Gales Millennium Brew

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

Comments: Strong, wierd, off sour oxidized bite. Liquidy, wet cardboard, bubbly on tongue, some overipe fruit. Strange brew. Draft @ Mugs Anniversary.

Cloudy, dark muave body. Zero head or lacing. The aroma is sour and alcoholic. I picked up sour red fruits, sweet brown sugar, walnuts and oak. Independently, these scents might make for appealing components. Together, in this blend, they make for a borderline offensive, muddled, sherry-like mess. Things only go down hill from there. The flavor is like spoiled red fruit that has been liquified and watered down. I can only manage a few sips of this concoction. The mouthfeel is flat and watery. Short, sour finish. Well past its prime and obviously not fit to age as well as they intended. Drain pour.

I’m not one to just toss away a beer, but I came pretty close with this one. Way past it’s prime, tasted of bitter oak, extreme sourness, zero carbonation, looked like clarified mud. No thanks.

Date: 06/07/2006
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting

muddy rusted orange, sweet and sour carmel malt aroma, thin body, tart malt flavor, no alcohol, mellow for a tart beer, light bitterness

Aroma: 4/10; Appearance: 4/10; Flavor: 5/10; Palate: 3/10; Overall: 9/20
Rating: 2.2/5.0
Drinkability: 5/10
Score: *4

Bottle, Knightly in Orlando. Pour is reddish-brown in color, fairly flat, no head, no lacing. The aroma was actually quite nice, brandy and other liquor notes, dark malts, caramel and brown sugar, light molasses. The flavor, unfortunately, was more water than anything at all, lots of water, underlined by some light woody caramel and molasses, and of course, lots of water (and alcohol heat). Mouthfeel was obviously quite thin.

275ml bottle - Pours dark amber with no head. It smells of English malts with some dark fruit notes. There’s zero carbonation. It’s not what I’d call watery, but the total and absolute lack of carbonation doesn’t work well, in my opinion. Was it not sealed well to last for years? I don’t know. There’s some sourness and wine-like character to it that others have described. It’s interesting and roughly tied for the oldest beer I’ve had, but like the other one that old that I rated (a Nice Chouffe), perhaps it’s past its prime.

Vintage bottle uncorked ... this pours like a brandy more than a beer ... no carbonation at all. Thick viscuous brown-sugar aroma. Drinks like a port, almost ...pure liquid sugar and alcohol, bit of a tart take to it. Actually the more this goes, the tarter and more puckery and whiskey-like it gets. Guess there are folks out there that enjoy these types of antique beers ... I’m not one of them. (#2997, 7/1/2007)

The most beautiful deep clear amber orange body with a big bubbled lasting beige head; Very fine and elegant well developed mature nose, quite a bit of woody, horsey apple-like Brett aromas backed by fruity notes of dry Sherry; Small amount of pleasant sharp carbonation on soft textured body, very balanced, deep and complex, fresh salty and slightly sour; It evolves into a big and very long finish, again as complex and well developed as it gets, the salty sourness stands out pleasantly and lasts forever, with lots of ripe and green apple sour aromas and sherry like wood notes. What a very, very great beer, one of the finest and most elegant I ever had - Thanks a billion to Kramer17801!