AleSmith YuleSmith (Winter) Imperial Red Ale

Pours a hazy rust, tons of off-white thick head. Aroma is surpsrisingly hoppy, fresh-cut grass and earth. Also some roasty-ness and corriander (?). Taste is full of subtle spice flavors, as well as almost-well-balanced matlyness and hops bite. Nice on the palate, smooth and semi-dry. A lasting, very sweet hoppy finish. The hops, in general, are perhaps a bit overbearing for the style, but the thing would probably be too cloying otherwise.

22 ounce bottle split in pint glass. Says 8.5% on bottle. Hazy red with lasting pinkish head and some lace. Hoppy spicy toffee strong aroma. Roasted toffee and brown sugar sweetness with some tart fruit and bracing high carbonated bitter biting hop flavored finish with some cloying. Fairly complex but heavily hopped. Carbonation overwhelms the finish and mouthfeel. Very good. And my quasi-wife would like me to mention that she likes it.

Bottle. I recalled that I liked the Winter quite a bit more than the summer, and I remembered at the time (when Ratebeer had both listed together) that I thought it odd that they weren’t two separate ratings. Now that I had this one from the bottle again, I realize how much more I liked the Imperial Red Ale. Not only the copper color is an improvement, but the nose and palate tends more toward the rye spectrum than the summer version, and the fruits are darker as well. There’s some raw sugar and a fine amount of hop bite to accompany it. Well made and very drinkable, although not my favorite of the style. Complexity isn’t quite up there with the other great strong ales.

Pours a nice red color with an off white head. Aroma is of nice citrusy hops followed by sweet malts and a tad of alcohol. Flavor is just so smooth. Porbably one of the best mixtures of hops and malts in an ASA that iv’ve ever had. I liked this better than the summer one.

22oz bottle. Lovely copper red color with a huge foamy head. Great balance of big hops and malt flavors. Has a subtle sweetness of caramel and fruits. This would be awesome to drink during the cold months of the holiday season.