Beer – #233 – AleSmith – Speedway Stout

Indeed, a highly regarded beer, the AleSmith Speedway Stout, Brewed by AleSmith Brewing Company in the style of a Imperial Stout and that all happened in the place with a Zoo, San Diego, California USA.

Speedway Stout is a HUGE Imperial Stout, with pounds and pounds of coffee added during conditioning for a little extra kick! This is a limited-edition Formula and it’ll definitely get you racing! It is available in 750 ml. champagne bottles.

Appearance: Jet Black, with a toast-brown head.
Flavor: Starts with a strong coffee and dark chocolate sensation, then fades to a multitude of toasty, roasty and caramelly flavors. Finishes with a nice fullness but dry enough not to be cloying.
Aroma: COFFEE! And some other stuff. And coffee.
Mouthfeel (body/texture): Velvety smooth texture. Clean and crisp, full-bodied. Warmth from the high alcohol content lightens up the feel a bit. Still, you won’t fool your taste buds — this beer is HUGE!

750ml bottle of a 12% ABV beer. In NZ thats 7.1 standard drink units., the US 5.1 and in the UK 9. As far as I can tell this has an IBU of around 70.

Peeve is that although this is presented with a foil wrap over the cap, it’s a plain gold cap, no printing, just a plain old ten-a-penny cap. Just a peeve, doesn’t make it taste better.

worryingly the foil has a chocolate aroma, I hope the cap was sealed. It’s ok it hissed, and a lovely deep chocolate/coffee aroma made me smile.

Intensely dark beer, with a nice head of dark brown fluffiness. Aroma is more subtle that the intense burst from the smaller neck of the bottle, more muted coffee than anything.

Big big mouthful of flavours, very full, the underlying bitterness is easily and generously compensated by the bag full of sweetness that this delivers. Bittery tang on the length but it’s in a good way.

This is really one of those beers tastes that you sit after drinking and are still marvelling at the taste profile, it really is a full on experience.

The notes above are somewhat pretty accurate, and I’m getting each and every one of those things. I can see why is is so highly regarded and rated, they say what it is and then it is what it is.

The pdubyah-o-meter cracks up to an easy 9.75, and I’m taking the quarter off because this might, for me, just be a little too sweet. Picky picky. But that’s a 10 by any other name. More Awesome than Great. #HappyFace. I put the glass down and the pdubyah-o-meter ticked up the 10. Like it wasn’t going to.

This is, though, to sum up, a really really good beer, the coffee/chocolate thing is awesome, the low bitterness is more than balanced, and the length of flavour and the whole profile is stunning. The idea that this is one of the best beers “in the world” isn’t so far fetched. From fond memory the Epic Coffee and Fig stout would give this a fair run for the money, and I do have a current year version coming up to try.

If this “is” and therefore sets the bar, then woe betide the pretenders.