Alesmith IPA

Beer: Alesmith IPA
Brewery Location: San Diego, CA
Beer Style: IPA
ABV: 7.75%



It was my birthday this past weekend and I've been keeping a few beers back for the occasion. This is one of those beers that I've been saving. You've read about what I think of Alesmith, and their beer Yulesmith (the winter addition) is in my top five favorite beers of all time. I've read that Stone helps to distribute Alesmith's beers, but we have yet to see them here in Indiana. I've gotten several bottles of this recently at Jungle Jim's and have also traded for a few since I like it that much.

I really would like to make a trip to the west coast just for beer purposes. In San Diego alone there are several breweries that I would like to visit like Alesmith and Ballast Point, and hopefully could finish the trip up in Petaluma visiting Russian River, but that is just a pipe dream at this point, but someone I will make it out there.

This IPA pours a cloudy copper color with a bit of spent yeast floating in my glass topped off with a full three fingers worth of slightly off-white head. This beer left ribbons of lacing around the walls of my pint glass. As a hop-head I love smelling this beer. The hops are very fresh and vibrant with strong scents of citrus fruit and pine underpinned by a subtle soft earthiness as well, and I personally think one of the best American IPA noses you will find. The flavor profile first brings on the rush from all of those hops with flavors of orange rind, pineapple, sticky pine needles, and ripe grapefruit, but as the beer warms a bit I get more of the sweet caramel base to round everything out. I do get a bit of alcohol in the flavor as well, but that is fairly muted compared to the hops and malt. The mouthfeel is medium bodied and super smooth going down with no astringency and the alcohol that was present in the flavor was gone in the mouthfeel. The drinkability is superb on this beer and even at 7.75% I would have multiple offerings of this beer.

This beer is just a superior example of an IPA. The fresh scent of the hops and flavor profile are just about unbeatable here for an IPA. This easily goes in my rotation of IPA's if I could find it locally. The bottle has a few new acronyms for IPA, one being "I Prefer Alesmith" and "It's Pretty Awesome." I have to say that I agree with them.

Cheers!
Matt