SKUNKED YULESMITH, OR JUST A LAME BEER?

Around the time I started this blog (early 2006) & really dove headfirst into beer mania, one of the key breweries on every beer tastemaker’s lips was ALESMITH down in San Diego. I went out of my way to try a few of their products, and have generally been pretty impressed (but not overly so), “awarding” a 7.5/10 to their ALESMITH IPA and a 7/10 to their 2006 YULESMITH, the winter ale. I also had several glasses of SPEEDWAY STOUT one evening after the 2007 BOONVILLE BEER FEST, but was a little bit beyond rating beer at that point – but I remember it being quite good. So then what the hell was up with this 2007 SUMMER YULESMITH I tried the other night? Sweet jesus, it was awful! See, they make a summer version and a winter version, and mix up the secret recipe year over year. I can’t blame them this year, and am willing to believe that this tart, eye-wateringly hopped, strangly-malted double IPA was skunked, or otherwise befouled, but I couldn’t drink the thing. Steve over at SUMMER OF BEER had an entirely different experience. I poured mine out, and cursed in a most ribald manner, finding myself conjuring and spitting out words like “dagnabbit”, “pshaw” and “what in Sam Hill…” that I’d never actually use in polite company. Who can tell me that this was just a bad bottle? You?