Gales Prize Old Ale Special Reserve

Formerly brewed at Gales
Style: Old Ale
Horndean, England

Serve in English pint, Snifter

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Vinous aroma while the appearance is dark amber and cloudy with no head. The flavor is fruity with a mild charcoal/smoked malt aspect to it. Very good old ale, the 1996.

Thanks Jason! Sampled side by side a 1996 vintage regular beer. The beer pours to a murky brown body with no head. The aroma is Calvados with apples and light cinnamon and caramel. The flavor is malty, caramel, vanilla, Calvados... surprisingly less like Calvados than the regular 1996 (14 year old). The palate is medium bodied with an easy to drink alcohol content.

2003 bottle, opened with a mild pfft. Poured murky medium-deeper brown with nothing sticking around for head. The aroma was similar to the regular ’96 bottle I just drank, with apple wood, calvados, and a little port wine over some bready malts.. didn’t have the same pop as the old one. The flavor found aged caramel, bready notes, and a touch of molasses at the core.. some calvados and oak around, but not all that much.. finished tart with apple and oak. Medium-bodied with very low carbonation on the palate.. OK use of the barrel, but it didn’t really need it, it just needed age.

375, capped and foiled with a heavy foil. Pours a crystal clear but dark and ruddied medium amber. Loose bubbly off-white head. Big vinous nose, balsamic and strawberries there as well. Watery medium body, a little bit sugar-sticky in spots. Shortbread, treacle, figs, raisins and dates on the mid-palate. Long sticky sweet finish.

cloudy brown pour, no head. aromas of raisins, apples, sherry wine and some caramel. Flavor is sweet and malty. Some apples, raisins and sherry notes. No sourness or oxidation to speak of. Pretty nice little sipper.

I can’t believe I purchased this bottle just yesterday. A 2003 vintage. The cork was still entirely intact and had a pleasant boozy-apple smell to it. Poured completely still, no head just a couple bubbles, into an oversized wine glass. Chestnut colored. There is a lot going on in the nose of this one: fig, dates, raisin, brown sugar, rum. The taste is medium sweet with some alcohol burn. Notes of brown sugar, over-ripe apple, raisin. I must have gotten lucky and got one of the "good" bottles, not sour at all. Not my usual type of thing but very interesting.

I like this style, normally. This 6-year old possessed but a small bubble for a head. It looked like an old ale, chestnut and on the thick side. It smelled a bit boozy, apple cidery. The taste was old ale of splinter wood and years gone past.Found at Premiere Gourmet.At best a sipper.

2003 bottle, thanks to WeeHeavySD for sharing. Pours a hazy, muddy, dark brown with no real head. Huge apple aroma, with a lot of spices, like a good apple cider, with a hint of booze and malt. Huge sweet malt taste, with apples and alcohol. Lingering richness. Fantastic, like sipping a great liqueur.

Beautiful deep light chestnut body with a very slight haze, big bubbled off white lasting head (A prime example of what this kind of beer should look like); Amazing nose, the barrels gives the usual Prize Old Ale notes the final and perfect touch, an amazingly deep super balanced mix of caramel, fruits accompanied by a barrel warmth, amazing; Amazing body too, super soft velvet texture, very very little sharp carbonation biting the tip of your tongue, amazingly complex and perfectly balanced, a perfect salt sweet touch; It finishes a very little to short, the only not perfect part of this beer, superb balance in both aromas and texture, alcohol bite from the Calvados barrels is very well fitting and perfectly balanced. This is a prime example of what barrels can do to a beer, something every other brewer playing with barrels could learn from. Why is this style of beer disappering? I don’t know what this world is coming to!!!

Little bottle via trade, 2003 vintage. Shared with dalekliz, I had mixed feelings about the other beer. Dark Molasses color no head. Nose is sweet with some apple and oak. Taste is sweet syrupy and quite boozy. Really interesting not as vile or scary as the other version.