Gales Jubilee Ale

Formerly brewed at Gales
Style: Barley Wine
Horndean, England

3 1/2 yr old sample Dark amber-chestnut, nearly no head. Rich, fruitcake, malts & raisins nose, fusels & esters à volonté , some oxydation. Sweetish, with chocolate, Madeira and portwine, in the best possible way; vinous and brandy-ish. Rich velvety MF, going to syrupy. Aftertaste molded by the restsugars. A very satisfying old ale - I wouldn’t have thought the Queen had aged herself all that well...

Pours honey colored w/ no froth. Aroma of soy sauce and iodine. Full nectar w/ a flat line on the residuals effers, nada. Slightly sweet and medicinal, with a pronounce worchestershire/soy sauce character. Medium hop with a peach pit stain on the finish. Reminds me of saladitos. Totally flat like AZ pond water. Alcohol is well hidden however. Have you ever cleaned the drain gutters along the roof of your house, packed with leaves, after the winter season ? Thats where they got the water for this brew. By Jack Handy.

Pours a still dark copper with nice legs. Complex aged aroma has some caramel and butterscotch notes along with some raisins and plums. Body starts fairly viscous with a hint of malty sweetness before turning slightly oxidized and more tart toward the thinner mildly warming finish. This seems to have a nice balance between sweet malt and acidity, but is more of an old ale to me than a barleywine.

Splendidly aged barleywine! Color has taken on a very tannic deep orange, oaken shade. No carbonation but for a slight suggestion on the finish (yet to the chagrin of many, myself not included, for a beer to be truly historic this will be a very common feature save in the Belgian family which has spontaneous carbonation). Strong but basic malty element to the aroma. Full of dry-yeasty, malty raisin element as the base of the flavor, with a strong wild cherry/lemonade tang that’s provocative yet pleasing on the palate both in the mouth and in the finish. I’m not a big fan of barleywine but for this I’ll make an exception (probably the best I’ve ever had of this style, in fact) -- it may better to let barleywines age a few years in general if they’re to be given proper credit. Yes, the alcohol in this beer is extremely well hidden -- making only a quick sensory presence late in the finish. Hail to the Queen!

Peut-être une bouteille mal vieillie. Une robe brune très foncée presque noire. Mousse absente. Arômes de café, de raisins, de chêne. Saveurs d’alcool et de malt. Très puissant au goût, mais sans toute la finesse souhaitée.

I see this is retired, but could have sworn the person providing the sample said it was but two (or three?) years old - not much for 12% beer, but OXIDIZED! Zip on the carbonation and the cookie dough had lost most of its crumbs. Maybe this was older than he said?

Pours a rich, dark color. Aroma is almost like a rich red wine. Flavor is a strong mix of raisin, malt, and oak. Mouthfeel is thin and weak. Alcohol is hidden well, so watch out. As it warms, the flavors flatten and just sit there, not even attempting to do anything. Below average, if you ask me.

Bottled and tasted in my Great Lakes snifter: Pours a cloudy reddish brown with no head or lace. Does have a good oily cling however. The aroma has notes of aged sweet white wine and sherry, old oak barrels, toffee and caramelized malting, and a hint of prune. The taste is a similar to the nose with more vinous qualities. A lot of earthy undertones throughout with a bone dry finish, did I just eat some oak bark? I even get some wheat like tones here and there. The feel is well, flat and dry. That said the alcohol is hidden well, perhaps too much as the warming nature sneeks up on you without warning. Nice and different but not something I would try again.