AleSmith Speedway Stout

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

WOW. Vanilla strong in the aroma with light roasted grains. Absolutely black. Wow, this is enormous and so well restrained. Not over powered by any of the flavors that are all balanced beautifully. Lots of dry coffe, mellow, everything has its place and the 12% isn't even hinted at. Dark chocolate and lots of roasted grains, so fresh, I fell like I have all the ingrediants sitting in front of me before they were used to brew this beast. Very Nice

Pours jet black with a nice tan head. Aroma of Coffee and chocolate. A very rich creamy body, my all time favorite stout

Bottle, thanks to mwsf. This was a great relief, i’ve often been dissapointed with a lot of top 50 beers, but this just kicked arse. Full mouthfeel, mocha, chocolate. Sweet at first, but balanced by a rich roasted bitterness. Rich, with plenty of guts, but really balanced where it needs to be, top notch.

#1000 As a tiny little tear rolls down my cheek and I reflect on the previous 999 beers, the caffiene kicks in and I am jolted to lucidity by the utter wonderfulness of this beer. The head was practically purple and faded fast. Nice coffee arome- to be expected with all the damn coffee in it. Very smooth, hides the 12% quite well. But damn if I am not gonna have to take an Ambien tonight to get to sleep with all this damn caffiene running through my blood now. Here’s to another 1000. Cheers.

Very nice black color,small tan head that had a decent amount of hold time to it.The aroma was stout lovers dream,coffee up the wazoo,chocolate maybe a slight fruit presence but that could be the ESB coming back again.Theres more aroma here then i am worthy of the alcohol is slightly detectable with a nice but faint hop presence.The flavor comes off as very much coffee and chocolate roasty and the alcohol makes a slightly bigger appearance as well.This brew is like drinking cold coffee with a chocolate stick and a double shot of booze.The after taste is coffee and chocolate with a nice alcohol burn going down.This is a brew that was well worth waiting for,it took some time to procure a second one so i could taste this first one but the taste makes it more then worth the effort.Thanks to Brewbandit for netting me a second one.

Bottle. Dead-black, tan head that seems to foam up after the pour...I'll give it a 5 on appearance despite the lame NASCAR-type label. PURE coffee aroma with a Hershey bar thrown in, no other way to describe it. Smoke, Folgers, beef jerky, chocolate. Hugely thick mouthfeel...I don't know what else to say. BIG is the word of the day. The 12% ABV is well-masked.

Thanks to BeerLimey for the trade. This definitely fits the bill as a Big Beer. Pours almost sludge-like out of the champagne bottle. Thick and black with a miniscule beige head. Next to no lacing. The aroma is all roasted coffee. The body is big and bold and the flavors of coffee, bitter chocolate and warming alcohol really pack a whollop. It never becomes too much though. The beer remains smooth throughout. This is one of those beers that you wouldn't know was 12% by the flavor, only by the effect. The finish is dry and slightly bitter. Superb.

2003 Bottle: (9,4,8,5,17), sampled on 2/15/04: Pours with very little head, but with a thick oily black body. Aroma is still a rich complex mix of coffee, chocolate, and dark fruits. Body is slightly more bitter and dry than the 2002 version, with more coffee presence. Still has a great robust syrupy mouthfeel and good amount of sweetness. Still a world class imperial stout.

My 500th rating: (9,5,9,5,19) 2002 bottle, sampled on 4/9/2003: Pours a deep brown molasses with full dark tan head. Smells like walking into a Starbucks. Rich chocolate coffee nose. First sip is velvety sweet with a light touch of brown sugar and dark chocolate. Great complexity is buried in its viscosity. Medium bitterness and a roasted coffee finish round out one of the best imperial stouts I’ve had. This rivals dark lord and worldwide 18%. Masks its alcohol masterfully. I cannot wait until this year’s batch!