AleSmith YuleSmith (Summer) India Pale Ale

Brewed by AleSmith Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
San Diego, California USA

This amber ale poured with a generous off-white head eliciting a strong malty aroma. There was a slightly sweet malty initial flavor with an intense bitter hoppy finish with floral hints. This was a very nice brew indeed.

Bottle (in NZ). Pours ahazy gold with a thin white foamy head. A floral and fruity aroma, sweetish toffee, and pine. Orange is big in the flavour. Big full mouthfeel with a strong tart hoppiness on the palate. A big beer!

Pours a cloudy maroon/orange with a fluffy, off white head. Smells of big, up in your face, hops, some grapefruit citrus, spices, and pine. The taste is, of course, big hoppiness with a distnct spiciness to it, that left a little heat on the palate. There is a profound sweetness to it also, especially in the finish and the aftertaste. The hops dominate most of the flavors, however, as you would expect with this style. It definitely wasnt the only flavor though. Well done brew.

22oz bomber, no date. Hazy orange caramel with a big ’ol creamy offwhite head that lasted until the end, a thick curtain of lacing with only a few holes as I drank my glass, quite a lot of carbonation throughout. This has what I consider the classic IIPA aroma--pine, grapefruit, and caramel malts up front. There’s a bit of bit of pineapple and misc. citrus digging deeper. Flavor Is much the same except the hops get a little more perfumey. Bitterness ends up around a 6 (out of 10) at its peak, kept in check by a good amount of caramel sweetness. Burps citrus and pine needles. A bit overcarbonated with a medium body. With the exception of just a little bit of overcarbonation, this is a very solid IIPA and what I would compare other IIPAs to--it isn’t the best I’ve ever had, but very good nonetheless.

Orange. Fine-tuned, but fairly subtle and disappointing nose (considering it’s Alesmith) of grapefruit, tangerines, orange, biscuits and caramel. Hefty, unorthodox, but succeeding attempt at the style, possessing a lot more acidity than most. Front is rich, citrusy notes of pine and spruce. Mid-palate comes through with hints of grapefruit, bark and vanilla. The finish is full of toffee,peanuts and hop oils. In all, the malt backbone is fairly sweet, possesing a lot of doughy notes but mainly a caramel sweetness. Unbelieveably balanced and simply stunning as it warms. I’ll still be tasting this tomorrow. Just an incredible offering. I don’t know what to say about Alesmith. Out of my current top 20 beers, 5 are from Alesmith. The best brewer I have ever come across at this point in my young life.

22 Oz Bottle. An old familiar friend leaps from the glass, Cascade hops. Backed up by some other pals and a toothsome glow of sweet oranges and persimmons. Sultry, sophisticated and delightful. Pours a clear, pale amber, fringed with a nice off-white lace. On the tongue, a pink peppercorn glow, with copious resin, hard biting citrus pine and long lasting white fir needles. Malt gets swept under the rug, in preparation for a true hop fanfare, however, it’s bit planty and coarse to me, with some heavily biting and edges and swift kick of hot alcohols. There’s a peculiar amalgamation of bright pales fruits and dripping resonation saps. Excruciatingly dry, leaving and almost unpleasant wasp of pine nectar coating the tongue. I’m struggling with this summer version, it doesn’t work as well for me. This needs more malts, less bitterness and a more congealed alcohol presence. Lots of spice and pepper, however uniform. A nip of bready yeast cruises in at the backend.

Wow..it takes an extremely talented brewery to pull of an IIPA. They tend to either be too hoppy, too malty or too alcoholic. This beer pulls the concept off perfectly. Aroma of strong grassy hops with citrus coming in and out. Pour was a medium brown with a thin white ring for a head. Taste was biting hot with hops taking the main stage and just a hint of malt to balance it out. Solid!

22 oz. bottle from either BevMo or the brewery (I bought ’em in both places). Wow, it’s about time this one was separated out, I love it and can definitely notice the difference between the summer and winter editions. Anyway, pours cludy topaz-amber with a fluffy beige head and little floaties. Caramelly sweet aroma, toasty, toffee and lots of ripe summer fruit with huge hops of orange, qrapefruit and pine and hints of alcohol. Flavor is sweet and rich,with toasty, fruity malts, more caramel, bold pine and citrus hops, peppery spice and grapefruit in the finish. Full body, smooth and gentle carbonation.