Gale's Christmas Ale
A special brew for Christmas with all the rich and fruity flavors for which Gales is renowned together with an interesting lingering hop character.
3
164 reviews
Horndean, England
Community reviews
2002 Vintage - This was not exactly the freshest tasting beer I have ever had. Absolutely flat, no carbonation whatsoever. Figs and plums, and an underlying spice profile like gingerbread in the maltiness, but everything is so subtle now, there is hardly anything left.
2002 edition - Corked. Poured an attractive reddish brown color. No head to speak of. Bready and raisin aroma with a subtle undertone of ‘holiday spicing’ although I can’t place exactly what, Mike stated sorghum. Lack of carbonation created a medicinal flavor by the time I finished. Purchased at Ramsey Liquor in 2006.
2002 bottle. A fun beer, thanks for sharing Matt! Clear reddish brown with a thin ring of white bubbles. Big sweet dates, raisins. A bit socky. So caramelly it is sharp. Middling body with low carbonation. A bit of raisiny bite. Some lacto? Caramel. Sharp fruit. a bit of diacetyl in the back. This is FAR better than rated I think
I have both the 2001 and 2002 in 9.3oz bottles. 2001...Considering it is 2008 I’m not surprised to find the beer lacking carbonation and tasting a little devolved. Thick, stained-glass red caramel color. Fruity and spicy, with an aroma that brings you back to the Kulminator. Enjoyable enough for the connoisseur, but definitely past it’s prime.
2002 fares about the same...perhaps a little more quaffable.
8.5% AND BOTTLE FROM 2001. plum wine all over this carrot cloudy brew. classic body that is moderate and full of flavor. modest alcohol including slight tinge on the tongue. nice warming feel to this smooth and occupying brew. all the british and french tastes of caramel and assorted christmas spice. nice roll in the glass and beautiful foamy beige head. why is this brew going away?
Bottle 2003 vintage poured a clear reddish orange with a minimal lingering ring of amber foam. Aromas of fruitiness, carmel and coriander. Palate was light bodied and smooth. Flavors of fruitiness, carmel and coriander with a smooth lingering lightly tart finish.
This felt like it was retired. The year was 2003 and it felt like it had changed. No carbonation, and a little sour. Maybe it was better while it still had a job.
9.3 oz bottle with no year indicated. Cloudy amber beer with a thin fine-laced white head. Aroma is quite nice, rich sweet caramelly malt, lightly oxidized with a lovely spearmint, clove, cinnamon and ginger aroma. Lightly plummy and sweet. Flavour is still fairly sweet, with quite a bit of sherryish notes showing. Light plums and dried apricot. Very fruity. Soft carbonation and decent palate. Minty and spicy with a soft lingering dried fruit. The first of these old Gale’s beers that seems to have held up pretty well. Lingering mint and spice with a soft hoppy fruity finish. Lingering ginger and light apple/pear flavour. A little light on the palate, and with a light tartness. Much better than I expected and a steal at $2 a bottle.
9.3oz 2001 corked bottle. Good aromas of barleyy grain and malted caramel. Diry dishwater colored body with no head. Waterdown flat and some resemblace that it was beer is it had some caramel flavor. Uck and at 5 bucks a bottle no wonder its retired.
Found this well um gem, and figured had to try it. not sure how long it has been on the shelf but lets say there was a bit of dust on the bottle. Orangish amber brew, barely any head visible, very cloudy and heavy large sediment. Very heavy sweet cider aroma, with a foboding sourness. Extremely sour apple then bitterness flavor. ugg not drinkable. Oww.
2002 bottle purchased at Falling Rock Tap House. Pours clear tawny with no head, rather like syrup. Aroma is heavy malt (cookie, caramel), average hops (flowers, grass), average yeast (earth) with notes of green apple and brown sugar. Full bodied, oily texture, flat carbonation, and a bitter finish. Long duration, light sweetness and acidity, moderate bitterness; some vinegar notes. This one may be well past its prime.
330. Corked. Pours caramelly golden brown. Virtually headless. Laceless. Big caramel and honey nose. Medium sticky body. Honey, plums, caramel, and toast on the mid-palate. Clean, fairly neutral finish. This is a nice little sweet winter beer, pleasant.
Vintage 2001 corked, bought in Buffalo. Pours like a wine, reddish and murky. Absolutely no head with a few bubbles. Sweet like a sour wine, I would think that it’s gone bad except for the other reviews in here. Tastes like a slightly sour wine, a bit smokey with notes of apple followed by a bitter aftertaste. Has no real body. It’s ok, but can’t really think of a time that I’d actually want to drink it :)
2003. corked bottle very flat beer very few bubbles in the whole beer. almost tastes like a fruity sour wine. very strange beer I am glad I am drinking it very interesting wow everyone else is all red wined out too well its the truth! almost a hard cider taste very easily drinking no hops in this bottle are presant not much alcohol either. I would like to have drank this fresher to see if it was any better but I cant say I dont enjoy it now as per me buying another for 4 bucks I doubt it but like I said I am nt mad drinking it. totally not what I expected tho. I can see drinking this around xmas tho with christamas snacks and what not nice old gingerman and shit, maybe some sugar cookies too its always ok to be a fat kid around christmas
Picked up this 2001 vintage at Ledger’s in Berkeley. The cork opened with a whisper and a rush of red wine aromas. It pours a murky brackish brown and no head. The aroma is big with red wine, sweet caramel candy, light dark fruitiness and more red wine notes. The beer seems thin and watery and brings in the flavors noticed in the nose. Nice, red wine, creamy caramel candy, dates, prunes, hint of olive and faint toffee. If the body wasn’t so thin this would be really nice.
2002 Vintage. This one has been sitting at the back of my fridge for some time now....I think I’ve been dreading it. Pours a very flat reddish brown with an almost gel like appearance. Sour. Sour. More sour. Vinegar. Ass. Just pure badness. Awful. This just didn’t hold up, as expected from a few of their others I"ve had. I’d rather have Busch Light.
in a bottle with a decomposed, crumbly cork. People really need to either stop using corks in beer, or work harder at storing them on their side so the cork doesn’t dry out. I really did not like this beer at all. it was sour, unfrlendly, and rude. I tasted it on July 3rd as part of Christmas in July moment, and really regretted it.
in the corked bottle from Dirty John’s. Pours a murky brown with no head. the dried cork broke while removing it. has a cardboard oxidized aroma with a slight smell of vinegar. there is huge thick dark brown sludge in the bottom of the bottle. I taste a little big of figs, medium sweetness, slight blend of tobacco and worcestershire sauce to the taste.
Let’s attempt this rating again. 9.3oz 2002 bottle. Pours a clear orange brown with a few bubbles for a head. Aroma of vinegar, sour apples and sour cherries, scorched toffee, light spearmint, and moldy leather. Flavor is spicy and sour acidic up front, leather, alcohol, and some cherry--though none of this is terribly strong. Tannic with the slightest semidry finish. No carbonation with a medium body. Not that great.
9.3 oz bottle from 2002. Pours cloudy rust color with lots of bubbles but little head. The aroma at first reminds me of that Lime Coca-Cola stuff, but with more raisin; some toffee and black tea notes come out, too. The flavor is kind of tart and acidic at first, with lemon, alcohol, and herbal notes. It gets malty toward the middle, and prunes and wood come out by the finish, which also has a distant fruitiness to it. Ok, not great.
No date on the bottle. I’ve had it for about 2 years. Aroma of dark fruit. Kind of an off prune aroma. Hazy ruby amber color with floaters. No real head. Starts a bit vinous, a bit thin, a bit caramel. Finishes a bit pruny, with hop. It develops some other fruity characteristics with passage of time. Tends towards puckerish. Perhaps a bit woody. It doesn’t get better than this, unless Fullers gets into a retro mode.
275ml bottle. Pours brown with a small head. Aroma is sweet and syrupy, very fruity. Not bad. Taste is bad. Sour, old, flat red wine. My third Gales drain pour in one night. I guess all the bottles were just terribly old and didn’t hold up like they were supposed to.
9.3 oz, 2002 vintage. Mostly uncloudy dark brown with red highlights and no head. Aroma is mostly malt vinegar with some spiced rum and raisins. Taste is mostly tart fruit and malt vinegar; slight hop aftertaste. Even though it is corked like a wine bottle, I wouldn’t recommend keeping this beer any longer unless you’re one who likes a flat beer with strong acetic acid tastes akin to Rodenbach Grand Cru. Rating would be lower, but I am giving the benefit of the doubt that this was once at least an OK beer.
So these nice guys at New Beers Distributors (New York) covered the production year with a price tag…
Never mind; Vintage 2001, 5+ years old, classic Gale’s corked bottle
The cork is of very good quality, well preserved, and with a very nice aroma of fruity malt; pours a cloudy amber color; there is still some carbonation but not much head retention.
The room is pervaded by the strong aroma: malt, sweet, raisins, spices… in line with a Christmas pudding, but more elegant than other beers.
Probably the age has cut down the sugars, the body has a good structure but it’s not too sticky; the dominant flavor is caramel, with malt and raisins, a bit woody, and fruity; the alcohol is warming the mouth, another sign of age. The final shows an increasing bitterness, with caramel and a light oaky sourness.
Beatifully aged; complex; pleasant.
[9.3oz bottle - Johns market]
A deep hazy brown with floaters. A weak small head. There was a strong aroms of alcohol and a deep malty finish. This was a good brew once but it did not make it long. 4 years later this beer lost the flavor and become very stank.
The 9.3 ounce bottle poured a hazy brownish amber beverage with no head whatsoever and, thus no lacing. The aroma had a tinge of metallic and medicinal characters imbedded in the spicy and fruity background. The body was full with no carbonation and an arid texture. The flavor starts out very acetic-tart. The finish was fairly long with an unpleasant astringent taste and alcohol burn. The combined facts that this beer has been "retired", was flat, smelled off, and tasted bad leads me to believe it has gone bad in the bottle.
9.3 oz bottle. Murky brown cider with tiny tan floaties. No head. Orange pomander, nutmeg and scotch. Muddy, day-old mulled wine with no carb. Woody drying leads to a metallic sour; tending to vinegar. Label looks faded so this is probably past its prime.
9.3 oz. bottle. 2001 Edition. I like the bottle very much. Nice, thick brown glass that feels substantial in the hand. The Nast-styled Santa on the label is neat as well. As for the beer, it poured a deep, nealry opaque, cloudy mahogony with no head and virtually no carbonation. Looks more like a barley wine than an ale. A few swirls of the tulip glass released strong aromas of prunes, dates, and molasses. After inhaling these wonderful aromas, I was expecting a rich, full-bodied brew. The first sip was instead a bit of a disappointment. The flavors were not nearly as prevalent as the aromas. There was more of a sherry flavor to the beer that I hadn’t noticed in the aroma. There was also a mustiness lurking in the background as well. The dark fruits and molasses were pretty much nonexistent in the flavor. Thin bodied with a definite long alcohol burn at the finish. Glad I tried it since I see it is retired, but I am not going back for another.
9.3oz. bottle, date seemingly absent. Peculiar musty, fruity aroma, lightly floral, tart and sweet with notes of brown sugar, apple, cherry and orange and lemon zest, as well as a certain faint spiciness, pine and something deep in the background reminiscent of candle wax and vinyl. Deep orange color, thoroughly hazy and sedimented with a slight, fine, uneven head. Flavor is sweet, vinous, rather tart and spicy, with some cidery and peppery alcohol character becoming apparent, alongside hints of sherry, suggesting this is not a new release. Smooth and thin on the palate with a degree of warmth and a fairly full body. Better as it approaches room temperature, in my opinion. Still, there is no doubt this was unexpected.
From a corked, narrow neck 9.3 oz. embossed bottle, 2001 vintage.
Poured a cloudy apple cider brown with a fizzy head that settled into a fine lacing.
Aromas of cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg, clove and apple cider.
Moderate carbonation and a crisp, creamy light bodied mouthfeel.
Tastes of tart green apples with a half of lemon squeezed over them, a light sour cherry, caramelized sugar, Christmas spices, cinnamon, nutmeg and clove with a little orange zest, a subtle alcohol warmth in the palate, a soft evergreen flavor, and a dryish fruity, alcohol laced, malty finish.
A good, warming Christmas ale, a nice seasonal treat.