Gales Jubilee Ale

Formerly brewed at Gales
Style: Barley Wine
Horndean, England

Would have rated overall impression higher but it’s kicking my ass right now. Very strong aroma, overripe fruity flavor. Complex and heavy.

Bottle: Clear orange and a little red with no head. Alcohol, dark fruit (cherries) and caramel in the aroma. Starts and ends sweet with a sour ending. Syrupy mouthfeel and full bodied with a little burn on the way down.

Headless, murky brown body. Aroma is sweet, plum/raisin, caramel, some toffee, alcohol. Taste is sweet, caramel, plum, some port, some chocolate in the finish. Alcohol fairly well hidden. Full, flat body.

9.3 oz corked bottle, brewed for the Queen’s Jubilee (1952-2002): bright red-copper, clear. Completely absent of carbonation…striking alcohol aroma with a strong fig presence, as well as dark caramel & alcohol soaked strawberries. Smooth palate with a noticeable lack of carbonation, but this doesn’t take away from the beer, just makes it more like a fine liquour…the juicy fruits (pears, plums & apples) turn a bit sour and tart through the finish. Overall an enjoyable treat, but not one I would wait 50 years for…

No carbonation, no head, cloudy dull brown colour. Plum/raisin/sider aroma, quite sweet. Flavours much the same, cloying, alcohol bite - virtually undrinkable. Must have been a dodgy bottle, looking at the rest of the ratings...

Pours a glassy brown orange color, almost oak. Smell reminds me somewhat of sam adams triple bock. Portlike wooden aroma, and strong notes of raisin, fig, plum. Mouthfeel is intially watery, then thicker somewhat syrupy. The flavor is quite complex, enough so that it hides the alcohol rather well. It mimics the aroma, but has more of a wood taste than is present before.

My last Gale bottle from a recent splurge and I hope this one reverses the trend of negativity and gives me something to rejoice over, we hope, we hope... I pour, and observe the color, a nice, dark plum, but very little carbonation, practically no head, and I glance at the bottle, "12 %, eh, we may be in for a ride!" Aroma: Fruity, though faintrich in cherries, berries, grapes, and lately unfolding, becoming richer, deeper, darker, more pointed and potent. Spicy, sweet, containing a juicy sting in the nose. Taste: Mmmmm, warm on the mouth, lushly malty, fully fruity, with small hop content, but not remiss with flavor, and the booze rides high, washing all over the taste and cascading upwards into the brain before long. Full-bodied, good texture, warm, sweet, cognac-y finish, this is a luxuriant ale, perfect for frosty January nights, keeping one company against harsh, disconsolate distractions. Rich flavor continues to loll up into the palate again and again, tossing rewards aplenty into the senses. Yum, I keep thinking, yum, yummy, yum, additional tastes enter in, and I’m getting anise and spices, cinnamon, along with the strawberry and cherry... this is a good one! My initial fears of disappointment are allayed, and I relax in the undertow as it washes over me, spreading pleasure throughout... Again, though...worth $5.29 for a mere 9.3 ounces? Perhaps not, but this is one time that the monetary gamble was at least closer to the reward on the tongue.

Bottle. Poured a murky brown color, absolutely no head. Aroma and flavor were great. Big fruity nose, full of raisins, figs. Taste was just full of the same fruits. Appearance is lacking with color, complete lack of head. Palate leaves something to be desired with lack of carbonation.