Gales Prize Old Ale (1920s - 2006)

Formerly brewed at Gales
Style: Old Ale
Horndean, England

Serve in English pint, Snifter

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2001 Bottle at Gregs, thanks! Muddy caramel pour, no head, no lacing, slight legs. Aroma is brown sugar, lots of cherry oxidation. Taste is huge cherry oxidation, tart sherry, but sweet. Weird, but fun to try at such an age.

Sweet but also sour and fresh scent with aroma of alcohol, fruit, candy and resin. Sweet malty flavor with a fresh touch and hints of caramel, raisins, fruit, orange and alcohol. Reminiscent of sweet wine. Tasty, and very special and different!

Hand-bottle from cgarvieuk’s tasting - thanks guys! Murky dark orange/brown pour. Nose is rich cherry, brett, slightly sour, oak. Lovely. Slightly sweet caramel front, quickly taken over by complex oak, slightly sour, rich spicy boozy finish, slightly tannic linger. Fascinating, really really tasty!

Vertical tasting at Craig’s. 2006. Pours a lovely dark ruby colour with a lacy light tan head. Aroma is a little meady and sour with honey, oak, cherry, Brett, alcohol and caramel. Beautiful oaky and sour flavour of raisins, cherry, caramel, treacle, tar and leather. Moderate carbonation and CO2 prickle. Absolutely stunning! 2007. Pours a lighter red - brown colour. Superb funky Brett nose, a little sweeter with alcohol quite present and quite woody. I love these beers!

Brown pour with aromas of caramel, wood and dark fruit. Flavours of tart fruit, raison some apple, spice (maybe cinnamon). It’s not bad.

Bottle - 1996 vintage - app vintners - pours a cloudy muddy brown with no head. Aroma is malty with hints of raisens & apple pie. Taste is a bit spicy from the alcohol, yet watery at the same time. It feels mellow but faded. Its only 16 years old, but I don’t see it getting more complex with age. This is good, but a bit over hyped.

ci vorrebbero 20 anni di invecchiamento ma se io avessi una bottiglia così in cantina ops l’ho già bevuta

Pours a still burgundy with a touch of bubbles that quickly reduce to a completely still surface. The nose is sherry-like with sweet dark fruit notes dominating a vinous aroma. Medium-bodied and slick with a vinous almost tannic quality at the sweet, slightly boozy conclusion. Sweet and somewhat tart, like a Granny Smith apple, a supporting raisin note leads into a drying finish that whispers a remembrance of the hop bill originally present in the recipe (8 years ago). With the exception of the finish, this more closely resembles a brandy than any other beer that I’ve ever sampled. To be more accurate, it’s more of a hybrid between a barley wine and an apple brandy. This is some interesting stuff. Thanks for recommending it, Aaron.

2006 Vintage (aged 5 years): This highly coveted old ale smells really sour, no doubt thanks to the flora that’s kept vintages of this beer fermenting for aeons. The potency of this brown-colored ale’s sourness almost reminds me of a sour ale. The flavor is dominated by light sour notes and a little wood, making for a really smooth beer. Smooth, easy, and incredibly complex, this beer could easily use more time to mature and tone down the harshness of all this beer’s complexities. 20 years aging = mellow = good. Holding on to my 1999 until 2019, for sure.

Amber with no head. Sour with fruity notes. Acid, fruit and sourness. Medium to full body with a balanced, sour-sweet aftertaste.