AleSmith Speedway Stout

Brewed by AleSmith Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
San Diego, California USA

#600!!! Pours like 10W30, thick and oily with just a hint of carbonation and almost no head. A delicious aroma of vanilla and coffee, very enticing. Such a nice taste, thick dark chocolate with hints of hoppy bitterness, coffee dryness, and vanilla. Very nice blend of sweetness and bitterness, so roasty and smooth. So complex that it keeps you looking for more flavors in every smell and sip. This was a delightful beer and I am glad that I hogged the whole 750ml bottle to myself.

~Pours black with rich creamy brown head. ~Chocolate malty aroma with coffee. Light raisin and other dark fruit. Raisin and fruit scent gets stronger as beer warms ~Rich roasted coffee flavor with chocolate . Very nice. ~Thick feel, tongue prickles and very bitter finish some warming alcohol lingers. ~This really is a good beer. I wish I wouldn’t have been so stingy and waited to share it with someone. Seems like I can get different flavors depending on how I drink it. Very complex flavoring. Surprisingly smooth and easy to drink. I a bit bitter though.

black pour with tan smallish head, nice lacing; strong aroma of roast coffee, chocolate, dark malts and mocha. Flavor to match. Tastes like expresso with ten packets of sugar. Nice creamy finish. Hiides alcohol well.

courtesy of bhops. black pour with an espresso head. roasted malts, coffee, chocolate and an underlying tone of toffee. very smooth on the palate with a big coffee flavor that finished with chocolate that coats the mouth.

On cask at PP Real Ale Festival. Pours black with a thin, crisp, brown head. Smells dark and roasty and then of sweet coffee. Tastes dark and roasty and then dark, semi-sweet coffee. Tastes very good, the coffee is not overpowering. Full bodied, good carbonation.
Earlier Rating: 12/26/2007 Total Score: 4.3
Not as much coffee on the nose as I remember. A bit of coffee and a good amount of dark, toasty malts. A hint of alcohol. Pours almost completely black with just some dark brwon highlights around the edges. Tastes like coffee, toasty malts and booze. Much more booze than I remember. This brew is pretty thick. Leaves a little slick on the sides of the glass. Nice, somewhat subdued carbonation. Coats the mouth. Great beer. The best brew I’ve had that’s brewed with coffee. Can’t wait to try the BA version.

For Alesmith Double Coffee Speedway Stout: Multiple samplers at the Real Ale Festival VIP Session at Pizza Port Carlsbad on 6/13. Another big standout of the tasting! Pitch black, crude oil appearance with minimal carbonation and no head. Serving this one from the cask beer engine just made it that much tastier. Robust coffee grounds and espresso aroma, but still maintains the well-balanced roasted malt and vanilla profile of Speedway. Serious amounts of rich black chocolate and amazing earthy coffee notes with burnt wood and some tobacco. Bitterness is more pronounced and prolonged with twice the coffee. Surprisingly drinkable with a thick, cheek-biting body. While I would still prefer regular Speedway, this is great!
Earlier Rating: 3/19/2007 Total Score: 4.7
I’ve tried this fantastic beverage many more times than I can count, and I can say that every batch on tap is noticeably different. I could not find many things that would depreciate the rating of this beer when I had 2 goblets of this stuff at Liars Club (Mission Beach) one time. A massive brown head, and incredibly smooth. The only way to really appreciate this beer is on tap, or in a true vintage bottle. One of the best ratings I’ve done yet. I must say that the vintage bottle (04) I shared with jarspag is what really kept my ratings high on this one. There is a huge variability between aged bottles and taps at different locations. Based on the vintage tasting, I think this is one stellar brew that mellows with age incredibly well. Thick and smooth, with a well-balanced hop profile and loads of coffee, molasses, figs and licorice. Extremely chewy malt character with dark chocolate notes and coffee bean lingering forever. One of my all-time favorite beers from the Smithy...from any brewery for that matter. Always available here in my stomping grounds of SD. This epitomizes the character of a near-perfect imperial stout for me. Great!

I am from SD and live close to the brewer. I love this beer but find a nuanced defect in the finish. I may imagine this but I taste a bit of grittiness perhaps due to the coffee grounds. What else is there to say: A big high ABV rich smokey stout with a great head. Viva Alesmith! I drink this regularily both from bottle and on tap. It never disappoints.

An awesome brew from Alesmith. Tried on cask at the PP Real Ale Festival. Very smooth. Very flavorful. Not too dry or too sweet. Low carbonation. Very easy to drink. Very easy. Chocolae aroma and taste. No over the top coffee bitterness that I was expecting. Excellent.
Earlier Rating: 4/22/2007 Total Score: 4.3
Deep, deep, rich flavor, possibly too deep, and needs serious aging to mellow out the coffee and roasting. Tried at Alesmith brewery. Bought a bottle of the 2004, which i rerate later.