AleSmith Barrel Aged Speedway Stout

Brewed by AleSmith Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
San Diego, California USA

Sampled at RBSG 2006- Grand Tasting. 2004 vintage. pours the color of road tar on a hot summer day. Scent is sweet caramel and chocolate. Tastes like coffee grounds and chocolate covered cherries. This is real good. I wish I had a bathtub full.

Opaque, deep and chocolatey black in color with grey dust in a swirl winding around at the surface to form a reserved head. Aroma imparts wafts of decadent chocolate truffles infused with a caramel bourbon tract, providing a baseline sweetening, but not over-the-top and independent - decadent, rather. Glazed caramel chews with hints of frangelico, sweetened with brown sugar and melting chocolate shells. It’s a thinker aroma, surrounded by a huge caramel avec bourbon compliment. Balance is the aromatic key here. Refined is another way to put it.

The notion of control is also well fed in the flavor. Delicate, boisterous chocolates melt like truffles over hot springs. The roasty espresso bean complexity is muted, capped and trapped under an engulfing dark chocolate coating. Warming vocal box voices joyous sentiments before the mind comprehends its speech patterns. Mocha grinds are pressed upon bakers chocolate bricks but the coffee elements are very subdued, hiding the boisterous elements of the regular Speedway with rounded corners, like melting milk chocolate Godiva squares infused with creme de cacao and smooth Magellan. Oily, full-fledged, big-bodied beer and an overall palate treat. Smooth, melting, delicatessen chocolate finish is free from bitter coffee arraignments, instead imparting mild tannic lingerings, and succumbing to the smooth chocolate force.

ENORMOUS THANKS to Blake (1FastSTi) for sharing Bottle No. 13!

Big Ups to Blake for opening bottle #13: Opaque with a a sticky oily film on my Ratebeer tulip. The aroma has notes of bourbon, vanilla, wood, plum, prune, smoke, coffee, and some mocha. The taste has a pop of coffee bitterness, burnt smoky malt and alcohol that attacks the palate before a richer and softer chocolate and vanilla character smooths you over. The back end is earthy and lingers some ripened fruit before the long espresso finish. The mouth feel is oily, sticky and lush. While this is very very good, some may be in shock but I would rather have a regular nicely-aged Speedway over this. The BA version seemed to be TOO BALANCED with the coffee too muted, I am not joking.

I acquired this bottle in San Diego via Peter BEFORE it was released. Bottle #13/240. We decided to compare this side-by-side with a regular Speedway that MAY be from the same batch of beer. I thought the aroma of the BA version was much bigger and better. Whiskey and coffee. A ton of coffee. A ton of chocolate. Whiskey. Perfect coffee and whiskey, dark chocolate, and other sub-components in the flavor. MUCH more balanced than the regular. Creamy and perfect mouthfeel. This is great. I’d say that this, PP Le Woody, and artusory’s brett-pale were easily the best beers of the night.

Pre-Great Taste sampling at 1FastSti’s house


The capstone of the night, this was the whole reason we were doing a tasting. Blake’s bottle was #13 of 240. I’ll have to open my bottle of regular Speedway to compare, but this was definitely a well crafted well though out beer that belongs in the Top 10. If you ever get the chance to try it savor every last drop.

Aroma / Appearance - Oak, vanilla, coffee, black cherry, graham crackers and toasted marshmellows dominate a complex and rich nose. With a larger sample I might have picked up even more. The bourbon notes are evident but they do not take over. The body remains midnight black; no light escapes this black hole of a liquid.

Flavor / Palate - There is a creamy mouthfeel that permeates through the entire beer. It starts off as a combination of bourbon, cherry, vanilla and alcohol. Next it forms coffee, raisins, plums and blueberries. As if that was not enough there is a textured velvet before it finally decides to reveal the coffee flavors one last time. This is a very dense beer though well balanced. Each of the tastes feels like it belongs; nothing here feels out of place or strange. The finish has a lingering caramel and raspberry texture. I had to sit for a few minutes when the glass was done admiring it because it sticks around for a long time.

Thanks to Blake for opening his today. 04Batch Bottle #13 Jet black pour, thin tan head w/ thick lacing. Big malt aroma lots of butter, light bourbon, very mellow well blended aroma. Palate is rich & creamy w/ a well coated feel & a warm swallow. Flavor is big malty lighly buttered extremly mellow bourbon and a very dry finish. This is an extremly balanced beer w/ no ove the top component.. it’s delicious. Sampled next to an 04 non BA speedway. The regular has much mnore coffee and a sharp hit w/ less butter and no bourbon. They are both different but I liked the BA a little better. 04batch bottle #11 black pour w/ a nice small tan head and a good lace. mmm.. w/ a nother year under the cap it actualy is more mellow the bourbon is quieter very well blended now. worth +1 on overall... num num

I showed up 2 hours late at the AleSmith offering and still managed to get a bottle after much pity was laid upon my plight. See, I went to see the Dwarves play the night before and getting to AleSmith, much less out of bed by 1pm, wasn’t going to happen, so I rolled the 10 sided dice and determined a Fuego Steak Melt at Liar’s was the necessary nutrition I needed to make the drive to Mira Mesa and the rest is history. Thank you for still giving me a bottle, even though you were "sold out" and I was 2 hours late. This was the best single goddamned liquid that’s ever made it’s way into my belly. I almost didn’t want to pee because I felt I was wasting it. The oak is the hero here. It tames the speedway beast into this concoction that I can only describe as "steak". I wish I could marinate a steak in this. You’ll love it. I’ll be in line next year.

Ok, it’s official. This beer deserves all of the accolades it gets. Luckily, Bartzilla got the LAST one, and I, as neighbor, fellow beer geek and long time friend, get to share in the experience. And, it did not dissapoint. So rich, so complex, yet refined and drinkable. Just amazing velvety mouthfeel, and the oak is just present enough to mix with everything else that’s going on. I can actually taste the whiskey in here too. Amazing stuff. Sampled the Dark Lord afterwards and im sorry, it just doesn’t compete with this heavyweight.