Re: Alesmith Yulesmith
I had actually posted this in OOT previously, but you guys seem to be constantly updating so I'll be checking this out more often. Here's a post I made there a while back.
Recently I've bought a couple of offerings from Victory (Prima Pils and Old Horizontal) and Rogue Chocolate Stout. The Prima Pils is a pilsener as you might expect, and it's a pretty good beer with plenty of hops and bitterness, but not to the point of being ridiculous. I'm not terribly familiar with the pilsener style and I'm more of a stout fan myself.
The Rogue Chocolate Stout was as good as it sounded. Came out essentially black with a nice caramel-colored head. It tasted like chocolate in my mouth, but on the way down it tasted more like bitter dark chocolate, just a great finish. I'd definitely have this again. Apparently they brew the beer with chocolate in there, I'm not sure if this is standard for all chocolate stouts (anyone know?).
Lastly, the Victory Old Horizontal is Victory's barleywine offering. At first I had no idea what the hell a barleywine was. Old Horizontal is 10.5% ABV and this particular batch was bottled in December 2004. It came out amber-red and smelled like plums caramel out of the bottle. Despite the high alcohol content, it sure doesn't taste that way. I found myself liking this beer more and more with every sip. By the end I was sad to see it all gone and I knew that having another one wouldn't be such a spectacular idea. Plus, I plan on cellaring some of these for a bit.
In summary, I think I'd give the Prima Pils a 3.7/5, Chocolate Stout 4.2/5, and the Old Horizontal a 4.4/5.
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