One of San Diego's best kept secrets
Sep 05 '01 (Updated Sep 24 '01)
The Bottom Line A light refreshing ale, with an uncompromising hoppiness. There’s enough quality craftsmanship to be appreciated by microbrew enthusiasts, as well as a lighter delicacy to earn widespread enjoyment.
AleSmith X Extra Pale Ale, Ale Smith Brewing Company, San Diego
Many people go to San Diego and visit the zoo or SeaWorld. That’s actually how my wife, daughter and mother-in-law spent the day while I hopped a few miles up the freeway to what may be San Diego’s best brewer. I wrote a review of my visit to the brewery and sample tastings which you can read at:
http://daryl.epinions.com/content_2097717380
This review is of AleSmith X, one of the beers I took home from my visit.
AleSmith X is classed by the brewer as an Extra Pale Ale. The beer is bottle-conditioned, with a clearly noticeable yeast sediment. Amarillo hops are used up front, followed by Columbus and Cascade later in the boil and for dry-hopping. Original gravity is 1.050, which results in an ABV of 5%.
It was People's Choice award winner at the 2000 San Diego Real Ale Festival and the second runner-up in 2001. It’s probably AleSmith’s most widely available brew, distributed in both kegs and bottles.
The recommended serving temperature is 45-55 degrees, and due to my lack of patience I was drinking mine at around the higher end of that range.
Tasting Notes
“Ahh, the wonders of bottle-conditioning,” I thought with delight, as I watched the lively pour on this one. It’s a pale golden color with impressive white foam and a multitude of tiny precise cascading bubbles. This pour had resulted in something cloudier than I had witnessed at the brewery, telling me that there was some yeast mixed in there. No complaints from me though, after all yeast is good for you.
There’s a delightful fresh floral greeting on the nose with lemony citrus as well as piney and grassy notes, while there’s also a pale smooth malted background aroma.
A spritzy refreshing carbonation tingles the front of the palate, gradually smoothing out in the middle. It’s certainly on the light bodied side for an ale, adding to this beer’s refreshing drinkability.
The tip of the palate is pretty clean, while there’s a gentle sweetness in the middle with something of a biscuity malt and a honey-like flavor and texture. There’s a nice fresh lemon sweetness that plays well against the honey too. It does seem like this is about to rush up to a strong bitter finish, but the tangy citrus that results is actually a little milder with a perfectly weighted crisp dryness, making for a pleasant and agreeable finish. Some grapefruit tangy citrus does linger into the finish, but overall this is rounded out with a subtle smooth lemony sweetness.
Verdict
I used the word agreeable in the describing the finish, and this is certainly a good way to sum up this brew. It’s something of a light, refreshingly pleasant ale, hence the name extra pale. While I’m sure that its main purpose is as a thirst quencher it also offers plentiful hop bitterness in the finish as well as an adequate malt background and character. Not only will the craftsmanship and lighter delicacy in this brew appeal to the most dedicated of aficionados, it is also not too demanding and should therefore command widespread appeal among lighter lager drinkers and craft brew novices. So in short, if you love craft brews, or have merely enjoyed a few of the lighter hefeweizens or blonde ales, this one is certainly worth a try.
Availability
This beer only appears to be currently available on draft and in bottles in the Los Angeles and Orange County regions. It would probably be worth the brewer putting together a six-pack and even shipping them a little further, at least as far as the Southern California desert where we have a year round demand for refreshing ales. I noticed it in a couple of finer grocery stores, Whole Foods Market and Bristol Farms, as well as on draft at Pizza Port Solana Beach. I also saw reference to this ale in and advert for the LAX Sheraton. Capacity did seem a little tight at the brewery, and this may be restrictive to further growth (the number of seasonal and experimental ales seems further evidence of that). If you’d like to try this ale elsewhere you can order directly from the brewer at:
http://alesmith.com/pages/ordering.html
or try one of the online vendors at:
http://www.hitimewine.com/beer_list.htm
Ratings
I give this beer a high recommendation
4 Stars
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Epinions.com ID:
andaryl
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 - Top 500 |
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Member: Andrew Smith
Location: The Desert, So Cal
Reviews written: 219
Trusted by: 174 members
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