AleSmith YuleSmith (Winter) Imperial Red Ale

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

This brew pours a rich robust red with a thick white rocky head, which releases an abundant hop aroma. The initial flavor though is all malt sweetness...roasted caramel, dried fruits, and hints of molasses and brown sugar. The hops are pretty potently pine and grapefruit and really get more resiny as it warms. I actually found the alcohol pretty well concealed...certainly THERE, but not in-your-face about it. A quality product, by all means, but not the opus magnus I’ve been expecting.

650ml bomber from the brewer. This is the 2006 winter yulesmith. Pours a cloudy reddish dark brown, with a huge khaki head that lasts forever. The head stands up like thick like a meringue, very nice. The aroma is strong with sweet caramel, anise and hops. Flavor is complex and loaded with chocolate, coffee, black licorice, pine, cedar and walnuts. The hops are well defined and prominent throughout the experience. The palate is full and satisfying. The finish is long with lingering bittersweet dark chocolate. This is a a great brew. Recommended.

22 oz. bomber. Pours a cloudy dark amber with a moderate yellow/white head that lasted through most of the glass and left partial lacing. Very nice aroma of citrus and pine along with a bit of sweet malt. The flavors are strong too with citrus, pine, brown sugar and malt all present. It just doesn’t seem to come quite together though. There’s also a noticeable alcohol burn which intereferes a bit with the flavor. Dry, hoppy finish.

Bottle from Julios Liqours in MASS. Sampled with Dennis Bell. Orange pour with thin head with a hop, citrus and caramel aroma. Sweet malt taste with hints of fruit and caramel that were blended to perfection. Absolutley awesome. The cerimonial hump of the bottle was done.

22oz bottle, consumed 9/23/07. Pours a very nice deep amber color, light tan foam, great retention and lacing. Aroma is slightly hoppy with a very noticeable oxidized character. Flavor continues with the oxidation, a bit too much for a beer under a year old and almost 10%abv, there’s some hop and malt in there but the overriding "old" flavor is too much for me. Thanks to footbalm for the bottle!

22oz bomber. Not to impressed with the aroma as it smelled more malty than hoppy. The taste was more malts then hops as well with a strong caramel taste.Had a nice crisp balanced bitter afterbite that left you wanting more.

I’ve had this one over the years quite a few times. The best one I remember from the DC/VA gathering at Founders back in 2004 as being really intricately malty, with almost all hop flavor/aroma and little bitterness. More recently I’ve had some really disappointing bottles, that were extremely yeasty, catty and intensely bitter (2005 version). The 2006 I’ve had mixed results with, having had some yeast bombs as well, but most recently I had what I think is probably the best it’s going to get this year and decided to rate it. Tons of pine, marmalade and lots of cherry and strawberry esters. The yeast is plasticy and not particularly enjoyable and just gets more intense as the beer wears on and you get closer to the bottom. But the malt is solid enough, with toasty caramel and bread notes, and lightly sweet brown sugar that helps coat the mouth and protect against some of the hop burn. Alcohol is not particularly subtle, eating away at the malt body and really accentuating the rather steep hop bitterness. Pretty forceful overall, and some fruitiness or more "elegant" hop notes would be a relief. As it is here, it’s just tons of pine and citrus and too much yeastiness. Nice appearance, though, of course, with great head formation/retention and plentiful lacing. Texture is sticky, with medium amounts of mostly tight carbonation.
Will pick up a new ’06-’07 bottle when they come out and rerate.

Looks like what you expect, translucent hazy orange, frothy lacing white head. Smells a little different than what you’d expect, hay, yeast, and barnyard accompany the traditional hop aromas. Flavor is slight citrus (oranges and tangerines) with sweet malts, also touches of yeast and biscuit. Finish is really smooth, slightly sweet and also slightly bitter. Heavy alcohol sneaks up on you because of the sweetness. Very nice, complex flavors, but also very drinkable which I appreciate.