Bottle 750 Pours out a dark amber almost brown topped with a light tan head. A nice sweet aroma along with a sweet tast. This is a great Scotch Ale. AleSmith O YA. Thanks Jake65

Bottle. Thanks to JohnC for this great beer. Pours a hazy dark amber color with a small off-white head. Sweet malty and slightly spicy aroma. Sweet malty dry bitter and slightly hoppy and alcoholic flavor with some vanilla hints. Sweet malty finish with some hints of vanilla.

Bottle #127 2004 vintage, from CQuiroga, shared with SuIIy on 4/10/07. Also had it at BCTC ’06, courtesy of Egajdzis
DaSilky1 traded me the first bottle of this I had, but it was opened at the PP 12 hour fest, so Chris gave me this in replacement, what a guy!
Perfect appearance, as you’ve come to expect from AleSmith. Bottle conditioned carbonation produces a large tan head that is very well-retained and laces quite well. Dark, dark brown-black body has a medium clarity.
STRONG stuff, just like Speedway, of course, with coffee and vanilla beans in the nose, plentiful vinousness (very important) and dry roastiness on the finish. No tacky caramel and chocolate sweetness and nicely attenuated, as is the regular beer. Bourbon is very, very reserved in the nose, and only moderate wood dryness reaches the nose, on the finish, adding continued dryness. Alcohol is lightly perceptible after warming, and adds more intimidating strength.
Spanish coffee and dry chocolate open up the flavor, with soft vanilla and light, dry toffee notes through the middle. Lots of wood, but it’s not overly harsh and is offset by a very unfiltered, well-malted texture. Coffee is dry and extremely tastefully added, lending a beany-like hardness that combines with some vinousness to provide that wonderful complexity in the base beer. Very low bourbon character, one of the few Imperial Stouts to actually remain balanced in the bourbon department. Dry wood, cocoa and some light fusels on the finish. Love the attenuation level on this stuff. Tightly carbonated as well, giving a very strong, nearly creamy texture.
I love regular Speedway, and the bourbon being correctly done is just the icing on the cake. Not quite as good as the best bottles of Speedway I’ve had, but right up there.
Thanks Chris and Todd.

Bottle at Chris O bottlefest 2007. Great grapefruity aroma with citrus and tangerine. One of the best aromas I’ve had on a beer. In mouth, fantastic, but harsh on finish. So much tangerine, it’s pretty awesome as the label says, but it fades as a beer towards the end. 4.3/5. Bottle from BeerMerchants.com Feb 2009. I agree with my rating about the aroma, the hops attack you even before they are out of the bottle, but it really is a sublime hop aroma. Not harsh, just creamy and floral and flowery and full of lychee. Up against Stone Ruination, it’s hard to call, but nice to be given the chance. THis is more floral on the hop, almost more delicate if that can makes sense for such a hugely hoppy beer. Is it worth £11? Yes. Definitely, better than most wines of the same price. I certainly can’t rate it any lower than Ruination. The more I drink it the more I like it, or is that the more I drink it, the more drunk I get? Along with the Speedway, this is a world class beer. Big hop without being harsh, unbelievably huge but subtle at the same time. Really quite an experience. You really do feel that this is an event rather than a beer. Really quite exceptional. Just about flawless in terms of an ipa from the West Coast.

This was good but not as complex as it might have been. Great looking packaging. Flavor is loaded with malt and Belgian yeast. Aroma has more malt, quite sweet. There is lots of fruit and some sugar here, some vanilla but no chocolate. A thick and heavy beer.

OK, I’m going to ruin the rating count and be Speedway rater #667. That’s OK, I’ve searched for this beer for years, so I deserve it - and thanks to cbkschubert for being the decent fellow he is and sending me one. What to say, what to say...after all the hype. Well, its easily one of the best imperial stouts I’ve ever had, and definitely the best coffee beer I’ve had, but its not a top 10 beer. The aroma is redolent with plummy fruits, not dominated by coffee, although its presence is there, along with a light cocoa and roast. The flavor is big and smooth, with a rich coffee-tinged roasty chewy palate. Fair sweetness, then a side of the tongue tingling astringency leading to a mildly acrid bitterness in the finish, which seems a combination of 3C type of hop and a burnt/black malt. Alcohol warming provides a nice backdrop to the end. Pretty black in color, showing a red-brown during the pour, with a firm brown head with good retention, but weak lacing.