J.W. Lees Harvest Ale (Port)
Only available filtered and pasteurised in bottles.
Matured in wooden casks of Willoughbys Crusted Port to impart sweetness and a heavy vinous characteristic. The tradition of port is very English and many of the port houses proudly trace their ancestry back to the U.K. Portuguese wines were fortified with brandy to improve their keeping properties during shipment.
This fully fermented ale has been brewed by JW Lees as a celebration of the brewers’ art. Harvest Ale can be enjoyed now or laid down like a fine wine for enjoyment to come.
Matured in wooden casks of Willoughbys Crusted Port to impart sweetness and a heavy vinous characteristic. The tradition of port is very English and many of the port houses proudly trace their ancestry back to the U.K. Portuguese wines were fortified with brandy to improve their keeping properties during shipment.
This fully fermented ale has been brewed by JW Lees as a celebration of the brewers’ art. Harvest Ale can be enjoyed now or laid down like a fine wine for enjoyment to come.
3.7
445 reviews
Middleton, England
Community reviews
9.3 oz bottle from Tavour. 2015 vintage. Aroma is raisin, sherry, wood, port, dark fruit, licorice. Pours murky brownish-orange with a thin beige head that falls into a ring somewhat quickly. Taste is sweet with flavors like the aroma with raisin being strong in particular. There's also a quiet spicy character in the background. Slightly oxidized. Carbonation is light, mouthfeel oily. Nice BW, but very rich.
12oz bottle pours out copper topped with a small head. Nose is sweet toffee rich malts port and cork. Tatse is more of the sweet malts port oak and some cork.
2014 special draft at Craft Brewed. Pours a clearish straw gold with a finger of white head that dissipates. Lots of bright apricot, prune and fall fruit aromas with vanilla and sherry notes. The sherry-like notes really stands out as it warms. Clean and crisp with a sweet palate. Smooth and light, with lots of fruit notes throughout. So smooth with more creamy sherry-like notes. Finish lingers.
Draft pours hazy amber with a white head. Aroma of raisins, caramel and wine. Taste is very sweet, raisins, port and oak
Bottle shared. Caramel brown pour. Aroma is dark fruits, earth, nuttiness. Taste is much the same, little too earthy for me but not bad.
Soft and murky pale brown with a wispy sandy white head. Nose is dense with rich and dried dark fruits, prune, raisin, fig, and slight oxidation. Fig cake in the flavor with dark fruit and warming alcohol. Some burnt sugar.
Refrigerated 2014 small brown bottle poured into a snifter. Opaque burnt orange with small beige head. Aroma is rich caramel malt, medium body, low carbonation, and little lacing. Taste is rich caramel, port, toffee, and some oak. Really good beer at three years old. Might even be better with even more age. *At seven years old this is delicious. At 9 years past prime.
I’ve been having a hell of a lot of fun drinking these barrel-aged Harvest Ale varieties. I was happy to find that the 2014 Port vintage was just as good as the others I enjoyed. Red-brown color. Toasty-sweet malt aromas with a good measure of boozy dark fruit. Heavy caramel, vanilla, and dessert-like vinous grape flavors. This is a rich and full-bodied brew to help put you down for the night.
Bottle. 2007. Pour is completely flat, light brown with a murky appearance nose is a mix of paper and Sherry oxidation. Light grape and dried fruit esters. Visible alcohol legs. A chewy, lightly sweet mouthfeel. Light alcohol but very smooth. Vinous. For ten years this shit has held up nicely. My biggest knock is the lack of carbonation which hurts the beer a touch. Otherwise it is damn tasty.
Bottle at Novare Res. Opaque amber pour with a fleeting white head. Sweet caramel and barrel aromas. Really sweet with dark fruit, caramel, vanilla, and mild port highlights. Slightly boozy but more in that mellow after drink kinda way. Good body and mouthfeel.
Bottle. Clear deep red liquid with minimal white head. Aroma of port wine, raisins, red berries, toffee and licorice. Taste is medium sweet and light bitter with notes of port wine, raisins, honey and dried fruit. Medium to full bodied with low to medium carbonation. Nice.
Aroma of malt, grape and a sweet sherry like aroma. Cloudy caramel color without much of a head. A sweet taste of tawny port, medium body with a sweet tawny port finish.
9.3 oz. bottle, 2012 vintage. Pour amber with a small off-white head. Aroma of sweet malt, brown sugar, caramel, and alcohol. Taste is super-sweet malt, cloying, fruit cake, vinous, nutty, cardboard, and caramel. Finish is both sweet and boozy.
Pours a medium to deep copper color with a finger of white foam. Up front sweet malts, honey, underlying nuances of grapey port fruit, currants, slight tannic bitterness mingles with the classic lees sweetness. Sugary.
How: Bottle, 2012 vintage.
Where: RBESG 2015 Grand Tasting.
Appearance: Hazy amber colour with an off-white head.
Aroma: Fruit, spices, malt, port, alcohol.
Body: Full body, low carbonation.
Flavour: Port, malt, alcohol, sherry, plum, sugar.
Bottle split at the RBESG ’15 Grand Tasting, Taphouse CPH day 4, 23/08/15.
Hazed orange amber with a decent beige covering.
Nose is rich barrel, port, fruit cake, light spice.
Taste comprises wooded notes, sherry, port, fruit cake, toffee, plummy, trace of oxidisation but not detracting from the overall Taste.
Full bodied, fine carbonation, semi drying close.
Good depth of flavour, well joined up, eminently sippable.
Bottle@RBESG2015, Copenhagen - Orange pour with white head. Aroma and taste is sweet malty, with some nice dark fruity notes, some port infused wooden notes, sweet finish. Very nice.
33 cl. bottle.,hazy amber colour with an off-white head. Aroma and flavour of malt, dried fruit, aclohol, spice, caramel and yeast.
Bottle.
Hazy orange colored with a small white head.
Sweet and fruity aroma of caramel and dried fruits with oxidized notes.
Sweet and fruity flavor of caramel and dried fruits with notes of alcohol.
Sweet finish.
Bottle to large taster - so happy to have found some of these
Sherry, oak, rum, toffee, pepper, orange peel. Clear, deep amber, with a tiny white head. Taste is toffee, rum, oak, orange peel, and pepper. Mouthfeel is silky and oily with a slight but sharp alcohol burn. IMO, this is good, but it sits behind the Calvados version.
275ml bottle into tulip glass, 2012 vintage bottling. Pours hazy deep ruby red color with a 1 finger dense light khaki head with good retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lingers. Nice spotty soapy lacing clings around the glass. Aromas of big caramel, raisin, prune, fig, apple, date, brown sugar, molasses, brown bread, toffee, toast, leather, tobacco, red wine, oak, light vanilla, and oak/toasted earthiness. Very nice aromas with good balance and complexity of fruity yeast, dark/bready malt, and wine barrel notes; with good strength. Taste of huge caramel, raisin, prune, fig, apple, date, brown sugar, molasses, brown bread, toffee, toast, leather, tobacco, red wine, oak, light vanilla, and oak/toasted earthiness. Slight spicy oak/herbal hop bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of caramel, molasses, dark fruit, brown sugar, brown bread, toffee, toast, leather, tobacco, red wine, oak, light vanilla, and oak/toasted earthiness on the finish for a while. Incredible robustness, complexity, and balance of fruity yeast, dark/bready malt, and wine barrel flavors; with a great malt/oak balance and zero cloying sweetness after the finish. Light carbonation and full bodied; with a very smooth, creamy, fairly slick/syrupy, and slightly tannic mouthfeel that is nice. Alcohol is very well hidden with only a light warmth lingering after the finish. Overall this is an awesome English barleywine. All around great complexity, robustness, and balance of fruity yeast, dark/bready malt, and wine barrel flavors; and very smooth to sip on for the ABV. A highly enjoyable offering.
Petite bouteille, 2014. Une robe dorée foncée, avec mousse qui pétille. Un nez sucré, légèrement portesque. Une bouche de sucre d’orge intense, de cendrier, de caramel brulé, Cidre de pomme de glace, longue et majestueuse. Un bière difficile à décrire mais fort agréable.
2011 bottle thanks to Paul. Pours a cloudy orange with small off white head. The aroma is strong port and wood. Medium mouth, vanilla, strong port, wood, nice sweetness, very good.
Bottled in 2003 from my cellar.
Clear medium brown with little to no head.
Aromatic and sweet. dried fruits, molasses.
The flavor is sweet, not as complex as I have come to know J. W. Lees harvest Ale. Certainly not bad, but no Port, little depth of flavor for what I have come to expect from this brewer.
Bottle shared at a tasting at Beer Market Jaffa. Pours slightly hazy orange with a medium head, aroma of honey, caramel, wax, wood, fruits, flavor of honey, fruits, wine, wax, wood, toffee, medium to full bodied.
"i don’t know if it has to do with the age or vintage year, but several of the other reviews pointed the the hard to find or non-existent port characteristics. I sampled the 2007 today, and that was absolutely not the case. i’ve never had the regular Lees Harvest to compare this to, so to me, the port/woody notes reallt stod out. knowing it was an English Barleywine makes you think much of the sweet notes in the nose & flavor were from the malt, but the fig/raisin/oak/grapes really were in the forefront...more so in the flavor than the aroma, which was a little muddled and confusing. The aroma was hoppier, and you could tell it was a beer, while the flavor, if not for the slight carbonation, could have very well been mistaken for a port wine. Hoppy-ish in the finish, but mostly a pleasantly sweet aftertaste. Full, thick body. The ridiculous amounts of sediment prevented us from enjoying the full bottle, so we poured and sampled 90% of it, then poured the rest...but all that yeast was a bit much, and somwhat of a mess. It was good enough to make we wamt to try all the others, but I’m in no rush to do so. I can’t imagine someone liking this vintage if they don’t care for port, but I can’t imagine not liking it if you do like a good port."
It pours close to a pitch black. good tannish head of foam, near a finger’s worth.
The nose is sweet Port. Just as intended, I suspect.
The taste is very much of the Port, strictly....Port. Meant to be, eh? Maybe a tad too sweet as my rating will reflect. Never the less, a grand brew.
Full bodied, light carbonation. Superb mouth feel.
My first variant of the JW Lees Harvest Ales. A winner.
Dark red pour. Nose is sulphur, grilled meat, candi sugar. Taste is candy, ash, more ash, cardboard, ugh. Such a great base beer, terrible barrel aged versions that all taste the same.
Bottle sample at a tasting at Beer Market Jaffa. Thanks zvikar. Hazy amber. Wood and sweet candy and date and ink aroma, date, caramel and very sweet taste. Full body, sticky syrupy mouthfeel and no carbonation.
At a tasting, thanks zvikar, no head, hazy deep orange colour, aroma of caramel, dates and butterscotch, flavour of dried fruits, toffee and candy with a woody hint, slightly oily palete. Nice but not too exciting.