Gales Millennium Brew

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

Orange-brown color with zero head and zero carbonation. An old bottle, for sure. Extremely oxidized and vinegery. Soy sauce, sherry, dust, funk, some fruit. This did not stand the test of time.

Bottled. Poured clear apple-juicy orange with zero head, but it left some legs on the glass. The aroma opened with a sour fruity and lacto impression over bready and toffee maltage.. maybe a little molasses deeper down, and ample notes of oxidation.. kind of a mess. The flavor had the same sour character throughout with molasses, maple, and old toffee sweetness at the core.. almost pineappley notes joined the sourness on the edges and carried through the finish.. picked up serious doses of oak sours and green apple on that finish. Thicker-bodied, but with no carbonation on the palate.. sour and unpleasant for the most part.

Brewtopia bottle. Amber with slight haze. Oxidized aroma. Sour-sweet. Low carbonation. Yeasty. Mashed up ripe apples, raisins. Relatively thin but has complex flavors.

Tasting at Brewtopia beer festival. I think age got the best of this one. It seemed like there were some decent aromas to be found if you got past the oddness and maybe some old age funk? Oh well I will give this one a 3.0 for what it might have been fresh.

Courtesy of BDR. Brown color with no head. Aroma of brown sugar and apples. Sweet and slightly sticky malt taste. Quite sugary. Moderately oxydized. Nowhere near as bad as some reviews have made it seem.

Bottle during Tropical Storm Fay- about 8 years old. Corked had dried and disintegrated when I tried to pull it. I srtained most out. Beer was quite fortunately not corked! In fact the aroma was a gorgeous mix of berries (raspberry, strawberry) and spring flowers. Color a ruddy brown, with the expected lack of carbonation or head. No oxidation, the flavor is berryish, with a sweetish vinous finish that hints at dry red wine, with a mild tannic quality.

Bottle: Consumed at eight-years-old. Pours a headless hazy amber/maroon color. Sweet aroma of sticky British malts, maple, plum, dark berries, cardboard, mold and other oxidized notes. Slick and thin body. No carbonation at all. Flavor has a very odd phenolic character. Some candied berries and papery oxidized notes. Hints of molasses (but not sweet), band-aid, and alcohol. Vacant, and what is there is somewhat repulsive. I wonder if it just didn’t hold up over the time.

Pours brown with a reddish hue and still. Smells of sherry, pronounced sweet malt, lots of fruity hints. Tastes of sherry, tarte, some sweet malt creeping in. Finishes with a nice spicy hint and some warming alcohol on the end. This is a good brew. I’m not getting the low scores for this.