AleSmith YuleSmith (Summer) India Pale Ale

Great all around. Pours nice amber color with medium head. Aroma is sweet malt and resiny hops. Nice balaced flavor, yet still maintains great hop character. Finishes bitter and then sweet. Excellent!

Pours an beautiful amber color with a large fluffy off-white head. Good lacing. Citrus, pineapple, caramel, hops, and some bread in the aroma. Starts out with a crisp citrus flavor, then to a sweet and juicy pineapple, orange, and caramel. Finishes with hops and alcohol warming. Leaves a very nice flavor in the mouth. Well balanced between hops and malt. Meduim mouthfeel, but still quite smooth. An excellent brew.

Tasted with OhioGuzzler and side-by-side with YuleSmith (Winter)... The Summer Yulesmith is orange in color with a huge pale yellow head. The aroma unmistakedly pineapple and is so rich and full, that it just rolls out of the glass as its poured and you can smell it from an arm’s length away! Flavor is sweet, orange, and slight alcohol, with a great hop bitterness throughout. Perfect mouthfeel and carbonation. This beer is great, but a bit young. I bet it would be awesome with a year or so of age to let the bitterness and sweetness meld some more. 22 oz bottle (2006, 8.5% alcohol), $8.99 at Dilly Deli.

Dark golden to amber in color with a moderate, dense light tan head. Grapefruit with a slice of toasted whole grain bread on the side for breakfast. A whole lot of hops balanced well with lots of pale sweet malt. Mild alcohol burn in the finish, and a warming sensation in the stomach. Hops have both a citric and floral component which aids in the balance. I do believe we (Wisconsin) does have a contender for this one as I just had a Tyranena Hop Whore and found it very similar (formal rating when bottles come out - first taste of the THW was just a pint while passing through and not a rating worthy effort on my part). I’m always happy to see this in a package from the west coast. Perhaps the alcohol and mild licorice in the finish brings this down slightly for me but still a great brew.

This is one of my favorite double IPAs. I’ve had it numerous times both on draft and in the bottle. Great citric aroma with up front hoppiness in the flavor with a nicely balanced malty finish.

June 2006 release sampled on 7/4/06: Pours a transparent copper bronze with a nicely-lacing off-white head. Big fresh citrus and piny hop aroma has a very nice caramel malty balance. Body starts sweet and viscous, turning more bitter, crisp and grapefruity toward the resinous mildly warming finish. Well balanced, flavorful and best enjoyed fresh. A classic double IPA!

July 2005 release sampled on 9/25/05: Pours a transparent copper orange with a wonderfully dense and well-lacing froth of white head. Bright hoppy pine and grapefruit aroma has some alcohol notes. Body starts with some sweet gritty caramel malt and plenty of bittering hops toward a sticky, pine sap, warming bittersweet finish. Definitely doesn’t hide its alcohol as well as I remember. I’d like to let it age so that the alcohol becomes more hidden, but then the hops would fade. Such a predicament. It’s appearance seems to have improved though.

7/3/04-2004 Summer release: Picked up four bombers at MCAS Miramar Marine Mart. ooh-rah. Happy 4th to all of our Men and Women in uniform. Oh yeah, AleSmith ROCKS!

Thanks to the split, I was able to transfer over my notes of the summer release: Clean coppery hue topped by a huge fluffy head and outstanding lace. Surprisingly balanced with big hops in harmony with biscuity malt and great depth of palate. Piney and citric as expected with lots of hop spice on the dry finish.

The summer Yulesmith is the equal of the winter 2003 version I had rated, maybe better. BUT WATCH OUT, don’t upset the yeast. A wonderful brew indeed. Get ya some!