AleSmith YuleSmith (Winter) Imperial Red Ale

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

Hazy orange, amber colour with an off white head. Malty, light alcohol and caramel sweet aroma with a hoppy pine needle note. Malty, caramel sweet flavor with a hoppy fruity note. Dry bitter finish.

Bottled. Hazy amber coloured. Grapefruits and hops in the aroma. Sweetish hoppy and fruity flavourMedium to full bodied. Bitter aftertaste. Quite nice.

My Bottom Line:
Toasted caramel malts churn a tooth-licking maple butter sweetness which achieves equilibrium with the multifaceted citrusy hops and their cedary, resinous bitterness. Goodness gracious, these guys are talented.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-An immense foam discharge setttles into a monument of a head atop the kaleidoscopic dark amber.
-That foam is a tad overzealous, but it is a hophead’s delight when tasted.
-That toffee candy/caramel maltiness is endless yet is far from cloying.
-Effervescence is a little too expansive for my tastes; I’d like to have the leisure the appreciate the well-endowed maltiness.
-This is very drinkable for its size; alcohol barely heats up the back end.
-Aroma is as complex and enticing as the flavor profile is delicious; West Coast glory personified.

Bottle.

Bottled. Orange/amber coloured. Unclear. Dense beige head. Soapy, piney, flowery and herbal aroma. Citric. Flavour of caramel, pines, herbs and flowers. Light fruity. Quite complex and balanced. Medium to full bodied. Ends on a warming dry and acidic bitterness. Excellence at its best, Alesmith is one hell of a brewery.

Bottle courtesy of saarlander. Starts out by pouring a near red with a nice white head. Rosey scents dominate the initial pour, followed by some grapefruity notes, autumn leaves and grass. Great initial taste with peppery bitterness dominating the taste buds followed with some nice malty notes on the finish.

Big thanks to notalush for this treat. Deep red colour with a huge sticky off-white head. Massive hoppy aroma, pine, dank wet leaves along with some other fruity notes (orange, mango, and grapefruit) over a sweet cookie dough, toast and caramel backbone. Very juicy and fruity tasting, but there is more than enough sweet maltiness to make this a well-balanced, full-bodied sweetish DIPA. The flavour is hoppy and fruity with sticky resins and chewy caramel/toasted malts. As it warms the resin/pine notes are amplified. Great brew.

Soft amber appearance. Smells of pine, "west coast" hops and very strong. The aroma you would expect from an IIPA. Thick as hell, dry with the requisite hops present everywhere. Sweet apple, tangerine and pineapple flavors. Nice woody aftertaste with some smaller tones of citrus.

This is an amazingly well balanced BIG BEER. Bright copper in color with a Huge, rocky beige head that coats the glass rather than laces it, it has a strong grapefruit/pine/floral hop aroma countered by caramel and toffee from the malts. The first taste is a serious bitterness, kind of like chewing on a hop flower, but this is quickly followed by a rush of caramel and bready malt flavors. Add to this a hit of citric fruitiness and a mild alcohol burn, and you have an artful blending of flavors sure to satisfy most serious beer drinkers... especially the hopheads in the crowd. The finish is dry and lingeringly bitter. We need AleSmith distributed in Chicago!

Moved from the YuleSmith (Summer) where it was egregiously placed at the time of the split. I just picked up a YuleSmith Summer Imperial Pale Ale, so I’ll be "re-rating" that anon.

<font size=-4><a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Places/ShowPlace.asp? Solutions, Portland OR<font size=-1>