AleSmith Decadence 2008
Alesmith’s Decadence Anniversary Ale was originally brewed in 2005 to celebrate our first decade in business. The brewers at Alesmith had such a great time concocting Decadence that they decided to make it an annual event.
Alesmith 2008 is a traditional English-style Barleywine. Only the finest floor-malted barley and English hops were selected, in addition to a true top-cropping English yeast. Intensely malty and overflowing with flavors of caramel and toffee. Decadence 2008 showcases the very best of this classic English style.
Alesmith 2008 is a traditional English-style Barleywine. Only the finest floor-malted barley and English hops were selected, in addition to a true top-cropping English yeast. Intensely malty and overflowing with flavors of caramel and toffee. Decadence 2008 showcases the very best of this classic English style.
3.6
210 reviews
San Diego, United States
Community reviews
Bottle @ "Det er meget mørkt i Ulfborg", November 2012. Pours ruby amber with a small creamy head. Nose is toffee, dark fruit and caramel. Vinous and well aged. Flavor is oak, red wine , caramel, berries and fruit. Full bodied. Slick and smooth.
Bottle from Bev 4 Less: I was unfortunately too late to get a bottle of Decadence from the usual South Bay Drugs spot so I had to drive out to Santee in a desperate attempt to get my hands on a bottle. Luckily, I was able too. Created a huge thick fluffy head that was very stubborn and would not retreat while the liquid was a solid shade of mahogany with a brown tint. From the nose, there is a typical English barley wine scent of caramel or toffee along with dark fruit and cigar or tobacco. The immediate flavor is tart and shocking and seems a bit unripe or unbalanced but with the help of a thick molasses like syrup taste and sweet toasted caramel malt it does hold some kind of strong profile. However, I still feel strong about this beer not being as well rounded as all the previous decadences, but I guess sometimes it just doesn’t work out how you intended it to be.
Acquired two of these in a cellar cleaning a friend was doing. Very excited to try this! Enjoyed in a huge Riedel Bordeaux glass at just above fridge temp around 45-50 Degrees F.
A - Poured a plum to brown hazy purple into the glass. No head at all, almost no carbonation wisp as I uncapped it. Looks very murky.
S - Smells very sweet. Lots of dark fruits and sugars. Very like candied sugar sort of sweetness. Hints of vanilla and smoke.
T - Lots of fruity characters to this. Plums, bananas, mangos, kiwi and something else. Maybe grape juice? It has this uber bitter-sweet taste that stays around for a while. Middle of the tongue is very musty and sort of raw. Back of the tongue is this light campfire smokiness.
M - Very mild carbonation but it’s still there. Heavy body.
O - This is the oldest barley wine I’ve had. It’s remarkable. I’m going to hold onto the other one for a while.
750ml bottle. Poured a very deep and hazy amber color with an averaged sized off white head. Aromas of caramel, toffee, lots of maltiness, some woodiness, dark fruits, and some earth. Tastes of caramel, toffee, nuts, and dark fruits. Tastes of the softer side compared to the aromas with the alcohol content hidden.
A hazy amber color with a small khaki head. An interesting array of aromas on this. Certainly sour with a strong citric acidity and a bit of vinegar. Candied orange peel, caramel, and some toffee. A little bit of grapefruit on the finish. The flavor is somewhat sweet with toffee and brown sugar. Still a little bit of booze along with some dark fruits. Definitely tart, but not overwhelmingly so.
750mL bottle, split several ways, pours a murky orangey amber with a small beige head. Rich about now I was really hoping I didn’t get an infected bottle. The aroma has red berries, English malt, and caramel - very rich. Flavour of English malt, tofee, dark fruits, apples, and a very subtle sourness, but it isn’t dominant. Lucked out with this - certainly isn’t infected. Quite the contrary, it’s held up very well over the years. Very rich and warming without any cloying notes. Full-bodied, sticky, and slightly sweet, and only a smidgeon of the sourness. Excellent.
21st October 2009
Cloudy red - brown beer. Sourish woody nose with a hint of cherry. Softish palate, semi dry. Mildly sour malt and sour coca cola. An undertone of bitter chocolate. Mild spice. An odd combination that just about hangs together. Finishes soft, froth and dry with more sour coca cola.
The nose and flavor are full of a rich maltiness with notes of toffee, caramel and a nice but not overwhelming hoppiness.
Bottle at Churchill’s, San Marcos. It pours deep ruby, with a thin bubbly off-white head. The nose is very fruity -plum, prune, raisin, currant, tart red grape, caramel and cake. The taste is brown sugar, caramel leather, tinned fruit (pear, apple, nectarine, peach), prune, date, red grape, plum and wood, with a dry, slightly tart fruity finish. Full body and low-moderate carbonation. A pleasant fruity barley wine (I don’t mind the tartness).
750 ml bottle, and damn if I can’t remember where I got it. Thanks, though, to whoever it was. Pours a clear amber color with a small off-white head. Aroma of caramel malts, cranberries, raisins, sugar, milky toffee, and just a hint of earth. Flavor of caramel malts, toasted sugar, booze, dark fruits, brown sugar, and bitter woodsy earth. Medium-bodied, with low carbonation and a smooth mouthfeel. Reading through old ratings, it looks like this was infected for a lot of people. Not this one.
750ml bottle .. . Pours a deep molasses brown .. light foam, light lacing .. . light chocolate, toffee, burnt caramel and plums .. . slick .. . pretty good stuff, would have liked to have tried this fresh just to see where it came from .. . .
Oh. Then you must think I’m a monster
Yes, indeed I do think that.
Hazy cloudy brown, small tan head. Aroma is evident of the infected batch. Big, tart sour cherries. The hops are all but gone. As it warms the buttery, rum, bready malts come through a bit, and the the finish punches you in the face with sourness! This really has turned into a a flemish brown wrapped in toffee, and yeasty malts. Too bad. Its not 100% awful, but i dont see finishing the bottle.
I guess I got lucky and got one of the good ones. Aged for more than two or three years. Really great brew. None of this sourness I had been reading about. The malts were really quality and drank with a big pep to it. The hops were mild but the malts were really spectacular. A great bottle for sharing.
25oz bottle. I love the english style, but when I tried this fresh, it needed alot more time. Looks great, a lush dark amber/copper hue, brilliant white head. Aromas are caramel, but alot of hops in the nose, its ripping fresh. Palate is just that, bitter pine up front, turns cloying, then turns way too sweet in the finish. This needs so much more, and with a bottle left I believe a re-review will be needed soon.
In short: A thick barley wine with undesirable sourness. Infected bottle. A known problem with Decadence 2008
How: Bottle 750ml. Consumed when two years of age (Decadence 2008 was bottled july 2009). Bottle sent to me by… someone.
The look: Cloudy brown body topped by a medium beige head with good retention.
In long: I’ve been sitting on this bottle for a while. I traded for it and then reports started to pop-up about a good part of the bottles being undesirably sour/infected. Finally tonight I decided to see if I got lucky with a good bottle and bad lucky with a fucked up bottle. Unsurprisingly I’m part of the unlucky ones. Rotting sour cherries wrapped in toffee, digestive rum cookies, mint, other stuff, honey combs, strange astringency. The sourness built up sip after sip and became unbearable. Bad bad beer. I used to think that AlesSmith could do no wrong. Oh well…. some days you’re the rockstar, and other days you’re the clerk with a nametag and three pens in your front shirt pocket
Freddie at Beverages 4 Less was generous enough to share a bottle of this with my wife and I while we shopped--and believe me, it was the best shopping experience that I had ever had! Consumed in August 2009.
A: Pours a reddish copper with nice crimson highlights. A nice puffy head sits atop this one with some nice lacing.
S: Lots of malty sweetness with some cherries, dark fruits, toffee, and some brown sugar.
T: Plenty of sweet caramel malt, fruits, and lots of malt complexity. This is a great example of an English Barleywine, and I’d love to see how this one ages.
M: Medium bodied and an excellent sipper--it’s hard to swallow as each mouth full introduces greater complexities.
D: Quite drinkable, but definitely a sipper.
750 ml bottle shared by colonelforbin. Thanks Mike. Pours a clear, dark amber with a small light tan head that sticks around for a while and leaves a small amount of lacing on the glass. The aroma is quite fruity with plum and some raisin. There is also brown sugar, caramel, and a little bit of cherry. A bit of alcohol as well. The taste is quite sweet with brown sugar and caramel. The raisin is there as well as a bit of cherry. The finish has a slight tartness to it. Low carbonation. Medium to heavy bodied. A little bit syrupy. I found it to be a little too sweet overall.
Thankfully I waited to actually put pen to pad and tick this puppy. I had it three times within the first year of release and just didn’t feel like taking notes each time. This time around the elixir proves to those sharing in its goodness that there’s no infection here. The cap popped off with the bottle at only cellar temperature of about 55F, with a mild puff and the liquid then ran into each glass with only a modest head. Yep, no big volcano at opening, no big foamer into each glass and no sharp acidic aromatics associated with a problem. All is well. The aroma is smooth sweet molasses rolling quickly into caramel covered apricot, prunes and slivers of grapefruit and spicy almost oak like notes. The taste is smooth and near slick with prune infused molasses, caramel covered red apples and then mild tart grapefruit. It finishes fairly dry with muted spicy yeast and muted spicy hops taking this to closure. Wow!
Pours hazy reddish brown with thin off white head, opened 6/4/11 bottle thanks to baker! Rated this knowing it was supposedly infected, otherwise it would be a really low rating. Aroma has some notes of grape skin and red vinegar, caramel, oxidized papery notes, caramel, some dark fruit, sherry, and some slight earthy notes. Taste is some acetic vinegar, dark fruit, figs, with some sherry notes, touch of oxidized paper notes, and a very dry and fairly bitter finish. The sourness actually works fairly well with the beer, and the alcohol is hidden completely. Tasty brew!
750mL. Consumed about two years after bottling. The pour is a hazy black raspberry color with a small tan head rising after much encouragement. Baby lace. Nose is sugar raspberry compote and raspberry preserves. Taste is tart, lots of raspberry and bitter chocolate. Comes across as a grown up version of New Glarus Raspberry Tart. Very interesting. Alesmith thinks the BA Decadence 08 picked up sourness in the barrel. I think it was already an entire soured batch that is now showing that sourness now that it has aged. I would agree with them that this sourness is quite nice and there is no reason to consider this a flopped batch. Very good stuff.
750 from some place. Boozy. Caramel. Slightly thin body. Cherry - oxidation? For some reason cellared. Now opened as I clear the cellar.
The beer pours a medium to light brown with a light tan head, not very attractive not much going on. Tons of yeast floaties.
The aroma is really nice and balanced, tons of toffee, caramel, and light hops.
The taste is nice, light toasty caramel to start with a nice smooth hoppy finish.
The biggest problem with this is the feel, pretty watery.
Bottle - Pours a rich ruby/amber color with a thin, creamy beige head. Aroma of citrus, florals, caramel, and toffee. Really quite inviting. The taste is a very well balanced and smooth blend of citrus, chocolate, toffee, and a little fruitiness. Creamy and smooth, but a little thin in the finish. Hints of vinous fruit and abv. Good, but falls a little short of my expectations.
Bottled @ UDRM. The aroma has caramel, spices, fruits, perhaps some tart tones, but unsure about it. Hazy, brown coloured beer with an off-white head. The taste is sweet, has caramel, (dried) fruitiness, some spice, cheese, little dust due to ageing. Good bodied. Great.
750mL Bottle. Thanks Andy! Acidic, tangy, rich rubied malts. Genuine and red-fruited. Flavors waver and vary, but settle on classic mineral-forward barleywine tang, like old Thomas Hardys and Jw Lees. Snappy, rich, a bit sticky, but balanced by the quick, light tartness. A bit of meatiness and warmth bring up the back. It’s insanely faithful to it’s inspiritonal examples, but alas, not quite my bag, considering the obvious oxidation and old raisin flavor existing at three years of age.
Cloudy dark amber to brown color. Caramel aroma, mature, with chocolate, a bit cheesy. Strong flavor of caramel; moderate residual sweetness; also good malt flavor, strong chocolate, with notes of wood and raisins. Correct bitterness; the final is quite chocolatey, with some roasted nuts, more sweet; the alcohol is well hidden. Very good.
Bottle, pours an amber body with an off white head. Sweet fruity body cherry tones, hints of peach and overripe fruit tones. A hint of citrus, warming and caramel tones. Modest warming with a fruity sweetness. Alesmith does it again.
thanks to markwise-on tap @BT Wesley Chapel-750ml bottle-pours a tan head and copper color. Aroma is sweet medium malt, medium fruit-cherry, some citrus hops. Taste is sweet medium malt, medium fruit-cherry, secondary citrus hops. Soft carbonation.
Courtesy of TampaBrew. Thankfully I waited to actually put pen to pad and tick this puppy. I had it three times within the first year of release and just didn’t feel like taking notes each time. This time around the elixir proves to those sharing in its goodness that there’s no infection here. The cap popped off with the bottle at only cellar temperature of about 55F, with a mild puff and the liquid then ran into each glass with only a modest head. Yep, no big volcano at opening, no big foamer into each glass and no sharp acidic aromatics associated with a problem. All is well. The aroma is smooth sweet molasses rolling quickly into caramel covered apricot, prunes and slivers of grapefruit and spicy almost oak like notes. The taste is smooth and near slick with prune infused molasses, caramel covered red apples and then mild tart grapefruit. It finishes fairly dry with muted spicy yeast and muted spicy hops taking this to closure. Wow!
Bottle shared at Paul’s Thanksgiving tasting. Pours amber with a beige head. Sweetish malty aroma with herbala nd floral hops. The flavor has sweet and toasty malts, floral hops, and light herbal notes. Decent.