Gales Conquest Ale Masterbrew

Formerly brewed at Gales
Style: Barley Wine
Horndean, England

Oops, definitly poored a little too much on this one as the thick yeast came out at the end of the bottle. Hope I don’t get the shits tomorrow. Not sure how long this has been retired, but I got a bottle of it in December 2004 and it says it was brewed in 2001. Beutiful amber color that turned from clear to cloudy as the yeast spilled out. Very sweet aroma. Taste is incredibly sweet to the point of being a little tart. Also has a touch of hops in the end and some alcohol warming. I don’t know if it got better aging a bit in the store, but I certainly enjoyed this beer much more than the low percentile would lead me to believe.

Pours is a deep orange with almost no head. Aroma is very sweet and malty. I mean very,very sweet and malty. Flavor is like apple candy with some bittler ness in the end. its very grainy and thick as it goes down and then you get a warming from the alcohol. Pretty decent if you can find a bottle.

Another bottle provided by Blake. Slightly cloudy amber body, no head. Apples, yeast and alcohol in the aroma. Big, strong flavor of apply yeast, pale malt and peppery alcohol spice. As the beer warms you can pick out caramel sweetness and some chocolate malt. Pretty cool beer, the fruity yeast made it really interesting.

Ap: cloudy copper in color w/ a very sparse white/off-white head Ar: yeast and bitter apples and something a touch spicy in my nose that I couldn’t identify as well as a bit of alcohol in the aroma Pa: rich good texture and body a bit warm. No real carbonation at all. Flr: hints of biter apples, yeast, and alcohol, reminiscent of apple cider and moon shine. A little sweet behind the apple flavor and definitely a warming swallow. Ovr: a very interesting beer, different and good I’d like to try it again thanks to Blake

Smells like granny smith green apples and a hint of barley. Was a reddish golden color with non-existent head. Mostly clear and looks more like apple cider than a beer. It matches well with what this beer provides. It was a bit acidic. Along with the theme of apple cider, it tasted like that, not as strong (I had fresh apple cider available for comparison) but still good. It was sweet and sour with a bit of barley flavor. It said it was a pale ale, not a barley wine... Anyway, I liked the trickery provided by the yeast to make it taste like apples. Was better than Woodchuck, Strongbow, other alcoholic ciders (and it isn’t a cider).

Well, I found a trio of bottles of this burried behind some other beers in a dark cooler of my local beer shop, so I have decently high expectations. The beer pours a orange amber color with a thin head on top, and some noticable particles floating around in the beer. The smell is noticably sweet for a barley wine, smells more like a belgian strong ale. Coriander, orange peel and yeast and then barley is noticed. Flavor is an initial lambic-like fruity bitterness, which seems to dominate this beer. Im a little bit dissapointed by the bitterness level.

Bottle 275 ml. Cloudy Orange color. Fruity aroma. Full mouthfeel with good Fairly well balanced between sweetness and bitterness.

Not bad, but a little disappointing. Aged well from 2001, but a little soured with a decent alcohol presence. Apricot pour sans head. Too loght tasting to be a true barley wine in my book. Enjoyable enough, but not worth the extra bucks.