Island Jubilee Ale

Brewed by Island Brewing
Style: Old Ale
Carpinteria, California USA

Serve in English pint, Snifter

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   add pic

Bottle. GABF Silver Medal Winner 2002 and Gold Award at LA County Fair 2003, seems like it has a little pedigree. Pours a deep copper color with a light tan head that quickly disappears and collars around the glass. Malty, biscuit, nutty, caramel, and slight spice in the nose. Overall, not a bad smell but not great. Medium mouthfeel. Taste is...not that great. Slightly roasty with a perfume like note. Backbone really falls apart mid way through the game. This has an odd sweetness to it that doesn’t work for me. Lingering bitterness. Overall, meh, had once, not need to try again.

From the Jug at the GABF, Colorado Convention Center Denver 17/09/2010 Floral malt aroma. Bronze mid brown coloured and fruity with a hint of dryness and bitterness in a malt finish.

Tap and bottle. Pours with a hazed brown body with hardly any head retention. The fleeting image of a head was khaki colored...I think. Aroma of brown sugar, nuts, cinnabun, tobacco, molasses, soil. Very sweet smelling. Flavor is sour milk, nuts, cinnamon, earth, vomit, and showing obvious signs of infection. From the tap the smell was not as good but the flavors were only marginally better. Too much tannic extraction. Licorice, vegital. Currants. Ash. Watery. Drain pour.

Bomber from Bevmo, Salinas Nose of toffee, caramel, and mustiness (is that why they call it an Old Ale?) Cherry copper with a medium beige head. Flavor is raisins, light bitterness, and a hint of licorice.

On tap at Opal restaurant in Santa Barbara CA. Terrible pour from the waiter (sorry) but it came with a slight, almost absent whispy white head and a translucent, nut brown body. Aroma was alright, caramel malts, slightly bread and crackers also a bit fruity. Flavor was all caramel malts, crackers, bread, slightly nutty. Finish was dry. The commercial description of this is ridiculous when you finally have a chance to drink it, but it was generally OK.

Draught at the brewery. Brown-red color with a medium off-white head. Sweet, malty aroma with some caramel, very light roast, and some fruitiness. The flavor is rich and malty as well, with toffee, caramel, and brown sugar. There is medium fruitiness that is indistinct, some alcohol and earth in the finish with a medium bitterness. Medium-full bodied with smooth carbonation. Rich and earthy overall, with more booze than you would expect.

Amber/brown with a thin off white head. Aroma is a light spice, caramel, faint alcohol, brown sugar, faint chocolate. Taste is light caramel, light hoppiness, faint roastiness, brown sugar.

On tap, part of sampler. Pours a dark amber, quite attractive. Aroma of wood and caramel/chocolate malt. Creamy body that provides backbone to a smooth combination of caramel, malt, soil, and some flower. I enjoyed this one.

Draft at brewery, consumed 02/18/08. Medium brown pour. No aroma to speak of. No head, no active carbonation. (I must note here I tried a four ounce sample, so all prior traits noted might be different in a pint glass or from a bottle). Moderate malt sweetness, followed by a stronger piney hop finish. Unremarkable mouthfeel. The best of this brewer’s batch.

Bomber. Hazy red brown color with substantial beige head. Aroma is bourbon, caramel toffee, very nice. Toffee and dark roast flavor with lots of complex sugars and dark fruit. Medium bodied and creamy, a very nice old ale, was pretty surprised that the ratibgs are so low for this beer as I really couldn’t see anything wrong with it and actually found it very nice.