AleSmith Horny Devil

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

This bottle says 11%abv. Pours flat and looks like apple juice. Hey, it even smells like apple juice, with some pear, light caramel, alcohol and spicy hops (Saaz?). Sweet and fruity in flavor, again with pear and apple, also corriander. It has some floral and peppery retronasal notes. Finishes smooth with a little alcohol burn but not much bitterness. Nice body. It could use some carbonation and I assume my bottle is not reflective of the beer if the commercial description is correct. Decent beer but simple.

Robe blonde cuivrée surmontée d’une mousse blanche timide. Arômes de marmelade et d’alcool. Saveurs d’agrumes, de levure, de malt caramel et de rhubarbe.

Excellent beer really complicated too described theres a lot of different things in it. citrus, grapefruit and so much more. delicious

From Bottle, 2005 Vintage. Interesting pour of late fall harvest apple gold with almost no head at all. Letting the beer glug from the bottle resulted in only a tiny semblance of a large bubbled head. Strong initial aroma of esters, pears, apple cider and a light, semi-sweet pinot grigio. This would be the perfect wine, excuse me - beer, to accompany a lime ginger salmon marinade. The very vinous nose has just a touch of lemon mixed in as well. Wow, the sugars in this brew are overpoweringly sweet. Some luscious apricot and roasted almond flavors come through with the delicate beauty of a frosty fall night. A touch of cooked leeks accompanies some cooking sherry as well. Smack of Thanksgiving dinner candied yams. This is a well crafted brew whose appealing blend of flavor disguises the acohol quite well. I wish the carbonation was a bit more intense in order to make it drink more like a beer and less like a wine.

2005 750 ml bottle. No carbonation, almost flat. Smells of citrus and marshmallow. Spicy with a dry alcohol finish.

750ml bottle - Pours a slightly hazy orange color with virtually no head. The aroma is of citrus, spice, and yeast. This beer has a good, full mouthfeel and well masked alcohol, which is listed at 11% on the bottle. It’s quite sweet with that candi sugar, but is still balanced nicely by some hops. I couldn’t believe how easy to drink this high alcohol beer was. In my opinion the spice level was just right and seemed nicely mellowed. I don’t know how old my bottle was (purchased at a restaurant), but perhaps it sat for awhile. Alesmith did a great job on this brew. I’m surprised it doesn’t rate a bit higher. Rerate 10/5/06 - 8/4/8/4/17 for a 4.1. Averaging the two for a 4.3

Hazy amber pour with a decent sized white head, fruity spicy alcohol aroma. Dominated by fruity/spice belgian yeast flavors, some tart notes. Sweet syrupy mouthfeel, a complex brew with trippel characteristics augmenting a darker strong belgian style. After a while the belgian yeast influence is all I can taste, effective palette cleanser is hard to find; I’m done for the evening.

Nice bottle. I don’t see a haze in my glass; in fact, it’s pretty clear. Lots of single bubbles flying around, and a nice ambery-orange shade. Head settles into a moderate puddle of lace on top.Smells wonderful. The scent of the hops is restrained -- instant notes of apricots with marshmallows, brings me back to my grandma’s cooking. Strong enough to make the nose tingle. With a little bit of orange, but damn, it’s definitely that apricot marshmallow smell. Helped by a gently sweet amber malt, with a hint of yeast.Subtle taste, it’s cool to see a Belgian with quiet flavors, especially from Ale smith. The hops still work well with the sweetness, although they aren’t as specific or creative as they are in the smell. Still a little apricot, but now they are bitter, and nutty malts with some dextrin step it up a bit. Overall though, just lightly bitter, and the payoff for the subdued taste is a lot of complexity Mouthfeel isn’t too thick or thin, a little chewy/syrupy from the combination of dextrin and hop aftertaste? Nice finish. Drinkability is high, this is so approachable and major props to Ale Smith for applying craft skills to a higher-alcohol, Belgian-flavor ale that doesn’t knock your socks off but instead is a masterpiece of delicate flavors.