#ale smith

Ale Smith Brewing Company

featuring

San Diego Pale Ale .394, a collaboration craft beer that celebrates Tony Gwynn

and

522. AleSmith Brewing Co – Speedway Stout

I’m at my local homebrew club meeting at Fat Jack’s here in Bloomington, IL.  I thought I’d order a beer before the meeting started, and was surprised to see they had an AleSmith beer on the draft menu.  I didn’t think they had started distributing here yet.  Since I’d heard many great things about their beers, I had to give this one a try.

Location: On tap and served in a small, 10oz curved glass at Fat Jack’s in Bloomington, IL.

Numbers: 12% ABV, 1.111 OG, ~ 350 Calories

Appearance & Aroma: It’s very dark black, and I couldn’t see any light through it when held up to the dim lights in our meeting space.  The head was thick and dark brown, with great retention and lacing.  The aroma was a mix of dark malts, dark cocoa, coffee, and molasses.

CALIFORNIA BATTLE OF THE BREWERIES SEMI-FINALS:

ALE SMITH VS FIRESTONE WALKER

It's time for the second round! Only four breweries remain: Ale Smith, Firestone Walker, The Bruery, and Russian River, with a spot in the finals on the line. We knew we wanted this battle to feature stouts, so the obvious choice from Ale Smith is their legendary Speedway Stout. From Firestone Walker I really really wanted to find Parabola. However, scavenging the liquor stores from La Jolla, Encinitas, and downtown San Diego, the beer was no where to be found. Instead we opted for their Velvet Merlin Oatmeal Stout, which is no pushover with a reputable 97 from ratebeer. Still, it looks like going in to this battle, it may be a case of David vs Goliath. Credit Ale Smith for making their best beer so widely available at every store we went to. 

Alright, eyes closed, beers poured, and let the battle begin! The had a simple toasty aroma of malt and chocolate. The mouthful that followed was silky smooth, creamy with milk chocolate, nut and oat, some banana and biscuit. Not super complex but well balanced and delicious. A good stout for sure.

Niko I (FF) Score = 9.25/10

I didn't even have to bring the second beer all the way to my nose to smell the waves of roasted coffee, banana, malt, vanilla - great aroma. Flooding my tongue with immense flavor, the liquid glory flowed through my palate in two stages: first sweet malt, wheat, banana, honey, vanilla, dark sugary fruit like raison. Next, the dark roasted espresso knocked everything out of the way with bitter dark chocolate and some nut finishing nice and dry. What can I say this beer is simply amazing. It is the best stout I have had as of yet. SO COMPLEX, SO BALANCED. 

Niko I (FF) Score = 10/10

So what brewery crafted the masterpiece that is stout number two? Not surprisingly, it was Ale Smith Speedway Stout