AleSmith IPA

Brewed by AleSmith Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
San Diego, California USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

Pours pale gild to light orange. Nose is citrus, fruity, and mildly herbal. Taste is again hop forward but surprisingly balanced and drinkable. Malts are rich and smooth. Medium full bodied mouthfeel. Lace is good. Beer is good. Nice IPA bit not sure why it’s number 1.

Bottle. Poured into a tulip. Golden brown tan color. Inch thick head that slowly fades. Smells of lemon, grass and hops. Taste is the same with some bread, yeast and herbs. Not as overly citrus or hoppy as other west coast IPA’s. Very well balanced and good. Probably up there as the standard for all IPA’s. Wish they distributed this more in NYC.

into plastic taster at alesmith. very golden look with slightly off-white head. smellsof citrus and hops. first taste is splendid light pale malt with great citrus hops. soon becomes a good addition of biting bitterness and more citrus. Great west coast IPA, not over the top but a very solid bitter delicious ipa. also great lacing. 8.5 of 10.

Bottle from Brew Dog.com. Poured a vivid gold with a healthily lingering off-white head and some nice lacing. Superbly enticing nose with citrus fruits and hops to burn. Cracking balance to the flavour with biscuity malts riding in tandem with resinous hops and juicy fruit aplenty. Lingering bitter finish. Pretty much all a quality IPA should be. Lovely stuff.

Out of the bottle, poured into a tulip glass. Pours a deep orange golden color with thick, off-white head. Amazingly hoppy fragrance! One of the most aromatic IPA’s I’ve ever had the privilege of holding up to my nose. Aroma is citrusy, piney, grassy, and floral with a hint of chamomile. Flavor has a beautiful malty sweetness on the forefront and a crisp hop profile throughout the mid-palate, and a clean bitterness in the finish. Very creamy mouthfeel; exactly the way an IPA should be. In fact, this is one of the landmark IPA’s I’ll be comparing every other IPA to. Seriously, this is right up there with Pliny for me! Might need to make my way down to San Diego for a few more of these. Overall, in the words of Charlie Sheen, AleSmith: winning!

Rating #531, bottle from Vinspecialisten Islands Brygge

I saw this beer on my local watchlist and had to go to Vinspecialisten the day after to get it. First of all, that was a great surprise as I had never been to Vinspecialisten before and their selection was way better than expected. Especially their BeerHere and Mikkeller selection was great, and there were a lot of belgian brews I hadn’t noticed anywere else, though not any infamous specials of any kind.

Well, back to this specific beer. It’s an amber coloured beer with a very good head, and as it gets to stand a little the head gets a more dense whipped cream-like look. Great hoppy nose, flowery and spicy with a delicate touch of "tutti frutti". Taste is bitter right from the start and has a lot of spicy hops and the special tutti frutti taste as well together with some raspberry and citrus. Sturdy and sweet, dry IPA-taste. Finish is strongly bitter and has a bit of alcohol. Palate is magnificent - soft, thick, and perfect for this IPA. All in all a really great brew, but not with any extraordinary elements that makes me go nuts over this IPA compared to other high end IPA’s. I’ve tried more complex ones, but it’s definately still a great brew.

Orange golden with beige head. Very aromatic fragrance of orange, lemon, pine, grass and sweet plumy malts. Very clean taste with a unique successful hop profile. Long dry, mouthcleansing bitterness. Like drinking a sunny green spot in a new sprung wood.

Bottle shared with dbarnold. Thanks Dave! Pours an orange coper cloud. Aroma is not overbearing, light citrus and hop. Taste is mildly bitter, long aftertaste. I enjoyed this beer, but not as much as I had hoped from AleSmith(which means high expectations for me). We did not know the age of the beer, but got it at only one of the few places in DC where we can find it.