Gales Millennium Brew

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

This bottled and corked brew poured a medium sized mostly diminishing head of finely sized off-white colored bubbles that left behind a good lacing. The body is a hazy semi-transparent brown color with no visible carbonation. The aroma could be smelled from a foot away. It was very vinuous, port like and very much like a strong ale. The mouth feel is initially smooth then kicks in with a stong vinuous componet that leads to a more mildly vinuous mild brown beer aftertaste mixed with a little caramel. The flavor is pretty well hidden by the vinuous aspects of the mouth feel but once you get past the strong ale aspects, there is caramel malt and mild cinnamon.

The cork on this one gave me fits, it disenegrated into a million pieces before I finally got it all the way out. The color of this beer is a murky reddish orange. No head, I guess that is to be expected given that this beer was 7 years old when I drank it. The aroma is very strong, malty, fruity, caramel, slightly vinous. The flavor is malty with some raisins and caramel but overall falls rather flat. THe lack of carbonation makes the mouth-feel a bit watery even though it does have a medium-full body. THe finish is a tad sour. Not bad but not my favorite either.

Hazy orange brown. Usual GGC sour, woody, alcohol nose. Sweet, raisons, toffee, butterscotch, vanilla, cherry, great woodiness all the way through. Signature Gale's sweet sour woody finish, lightly hopped. I am ever impressed with brews from this producer.

Hazy brown color,small tan head that lasted for a short time then faded to nothing.The aroma was malty,caramel and fruity with a slight acidic like smell coming on as i take long drags off this brew.The flavor was malt and fruit with some wine like character,slightly bitter at times and a little flat for flavor and feel.Nothing special IMO,it's worth trying but i wouldn't go to crazy trying to locate this brew.The finish was slightly bitter with a decent alcohol burn going down,which is probably the best part of this brew,it's warming quality.

Has a medium copper body with no head, which makes sense since it is flat, which notalush points out. Very mild, very vinous flavor. It smells very nice, wintery and full of raisins. I actually quite like the somewhat tart finish, and I think that this beer would go very well with cheese. But the flavor is too thin for my taste, and I certainly wouldn't classify it as an ESA, except for its alcohol.

I guess George Gale beers take some getting used to - much like my bottle of POA, this sucker is flat as flat can be - tart, lambic-like aroma, with some mustiness and spice - body is pretty thin, but oddly, the flavor is very subtly complex - tartness up front makes way for some apples and spices, vinous notes, then a subdued roastiness, perhaps some chocolate - amazingly well-masked alcohol - there are a lot of things going on in this brew, but there are also qualities that, I suppose, all of their products have that really aren't like beers most of us are used to, and that really need to be understood - interesting stuff.

Murkey brown color. No head at all. Aroma is fruity and spicy with a touch of must. Med bodied ale. Apples and grapes dominate the flavors, with sour and vinous taking a close second. Touches of oak and brett, but its very watery and flat tasting. I’m wondering if it over the hill as it is nearly 2004. Could not drink to much of this bottle, needed to do a drain pour.. Mouthfeel is thin. Finish is clean. Aftertaste is slightly bitter, with some cardboard. Touch of alcohol bite in the finish.

Perhaps I’m not well educated in this brewer, but I think I’ve got another bad George Gale bottle; three for three... Bottle pours a hazy burned red - brown color with no head. The aroma is a bit like vinegar. The flavor is like a very bad dry wine. I give up on this brewer. If I want sour beer, I love the Flemish Sour style; but again, that is meant to be sour.