Gales Christmas Ale

Formerly brewed at Gales
Style: English Strong Ale
Horndean, England

Bottle - a fruity and yeasty aroma. I don’t get any spice in the aroma. A dirty gold to amber body. Cloudy with a white head of tiny bubbles and good staying power. The palate is so fizzy that it seems to expand after entering my mouth. I get a touch of spice in the flavor, but it is overpowered fairly quickly by yeast. Nice touch of sourness in the finish. Good.

Pours a 5+ finger cream head that goes slowly and leaves a good lace. Cloudy amber color with yeast left in bottle. Light carbonation and medium bodied. Nose is apple cider. Starts with a strong flavor of sour apples, the high abv is not noticeable, finish is sour, hops are hidden. 275ml bottle for $4.39 from Tully’s Beer & Wine Wells, Me.

This poured a medium sized head of fine to medium sized mostly diminishing tan bubbles that left behind a fair lacing. The body contained yeast floaties and was very hazy. Its aroma contained notes of very vinous mild malt and cork. Its mouth feel is initially very vinous sour mildly spicy. Its flavor contained mild sour spicy notes. Not all that good. OK as a winter warmer.

Sampled at a 2005 Christmas and Winter beer tasting at Delilah’s, Chicago, IL. 2004 vintage. Clear amber ale having no discernable head and carbonation. Spicy toffee aroma. Medium bodied that starts with complex flavors of light sweet malt, toffee and prune. Finishes with a light sweet malt aftertaste. No discernable bitterness. Satisfying malt flavor, this is a good winter beer.

Pours a hazy amber, with no head and minimal carbonation, typical of the Gales ales. Rich fruitcake aroma, with hints of almonds and vanilla too. A touch of hay-ey hops. Almost still, slick palate. Almost cloying, with a heavy twang in the finish. Slight vinous plummy character in the middle. A sipper, and a slow one at that, it just wasn’t terribly inviting.

Corked bottle. Ivory small head that mostly diminished, fine-small sized bubbles, sparse lacing, heavily yeasty, cloudy, no visible carbonation, and an orange brown hue. Malty, spicy, cinnamon, and alcohol aroma. Flavor was malty, spicy, fruity, and vinuous. Smooth palate. Medium body.

Bottled (2002). Amberish red colour, minor head. Extremely wineish nose with sweet grapes and a bit of alcohol. Flavour was plummy and spicy, a bit sticky palate. Very pleasant Christmas beer. Thanks to Beer Hunter’s in Pori for this one!

(9.3 oz corked bottles: $1.99 at BevMo in La Jolla, CA) I had previously sampled this beer two other times, and I haven’t been able to get a good bottle of this beer. Today, I have poured two bottles (2004 vintage, I presume, though it’s not labeled as such) into tulip glasses, and though this isn’t starting out well -- it smells a bit rancid initially -- I think these bottles are better. Both of them smell tart, very apple-like, and with a serious injection of holiday spices. This smells like spiced cider on the stove at Christmas. The flavor is quite tart, and again, very spicy, with lots of apple, raisins, some molasses, and a moderate maltiness. Not much in the way of hops or bitterness, but that’s fine, it would probably interfere anyway. Medium bodied, minimally carbonated, but the tart and spicy nature still makes this quite a refreshing beer on the palate. Murky light brown in color with floaties throughout, this beer appears still. There is no head when poured, not even a slight ring, and this still, uncarbonated appearance has been the case in each of the times I’ve had this beer. Well, it didn’t impress me out of the bottle, but it’s become more approachable as it’s warmed up. It just takes some getting used to because it tastes more like spiced cider and less like beer.