AleSmith Decadence 2006 (Dead By Dawn)
750 ml bottle purchased from Beverage Warehouse in Los Angeles, finally pulled this one out of the cellar today to try Poured into my Trappist Westvelteren chalice with an enormous vanilla colored head that did not settle for 3-4 minutes, color was a deep reddish brown, more maroon than anything, crazy amounts of lacing thoughout, still drinking this one as I type and there is still foam all over the top of the glass Smell was very hoppy, which surprised me because I had heard the Evil Dead Red was more malty than anything and had a lost of roasted flavors, along with caramel, but I know they added a lot of hops to this one to make their anniversary brew Taste was much different than expected, very strong malty bite at first, followed, by a little bit of piney hops, and then a massively sweet finish, with a dark candy like aftertaste, smell defintely tricked me into thinking this was going to be more like and IPA than a strong ale This brew packs a bunch, 2/3 through the bottle right now and already a feeling it, but I am a little tired as well, could drink a good amount of this, but the heaviness and generous alcohol content would get to me after a while I have got to try Evil Dead Red now and compare the brews, have a feeling that is even sweeter without the hops to balance it out, and that might not be such a good thing Recommended to try at least once even though it is expensive at around ten dollars usually, probably age my other bottle of this for at least a year and then see if it has mellowed out a bit when I decide to crack it open, another solid brew from the small brewery in San Diego, next up is three different barrel aged brews from them and I cannot wait, just have to find special occasions to open them up, I have heard the BA Wee Heavy is quite delicious Congratulations to Alesmith for brewing this nice strong ale and developing their decadence series, cannot wait to see what they come up with for next year