AleSmith YuleSmith (Summer) India Pale Ale

bomber. Aroma: Nice semi-sweet caramel malt aroma followed by a lot of hops. Lots of citrus, resin, and floral notes. Also getting some pineapple, and a touch of chocolate. Appearance: vibrant orange in color and hazy. Head was off-white, large and creamy looking. Head lingered for a good long time, but dissipated into a ring around the edge of the glass. Nice laing. Flavor: Just like the aroma, the malt is the backbone of this beer. Nice toffee and caramel flavors tie in with rich malty sweetness. Hops come in strong with grapefruit, pine, and nice a nice floral flavor. Well balanced. Bitterness is good, but could be even a little stronger. Palate: Medium high bodied. Some alcohol warming experienced on the tongue. Some syrupy sweetness lingers after the finish. Overall: A good, well balanced IIPA. Although this is an 8.5% ABV beer, it’s well disguised and it sneaks up on you.

Boottle 2004 edition, thanx to Jannik for sharing this one. Cloudy deep orange colour with a small off white head. Malty, caramel sweet aroma with a pineapple fruity hoppyness and a light pine note. Malty and caramel sweet flavor with some hoppy fruityness and a vague citric touch.

Pretty much a straight orange colour that poured with a small bit of foam on top that disappeared. Citrus hops with a serious bend to grapefruit in the aroma. The body is very nice with the perfect amount of carbonation and thickness. Strong malty body even though it doesn’t offer up much of its own flavour. More of those citrus hops in the flavour, but not a whole ton. The hops are more piney in the taste. I quite enjoyed this beer.

Bomber, Pours blood orange with absolutly no head. Nose is very nice, Ruby grapefruit, sweet figs and flowers. The flavor was a bit exagerated for me. I like imperials but this one was a bit to much. Its like biting into a strong hop pellet rolled in rose petal. Very cherry and mandarin, too much so. Maybe it would tone down a bit with some incredibly greasy foods or something very spicy. The palate was nice though silky and malty but lacking carbonation. have tasted better.

From bomber, summer Imperial IPA version. Pours a hazy orange brown with thin white head. Nose is chewy, sugary and citrus. Flavor follows nose with a good malt balance and bitter finish. Palate is thick and chewy.

I am terribly confused. I got a bottle of this expecting a double IPA, but it tasted nothing of the sort. It was very Belgian tasting. It had a kind of floral aroma, but mostly caramel and yeast. The flavor was quite yeasty and sweet, similar to Horny Devil actually. Is there some chance I got the wrong beer? Is there another Yulesmith beer that Alesmith makes? It’s the same bottle as shown. I love Alesmith IPA, but if I’m judging this as an IIPA, I couldn’t give it much over a 3, but if it was something else, surely higher. I’ll try and find it again and see what happens. The bottle could have been too old?

Summer Yule, 3 weeks old when I had it. Bright orange color with a nice, fine white head. Super hoppy aroma with sour citrus and spicy vanilla notes. Bitter from beginning to end with a nice, crisp finish and light notes of alcohol; mega chewy hops. Mouthfeel is bubbly, smooth, and not too thick or thin. Super balanced and amazingly fresh... You can’t miss with AleSmith. Rerate - this was one of the first beers I really rated. So, I guess this is an important rerate. Clearly an awesome beer, could use a little sweetness in the middle for balance. Lots of hops for sure. With a little more perspective I’m bumping this down from 4.5 to 4.3.

aroma is large but not huge with large hoppiness (citiric and piney) with some slight maltiness and alchohol notes. pours a light orangey, yellowey amber with a huge fluffy white head. flavor is dominated by huge and complex hoppinesss. also some alchohol with some small malty notes. mouth feel is not thin. nice dry hoppy finish. ty ratebeer for making this into two entries.