- ABV: 7.25%, Style: IPA
- Brewed in San Diego, CA, USA
- Best before - come on Alesmith, put some dates on your bottles.
- Served: 660ml bottle poured into a BrewDog tulip
- http://alesmith.com/
This beer comes with the heavy suggestion of value that is a 100% score on RateBeer. I’m not really sure how any subjective opinion can add up to 100%, especially as there’s a 2 out of 5 review on the first page. Either way, it adds a weight of judgement which preceeds this review.
I’ve actually had this beer before in a bro bar in San Francisco, however, it was so under-hopped that I can only assume that the bottle had been sat on the shelf for ages. The barman didn’t know what it was when I asked for it, which wasn’t a good sign.
This bottle was part of my local BrewDog bar’s latest delivery of beer so I hope this one one has a little more life in it. Despite staring at the bottle for ages, I could find no bottling date or best before date.
Look: Pale orange, hazy beer. Off-white foam head, about two fingers deep. Consistent lacing throughout.
Aroma: Smells fantastic. Grapefruit, pineapple and pine from the hops and toffee from the malt.
Taste: Starts badly, it’s a little thin, a bit herbal and sharply fruity. However, then there is an amazing bitter grapefruit finish with enough malt present to make it quite lovely. A total palate ruiner.
Mouthfeel: Sharp, medium carbonation. Generally it feels light bodied. Despite the reasonably high AVB, it seems thin.
Overall: Scent and finish are brilliant on this beer. It doesn’t hit top marks for me because of the thin body and indistinct first taste. Still a great, big IPA but I think I’d take Racer 5 over this if I had the choice of the two. Lovely beer. 4/5
- 9th December 2012, Sustainable Alcoholic
