AleSmith My Bloody Valentine | AleSmith Brewing Company
Brewed by:
AleSmith Brewing Company
California, United States
alesmith.com
Style: American Amber / Red Ale
Alcohol by volume (ABV): 6.66%
Availability: Winter
Notes / Commercial Description:
Don’t spend this Single Awareness Day alone – grab a beer! This red-blooded cousin of Evil Dead Red Ale, our Halloween Brew, is a beautiful crimson color. Notes of caramel, toast, and bittersweet chocolate balance an intense bouquet of floral hop aromas that we know you’ll fall in love with. The finish leaves a pleasant, full-bodied sweetness on the palate that won’t spread angry rumors about you to all your friends like that one time when I was…ohh…uhh…Happy Valentine’s Day!
Added by OStrungT on 02-13-2006
HISTOGRAM
View: Beers | Place Reviews | Events
Ratings: 681 | Reviews: 168
3.76/5 rDev -5.1%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75
7/27...pours dark mahogany reddish brown. Heavy with a tick creamy head of off white foam. Amber caramel malty nose. Sweet,. Floral. Sweet woody open with a hard edged burnt bitter. Remarkably caustic bitter hits the sweetness like crazy. Maybe that's the metaphor.
265 characters
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75
7/27...pours dark mahogany reddish brown. Heavy with a tick creamy head of off white foam. Amber caramel malty nose. Sweet,. Floral. Sweet woody open with a hard edged burnt bitter. Remarkably caustic bitter hits the sweetness like crazy. Maybe that's the metaphor.
265 characters
4.24/5 rDev +7.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
4.01/5 rDev +1.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
Picked up a bomber from TW Arrowhead 4-15-17 for $5.99. No bottling date but it has been stored in the beer fridge since purchase.
Beer poured a mahogany brown with a beautiful long lasting head that is leaving lacing behind.
Nose is rich with caramel malts and citrus.
Taste is very well balanced. Beer base is the classic sweet caramelized malt backbone that is not too sweet. Citrus and a very slight touch of pine round out the beer and meld very nicely.
Mouthfeel is medium bodied and fairly smooth and refreshing.
Overall this is a very enjoyable brew in which the hoppy red amber style is nailed down quite well. Would love to try this on tap!
659 characters
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
Picked up a bomber from TW Arrowhead 4-15-17 for $5.99. No bottling date but it has been stored in the beer fridge since purchase.
Beer poured a mahogany brown with a beautiful long lasting head that is leaving lacing behind.
Nose is rich with caramel malts and citrus.
Taste is very well balanced. Beer base is the classic sweet caramelized malt backbone that is not too sweet. Citrus and a very slight touch of pine round out the beer and meld very nicely.
Mouthfeel is medium bodied and fairly smooth and refreshing.
Overall this is a very enjoyable brew in which the hoppy red amber style is nailed down quite well. Would love to try this on tap!
659 characters
3.75/5 rDev -5.3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
3.75/5 rDev -5.3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
4.19/5 rDev +5.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
AleSmith Brewing Co. "My Bloody Valentine"
22 fl. oz brown glass bottle without freshness dating
$5.49 @ Total Wine & More, Cherry Hill, NJ
Look: Very hazy deep mahogany brown body beneath a finger thick head of rocky tan foam. The head retention and lacing are both quite good. Solid walls of lacing are left behind.
Smell: Malty and floral with notes of golden caramel, darker caramel, and almost burnt sugar.
Taste: The flavor follows the aroma with the addition of some crusty bread character to the malt and some yeasty fruitiness that includes soft sweet red berries, juicy red delicious apples, a hint of cherry, and dried dark fruits but also a subtle hint of pine and some orange from hops, and some tea-like character in the finish. It blends perfectly with the floral character from the hops and the rich caramel-laced maltiness. It's not "sweet", but there's a sweetness to that malt that's balanced only by a minimal bitterness - somehow it manages to finish mainly dry, and certainly without any lingering "sticky" malt that could become cloying. It's a pretty big beer with some heft it, and a fair amount of alcohol at 6.66% ABV, but it never shows - the alcohol remains cloaked and the malt never builds on the palate. That's impressive.
Feel: Medium leaning medium-full in body with a fine-bubbled median carbonation that's at first just lightly zesty and then warms to become creamy and smooth.
Overall: Really well balanced and very nicely rounded.
1,474 characters
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
AleSmith Brewing Co. "My Bloody Valentine"
22 fl. oz brown glass bottle without freshness dating
$5.49 @ Total Wine & More, Cherry Hill, NJ
Look: Very hazy deep mahogany brown body beneath a finger thick head of rocky tan foam. The head retention and lacing are both quite good. Solid walls of lacing are left behind.
Smell: Malty and floral with notes of golden caramel, darker caramel, and almost burnt sugar.
Taste: The flavor follows the aroma with the addition of some crusty bread character to the malt and some yeasty fruitiness that includes soft sweet red berries, juicy red delicious apples, a hint of cherry, and dried dark fruits but also a subtle hint of pine and some orange from hops, and some tea-like character in the finish. It blends perfectly with the floral character from the hops and the rich caramel-laced maltiness. It's not "sweet", but there's a sweetness to that malt that's balanced only by a minimal bitterness - somehow it manages to finish mainly dry, and certainly without any lingering "sticky" malt that could become cloying. It's a pretty big beer with some heft it, and a fair amount of alcohol at 6.66% ABV, but it never shows - the alcohol remains cloaked and the malt never builds on the palate. That's impressive.
Feel: Medium leaning medium-full in body with a fine-bubbled median carbonation that's at first just lightly zesty and then warms to become creamy and smooth.
Overall: Really well balanced and very nicely rounded.
1,474 characters
3.5/5 rDev -11.6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
3.5/5 rDev -11.6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
3.5/5 rDev -11.6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
4.04/5 rDev +2%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
4.35/5 rDev +9.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
22 oz. Bomber
Poured into a tulip a pretty nice brown color, pretty nice carbonation, with a pretty nice thick/creamy one-finger light tan head, which leaves some nice sticky lacing behind. The nose is malty, some hops, slight chocolate, citrus. The taste is pretty nice, malty, hoppy, slight chocolate, citrusy. Medium body, with a nice little dry/bitter finish. Overall, a very tasty brew.
392 characters
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
22 oz. Bomber
Poured into a tulip a pretty nice brown color, pretty nice carbonation, with a pretty nice thick/creamy one-finger light tan head, which leaves some nice sticky lacing behind. The nose is malty, some hops, slight chocolate, citrus. The taste is pretty nice, malty, hoppy, slight chocolate, citrusy. Medium body, with a nice little dry/bitter finish. Overall, a very tasty brew.
392 characters
3.5/5 rDev -11.6%
look: 4 | smell: 2.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75
look: 4 | smell: 2.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75
3.45/5 rDev -12.9%
look: 4 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.5
22 ounce bomber bottle copped from Bottle King in Livingston. Pours a mahogany crimson hue with moderate frothing. Faint aroma replete with hints of caramel and toast. Similar flavor profile.
191 characters
look: 4 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.5
22 ounce bomber bottle copped from Bottle King in Livingston. Pours a mahogany crimson hue with moderate frothing. Faint aroma replete with hints of caramel and toast. Similar flavor profile.
191 characters
3.75/5 rDev -5.3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
3.75/5 rDev -5.3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
4.25/5 rDev +7.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
3.64/5 rDev -8.1%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75
Healthy finger plus head of deep tan hue, even surface with credible density and retention, nice spider web of thin lacing across any open glass. The liquid is a dark mahogany red closer to brown than orange, fine clarity but dark enough you don’t easily see through it, only a few visible bubbles. Graham cracker, honey, pie crust and chocolate notes give the nose immediate appeal, conversely there’s a firm underpinning of dank leafy hops and pine sap to give it erectness, likewise has an earthiness which matches up well with the apricot paste to dried pineapple fruit scents. Full-bodied, has a creamy mouth feel to it that eventually leads to more prickle at the end. Piney and close to minty at times, not much lemon citrus but plenty of cocoa, toffee, hard coffee candy and that honey dappled pie crust. Here the hoppiness has more precision but less staying power, its razor edge exhausts itself quickly. More minerally than earthy, cleaner than the nose suggests. No real fruitiness. What nags at you is that no one element seems to excel and when taken all together as a whole it’s nothing more than competent. Content to drink more but would not seek it out again.
1,183 characters
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75
Healthy finger plus head of deep tan hue, even surface with credible density and retention, nice spider web of thin lacing across any open glass. The liquid is a dark mahogany red closer to brown than orange, fine clarity but dark enough you don’t easily see through it, only a few visible bubbles. Graham cracker, honey, pie crust and chocolate notes give the nose immediate appeal, conversely there’s a firm underpinning of dank leafy hops and pine sap to give it erectness, likewise has an earthiness which matches up well with the apricot paste to dried pineapple fruit scents. Full-bodied, has a creamy mouth feel to it that eventually leads to more prickle at the end. Piney and close to minty at times, not much lemon citrus but plenty of cocoa, toffee, hard coffee candy and that honey dappled pie crust. Here the hoppiness has more precision but less staying power, its razor edge exhausts itself quickly. More minerally than earthy, cleaner than the nose suggests. No real fruitiness. What nags at you is that no one element seems to excel and when taken all together as a whole it’s nothing more than competent. Content to drink more but would not seek it out again.
1,183 characters
4.33/5 rDev +9.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
L - Deep amber with no clarity, 1/2 a finger of head and some nice lacing left on the glass
S - Citrus hops, dried fruit
T - Big caramel malty taste, with citrus up front, but nicely balanced. Love the taste on this one. Big and bold
F - Full body and medium carbonation
O - Awesome brew. I will buy this one annually for V-day! Love it
344 characters
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
L - Deep amber with no clarity, 1/2 a finger of head and some nice lacing left on the glass
S - Citrus hops, dried fruit
T - Big caramel malty taste, with citrus up front, but nicely balanced. Love the taste on this one. Big and bold
F - Full body and medium carbonation
O - Awesome brew. I will buy this one annually for V-day! Love it
344 characters
AleSmith My Bloody Valentine from AleSmith Brewing Company
Beer rating:
3.96 out of
5 with
681 ratings
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75