’t believe I haven’t rated this yet! I went through a whole keg of the stuff and somehow forgot, hehe. I’ll revert to the boring rating style for this beer only. Aroma is wonderfully malty with floral hops providing a firm background. Taste is zippy berry fruit, citrus hops, and sweet malts and a tad of roasted barley off the back. Finish is perfect. Such a joy to drink 5 whole gallons, believe me :) I look forward to this every year.

On tap at Father’s Office in Santa Monica. Transparent red with a smal white head. First taste is of smooth fruit that finishes more crisp thanks to the generous hop flavor. Great stuff.

On tap at AleSmith. Nice crystal clear reddish pour, small whitsh head. Hops preside over the malts, wonderful aroma. Wonderful flavor dominated mostly by the hops, but this is a great beer. Red obviously refers to the color, not the style, but that’s here nor there. This is a great beer. Until next year!

clear crimson is the color, with a wafer-thin layer of beigey foam topping this glass...large fruity sweetness in the nose, a burgundy blast, buttressed with hops, rosey and ripe, vibrant and raw, very fresh hop feel...damn, but I like it, for it really seems like raw hop cones crawling up into the nose. Now, to drink away... Brash, fresh, tasty mouthfeel, soon subsiding, but a blast while it lasts. Dark fruit, and raw hops, again. Juicy cherry and berry, with a solid net of malt beneath, though not really felt through the flavor. About medium in body, with a soft, fruity finish. The appeal here, though, is all up front in this great buzz of tasty hoppiness that blazes across the palate. Not like any other red ale I’ve encountered before, way tastier than any of them, more heavy on the hops than the malt...one of a kind, here, no surprise from Alesmith. I’d return to this quite often were I a San Diegoan...as it stands, I’ll cherish every drop of this growle

Sampled draught at O’Briens, San Diego.
Clear reddish brown. Big lychee hop aroma. Sweet, yet soft with rounded filling mouthfeel. The finish is bitter, but not overly so. An extrovert red ale.

(Draft: San Diego Brewing Co. in San Diego, CA) Strongly hoppy, moderate grapefruit flavor is dominant, and so far, I like this a lot; But the maltiness is pretty light and subdued, and once the initial hops fades away, the finish is pretty uneventful, thin and short lived; The nose is very hoppy with obvious grapefruit aromas; The color is deep red and dark amber; Light tan head is bubbly and quickly settles to a thin sheen with some clumps of large bubbles; Patchy lacing is left on the glass

Smells of an IPA. Clear ruddy brown color. A cutting type of bitterness is what this beer is built upon. I like how the hops take charge and never let the malts do much damage.