Gales Jubilee Ale

Formerly brewed at Gales
Style: Barley Wine
Horndean, England

Finally a beer from this brewery I like. Smells like a molasses barleywine, as it should. Very very woody flavor and a funky finish. Different, but nice.

Bottle at RBESG 2006. (at least i think so, my notes tell me that it said 1935 somewhere on the label) Beautiful aroma, smelt like a very nice port. Tasted more like a hybrid. Didn’t quite work for me. A bit syrupy as well.

10/16/2006: I always get excited about a corked bottle of beer for some reason, but I also get fearful that the cork will be dried out and I will break it off in the bottle. Luckily that was not the case this time! My mouth started watering as a pulled the cork and started pouring this beer. Color is brown with an amber hue. Mostly clear with some sediment suspended in it. No carbonation (probably due to the fact that it has been in a corked bottle for 4 years!). Aroma is mouthwatering and deep - Malt, port, sherry, and well aged alcohol-soaked wood. The flavor is even also deep and complex with hints of malt, caramel, grapes, apples, and oak. The finish is a little dry and some nice bitterness gets a comes through as well. The alcohol is also detectable in the finish, but not quite as obvious as I thought it might be for 12%. The mouthfeel is on the full side, but quite smooth and not syrupy at all. As it warms, the beer becomes more vineous and some of its complexities disapate. I didn’t have this beer when it was released, but I think this beer has aged nicely and has many good aged-like aromas and flavors.

9.3 oz bottle (12% alcohol, corked bottle), $2.99 from Party Town. Rating: 8/2/7/3/15=3.5.
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2002 Vintage

5/07/2009: Gales Jubilee Ale pours a FLAT amber color. The aroma is malty, fruity, and oxidized (in a good, complementary way). I actually really like the flavor. It reminds me of a weak English barleywine... This beer is sweet, malty (prunes?), and REALLY good even 7 years later. There isn’t a lot of depth in this beer as far as complexities go, but I really like the malt profile and subtle sweetness. This beer has aged very well.. By the way, the cork smells exactly like a good cigar.

9.8 fl. oz. bottle (12% Alc/Vol.). Rating: 8/3/8/3/16=3.8.

9.3 oz bottle, Stateline Liquors. Pours a mostly clear ruby hued amber colored body with an extremely small fizzy head that vanished immediately. Aroma is thickly malty with a good hefty dose of port and madiera oxidation notes. Some alcohol, figs, dates, and light soy. You have to love the aged ones to like this beer. More like a port than beer, loaded with great aged characteristics. Finish brings out some alcohol, but it’s not especially prominant for a 12% beer. Mouthfeel is pretty full bodied with minimal carbonation. Texture is rather slick, but no cloying stickiness I expect from a 12% beer. Really a nice surprise for me. Probably my favorite beer from Gale’s.

i wonder if fullers will start priming the bottles of the gales beers. i am always amazed by the uncompromising lack of carbonation of gales beers (why bother bottle conditioning at all? what is the yeast doing if not producing CO2? obviously the yeast was long expired anyway cause i tried to rouse it for my homebrew uses but it just lay there like a corpse). ANYWAY. a sweet, deep malty beer with traces of apple and strawberry in aroma and finish and only a little bit of acidity. there might have been some nice goldings flavour in this 4 years ago, now faded into a pleasant background dryness. quite winey. would perhaps come into its own with some stilton. actually i’m glad gales got bought up cause they’re monarchist old farts who probably only brew interesting beer because they blindly believe in tradition rather than because they want to shake people’s tastes up.

Smell and taste of burnt rotten apples.Zero head or carbonation. Try Lees or Hardys instead.Gets my vote as the worst barley wine ever. Glad its retired,it will save at lot of agony.

Bottle. Reddish brown color with no head or carbonation. Sweet, vinous and acidic aroma with notes of apple, vanilla, oak, cherry, pencil and bouillon. Sweet and acidic flavor with port wine, raisins, apple, oak and cherry. Very long and warming finish with apple, raisins and oak. Very deep flavors!

wow, i really liked this, one of the few beers that i feel is underated. Got this today at Downeast Beverage Co. pours a thik murky brown, with lots of sediment. poured in alot of the yeast, Wups! Had this at cellar temp. aroma is very earthy, with strong caramel, oak, and brown sugar. taste is of caramel, molasas, spice, and some nutty, woodsy type flavors. very strong, this is just as much like a wine as it is a beer, the perfect example of a sipping beer. strong alcohol presence in the aroma and taste, warms you up nice!