AleSmith Speedway Stout

Bottle. Completely opaque black beer with a light brown head that lingers. Sweet malty aroma, hint of hops. Taste of toasted malt, coffee, chocolate. Thick and lingering on the palate. The high alcohol percent is barely noticeable in the taste. Amazing and rich stout.

pour pitch with very small head. aroma of roasted malts, coffee, sweet chocolate. flavor is huge with coffee and bitter sweet chocolate. carbonation is lacking, would like a little more fizz... very yummy

Bottled sample via oakbluff (huge thanks for this one, buddy!). Black in colour with moderate carbonation. Aromas of whisky, chocolate, coffee, brown sugar, and a touch of dark fruit. Dry, yet still quite heavy and oily in the mouth. Flavors of more coffee and chocolate, caramel, a bit of char, and a hint of hops. Very classy stuff. Lives up to the hype!

MY 500th!!!!!!! Big Bottle: From a trade with pantanap (A big Thanks!) Aroma coffee, Chocolate cake, big on malts, roasty, a light hop backing and raisins. Appearance is pitch black with a medium sized brown head tht diminishes into a thin tan film. Taste starts out with and upfront malt and chocolate note. Somewhat grainy at first. Then transforms into something totally different. (I love it when beers do this) Many phases to the taste and palate of this brew including a slight alcohol twinge in the middle, but smooths out with a roasted malt and caramel taste. Nicely complex. Overall, This is a hell of a brew I have chose for my 500th. I’ll just listen to my song now.

2007 bottle. pours nearly black with brown at the edges and a small brown head. aroma is everything good and holy...chocolate, coffee, floral hops, dark dried fruits, wood, ashy roasted malts and alcohol when it warms. the flavor is a heavenly ROBUST combination of everything in the aroma plus vanilla and prunes. finishes hoppy and bitter with highly roasted malts. huge lingering aftertaste of high quality coffee beans. sweetness level is quite low and highly appreciated as the characteristics are allowed to come through without the cloying sugar. (blech to sweet imp stouts!) full bodied rich mouth feel without being sticky. great with a lebanon bologna sandwich on wheat.

Served on draft at the Toronado. An amazing beer all around. It has the typical jet black body with a thin mocha head. The aroma is filled with strong chocolate and coffee. The feel of the beer is incredibly creamy and chocolaty with a sweet finish. As I said, this is a damn good beer all around. Heavy body with great drinkability.

Bottle from JCB. In honor of my one year anniversary on ratebeer, I thought I’d give this top 50 beer a shot. Thank god... I was told that this was a coffee bomb... thankfully it’s not. It is an excellent and wonderfully balanced imperial stout. Aroma of rich, dark chocolate, dried leather with a hint of wet oak. Cocoa powder. A perfect hint of coffee. This is how coffee should be integrated into a stout. The coffee is there, just not in your face. Pours a rich black, almost pitch with a thick reddish khaki head. Flavor starts out with a lot of semisweet Belgian chocolate followed with notes of molasses, tar, leather. Rich, roasted malt. Vanilla, wood with just the right amount of coffee. The coffee is there, and just enough to accent the beer without overpowering it. Full bodied. Good carbonation. Rich and fairly viscous. Finishes with a nice lingering hoppy and chocolate bitterness. A most excellent beer to celebrate my one hear on this website!

Re-rate 4/22/08. Not sure of the vintage, but this particular bottle had a lot more bitter, roasted coffee flavor than my last bottle. Gone were the chocolate notes, replaces with an astringent espresso bitterness. Hmmm...

Bottle at Toms Ultimate Glasgow Tasting: Poured a dark brown black with a light brown head. Aroma is light coffee and sweet dark chocolate. The taste is sweet with coffee and a light burn finish. Very balanced and not overwhelming for a imperial stout.