Wee Heavy - Barrel-Aged
AleSmith Brewing Company in San Diego, California, United States 🇺🇸
Scotch Ale / Wee Heavy Rotating|
Score
8.11
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Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
On tap at Alesmith Brewing/Anvil & Stave. Pours black with nice dense beige head. Heavy malty, roasted, dark fruit, caramel, dried fruit, bourbon, raisins, wood, some chocolate. Sweet with bitterness in finish. Full bodied. Warming. Nice.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
2012 750mL bottle shared on 5/28/17. Ruby-auburn-mahogany body. Dark beige head fades to nothing very rapidly. Clarity is high, leaving sediment behind. Tons of dark fruits in the nose, as a scotch ale ought to have. Bourbon and raisin, with light alcoholic heat (not messy or sharp) all balancing rich, sumptous, very sweet-seeming malts. Toffee and caramel for days. There is of course oak here, though it’s not an oak bomb, thankfully and the malts and fruity melanoidins definitely do their part to balance it. Smells like a massive, bourbony, rich Scotch ale. Raisin, plum, vanilla and long, dry toffee notes all impress as attenuation levels are actually quite high, to my surprise. Not that I’ve ever known AleSmith to be sugar bombs, but the nose suggests a lot more sweetness than is actually here. Perhaps it’s a product of the big oak, raisin and bourbon notes. Whatever the case, the beer isn’t even boozy and while there’s certainly a fair amount of oak and bourbon, it’s not overdone and helps enrich the various plum, grape, caramel, toffee, raisin, fig character. Pretty nice, but then, I feel AleSmith has always been great at barrel aging and producing these types of malty beers. The five years of age seems to have helped calm it down, as well. Rich, malty, soft, luxurious texture with low but ample carbonation.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 9
Poured from bottle thanks ClarkVV 2012 vintage Whallezz son cola color with a nice tan head and great lacing. Aromas of brown sugar dark fruit bourbon toffee. Taste is amazing not boozy balanced sweetness raisin fig toffee caramel. Wow.
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9
Bottle, many thanks Max! Dark brown color with tan head. Aroma is bourbon, booze, liquorice, raisin. Taste is chocolate, vanilla, bourbon and booze again, liquorice, raisins, a bit of a spicy tanginess (cinnamon maybe indeed). Silky and viscous mouthfeel. Despite the booziness it retains a nice balance. A beauty!Old bottle shared in the Blabaer line 2019. Lots of dank cellar there, but also the great balanced bourbon flavours in there too. Aged gracefully!
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Bottle. Pours ruby black with a decent head. Aroma is strong bourbon, vanilla, booze. Body is super heavy and strong, boozy and sweet. Vanilla, liquorice, wood, bourbon, cinnamon. Soft carbonation, sticky texture, viscous. Long sweet nut palate. Balanced, but really strong, a classical sipper.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
0.75l bottle shared with The Tasting Crew. Been looking forward to this one. It pours a deep dark brown, near black body in the glass and it has a medium sized slowly sidesticking an islandy beige head. Lovely nose. Woody and vanilla infused for sure. I get chocolate, some dark sweetness soaked rum raisins. Malt spicy drops. Cinnamon spicy almost and traces of whisky. Smells really good. It tastes quite good, I have to say. More woody and vanilla infused in the taste actually. Feels thick and oily on the mouthfeel and the about average on the carbonation. A little chocolate with dark caramel and dry licorice. Lots of flavor. A really good one. 18.02.2016
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8.5
(On tap @ Anvil and Stave, Apr 5/17) Pours a clear dark red brown, with a fine but decent white head and spotty lace. Aroma of crisp, mineral, toffee, raisin, vanilla, wood. Flavour is surprisingly light caramel, some dried pale fruit, oak, vanilla, some boozy bourbon. Body is kind of light and mineral. Boozy. Soft carb. Huh. I expected substantially more richness from the body than was present here. While that crisp feel is interesting, it also seemed to struggle to backstop the barrel character.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
750 ml bottle. 2015 vintage. Aromas of bourbon, raisins, a little cola, and sweet roasted malts. Flavors of dark caramel, bourbon, oak, raisins and lots of malts. Much lighter than the barrelled stout and therefore seems more boozy, but still very nice. Doesnt need anymore aging IMHO.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Bottle - Vintage 2015 - Crazy bourbon hot woody notes. Deep dark brown with a small light brown head. Big dark toffee notes and tons of bourbon notes. A bit too big and boozy notes.