J.W. Lees Harvest Ale (Sherry)

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Strong aroma has fruity, molasses and miso tones, and is a bit on the syrupy sweet side. It pours a dark, somewhat hazy cola brown with an average tan head that does not stick around too long but leaves some generous lacing. Flavor fills the mouth with fruit, honey, molasses, and yes, more than a bit of sherry flavor. It is rather sweet, a tad much for a beer, but at least there is a bit of an alcohol bite. Texture is thick and syrupy, not much fizz. Overall, it's OK, though more like a sweet wine than a beer.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

2009 vintage drank in november 2011. I love how these UK breweries just call this stuff "ale" on the bottle, as if this is some kind of general beer with a barley worth mentioning novel gimic of sherry barrels. What a catch all! Awesome anyways, all the normal B-Wine characteristics, super thick syrup aroma. Leather and oak. Dark orange colour, bunch of sediment. Taste is really strong french oak and raspberry. Fruit, oak, fruit and oak. Hot alcohol, surprisingly bitter, spicy yeast. Some candy for sure, almost a peppermint like fresh explosion. Honey, a feeling of cold coffee at times. I have a couple of the other versions also 2009 vintage. These definately will get much much better with some aging so I will do just that.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Thick amber brown body with a decent head and little lacing. Bran cereal, cedar, and mild tobacco. Thick and coating to the mouth it’s a very heavy beer. Sweet and calm. Strong woody flavor with caramel, dark fruits, raisins and red wine.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

2006: While not as ...settled as older Harvest Ales, this one is well on its way. Pours orange amber, no head. Malty, sweet, sticky, orange. Love this stuff.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 9

Bottle: Poured a deep cloudy amber color ale with a small foamy head with minimal retention and not much lacing. Aroma consists of sweet malt with some distinctive sherry notes. Taste is a mix between some sherry and sweet English barley. Body is full with some average carbonation and no discernable alcohol which is always welcome for those barrel-aged beers. Well balance overall with not too much Sherry and the base beer is not too sweet – well done.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 10 | Mouthfeel: 10 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 8

#1000 here at Beerpal!!!!!!!!! this will be rating #1000 on Beerpal, thank you BP!! .... what an amazing beer. Lots of sherry notes with dark fruits ... very sweet and cheeky ... almost no alcohol detected, all the complex flavours worked very well with each other ...one of the most regal and well made cask aged beers around ..

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 10 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 8

(Bottled: 2004) Picked this bottle up at Roswell Beverage the other day and it will be my first product from this brewery in some time and decided to crack this one today to celebrate my new career and next stage of life. Aroma on this fine ale is extremely sweet-like with some bready maltiness as well as some aged port with some sherry with strong hints of raw honey or molasses and offers some oaky overtones as well; man, what an aroma. Appearance is a deep and murky reddish-mahogany in color when held to the light with some brownish overtones and a late arriving head that is small and stringy and off-white in color and leaves thin, creamy lacing on the glass with several bubbles that sit on top throughout consumption. Mouthfeel is full-bodied with tons of honey sweet complexity and miraculous balance that is amazing and the palate is clean, robust, and full and very well-rounded and wet-like and fantastic. Flavor is very sweet but not cloyingly so with some dark fruits coming through and is extremely vinous with tons of honey and molasses with an aftertaste that is sticky as well as chewy with some melted brown sugar that attaches itself to the mouth and has a finish that is smooth and tasty and as sweet as candy sugar and as robust as oak and offers simply raw flavor in every sip and new flavor profiles. Overall, an absolute amazing study of the English-style Barleywine category and is one of those beers that is almost next to no other and a must try for any beer aficionado! The other bottle I have will continue to age gracefully at cellar temps for several more years...

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

NorCal tasting Feb 07 - This reminded of the Calvados casked beer in many ways. It carried the sweet, honey-like nose but there was a little more spicy character showing but there is the oak and fruit notes also. Appearance is light amber in color, nice body with a thinnish head. Flavor is caramel, honey, golden raisins, some cinammon and oak to round it out. I didn't get much sherry character from this beer, and in fact it really was similar to the calvados in many ways.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 10 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

Pours with an amber body topped by a medium thick head with little lacing. It’s sweet, malty and caramelly with a nice winey note. Medium bodied and smooth.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 4 | Flavor: 3 | Overall: 4

I just can't appreciate this style apparently. The port version was terrible, and this was no better. Too damn sweet and syrupy for me, and I just can't get past that. I sipped my way through most of it, but it was hard work. Maybe very significant aging would help.