Tag Archives: AleSmith

AleSmith IPA Review

Posted on November 16, 2009 by

AleSmith IPA bottle and glass

AleSmith is an awarding winning brewery out of San Diego, CA where all of the employees are homebrewers. In fact, according to their website, the owner and the head brewer were both past presidents of their homebrew club.

AleSmith touts that, “every AleSmith ale is an all-natural, unpasteurized, handcrafted artisan product brewed using only premium domestic and imported malts and hops, precisely conditioned water and our quality yeast strains.” This quality craftsmanship is readily apparent when you try the AleSmith IPA, an IPA that has won numerous awards including Silver at the World Beer Championships and Bronze at the Great American Beer Festival. The brewery describes AleSmith IPA beer as follows:

Deep golden to light amber color, and a nice off-white head, with good retention when properly served. Starts off with pleasantly strong hop flavors, balanced by a firm malt backdrop, then fades to a dry finish with a lingering hoppiness.

AleSmith IPA being poured into a glass

Where I Found It. BevMo in La Quinta, CA.

Serving Type. 22 oz. bottle into a glass.

Date Reviewed. June 26, 2009.

Appearance. AleSmith IPA has a golden honey color with an orange hue. It is very clear as long as you don’t pout the yeast into your glass. This IPA has a foamy and frothy head that lingers for a very long time. It just doesn’t seem to go away; half-way done with the beer and there is still a thin layer of head on top.

Smell. This beer smells like hoppy goodness. The sweet maltiness combined with the fruity hops made me think of fresh plums while I was taking the photos. There is a hint of vanilla or caramel and the hops are clean and fresh. This IPA has a slight hint of cedar (instead of pine) and a slight hint of spice but also fruity like fresh pineapple. There was a slight bready yeast smell when I first opened the bottle but could not pick it up after that.

Taste. I tried AleSmith IPA closer to 50ºF on a hot evening in the desert and although it does not sound like ideal conditions, it was fantastic. This beer has a nice malt flavor with a hint of caramel and vanilla sweetness. The maltiness is topped by a generous dose of hops. The hop flavor is like white pepper spice, grapefruit citrus, and for the first few sips I tasted fresh plum.

Mouthfeel. This is a big IPA and has a smooth silky nature to help glide the strong flavors through your palate. It is a full bodied beer that is almost creamy in texture and well carbonated.

Drinkability. This is a smoother IPA that has a nice balance between smooth bitterness and spicy bitterness with a bite.

AleSmith IPA from above

Rating. My ratings below are on a five point scale with five being the best score.

  • Appearance (20%): 4.5
  • Smell (20%): 4.5
  • Taste (40%): 4.5
  • Mouthfeel (10%): 4.5
  • Drinkability (10%): 4.5
  • Overall: 4.5

Caption on the Bottle

The following caption appears on the back of a 22 oz. bottle of AleSmith IPA:

I prefer AleSmith it’s pretty awesome. That’s what our People’s Choice Award says to us. Each year at the San Diego Real Ale Festival , everyone is asked to vote for their favorite beer. In 2001, they chose AleSmith IPA over all the others. If you like your beer hoppy, you’re gonna love this one.

AleSmith IPA is brewed using only premium-quality malts, along with pounds and pounds of the freshest hops and our championship yeast strain. Even the water we use is precisely conditioned to make sure everything is just right for the best possible product. The results is a hoppy, malty hand-forged American-style IPA with a tantalizing aroma and a flavor that’ll have your taste buds in ecstasy!

The brewer’s yeast at the bottom of the bottle is living proof that this is a top-quality bottle-conditioned beer. Conditioning in the bottle gives the beer a lush, velvety texture that you just can’t get with force-carbonating. The bubbles are smaller, giving your taste buds a lot more surface are to grab onto, and the difference shows from the first sip to the last.

To serve, chill to approximately 45-50º and pour gently into an AleSmith pint glass, leaving the yeast in the bottle. To learn more about AleSmith Brewing Company and our many other premium products, please visit our website.

AleSmith IPA back of the bottle

Information

  • Style: IPA
  • Brewery: AleSmith
  • Alcohol by volume: 7.25%
  • Original Gravity: 1.072
  • Final Gravity: 1.018 (calculated)
  • Hops: Columbus, Warrior, Amarillo, Simcoe, Cascade, Chinook, Palisades [source]
  • Beer Advocate rating: 4.36 (as of Nov. 15, 2009)

Other Reviews

AleSmith IPA glass

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SF Beer Week Recap: City Beer Store Tasting with AleSmith

Posted on February 19, 2009 by

SF Beer Week was a 10 day celebration of craft beer that took place from February 6-16, 2009. The events were not only held in the original craft beer city of San Francisco but also throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, from Santa Rosa to Santa Cruz and everything in between. This year, 2009, was the first year in which this celebration was held. Judging by this and the three others events that I attended, SF Beer Week seemed like a success.

I kicked off my participation in SF Beer Week by attending the City Beer Store Bottle Tasting with AleSmith Brewing Company. City Beer Store is a great beer store and bar in San Francisco where you can buy beer to take home or you can drink it right there in the store. AleSmith Brewing Company was started in 1995 by Peter Zien, a hombrewer who “always wanted to own a brewery.” According to the website, AleSmith beers have won over 400 medals and honors. It also appears that most of the AleSmith employees are also homebrewers.

City Beer StoreI arrived at City Beer store about an hour after the start of the event and discovered that they were at capacity and there was a wait to get in. We got our numbers and waited and after about 20 minutes they stopped giving out numbers altogether. Finally, after a 30 minute wait we were in. This small store was wall to wall people enjoying some great beer. In addition to all of their regular offerings at the store, for the price of the event tasting (I think it was $15) you received 5 tasting tickets and a small tasting glass.

AleSmithThe AleSmith beers that were offered on tap were: AleSmtih X, Wee Heavy, YuleSmith, and I believe Speedway Stout but the stout was all gone by the time we got into the event. I sampled each one, except for the stout, of course.

The AleSmith X is what they call an Extra Pale Ale and it had a very nice citrus hop bouquet.

I had two samples of the Wee Heavy, a Scotch ale that was very malty, sweet, complex, wonderful, and warm with 10% alcohol by volume. It is a great beer and I felt that two samples added up to enough beer to review it so keep an eye out for a review of this beer coming soon.

Finally, I had two samples of YuleSmith and this time I had it in a larger glass. YuleSmith is AleSmith’s holiday beer of which they have two versions, one for winter and one for summer. I had the winter version and it had great hop and malt  characterists and also had a nice warming sensation with 9.5% alcohol by volume. I wrote a more extensive review of this beer as well, which I will post soon.

After sampling these great beers I was feeling a little claustrophobic and ready to move on to the next SF Beer Week event at the Jug Shop where I would sample great beers from a can.

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