JW Lees Harvest Ale 2004
I poured the last third of the '04 Harvest Ale. I need to rate it properly. Excuse me while I do that.
Banana bread, straight up yeast, very dusty apples, chocolate, toffee, caramel, faint grapey character, boston brown bread, raisin, tinge of cold metal, other fruity esters. Soupy mahoghany color, completely flat. Tastes of strawberries, stone fruit acidity, honey, hazelnut coffee, caramel, and bread. Starts sweet, high acid middle. Heavy molasses on the final third. Finish thick, with more nuts and coffee, but mostly clean. Mouthfeel so heavy. Perhaps the heaviest beer I've ever had. To say "caramel" really does this an injustice. I've had artificial caramel and real caramel, and homemade caramel, and while the homemade is miles away in complexity, the caramel in this beer is like...it's like a range of caramels. As though you made a dozen or more batches of caramel, all with different finishing points from barely caramelized to almost burnt. And then you mixed them together but somehow magically kept the flavor profile of every one distinct. And then you gave it to me to taste. That's sort of what it's like. This is excellent. I have to be in the mood for it, but it's really, really superb. And I still have the barrel-aged bottles from 2004! Now I'm really looking forward to those. 8/3/9/5/17 4.4/5
Holy cow, what a beer. Holy cow.
Banana bread, straight up yeast, very dusty apples, chocolate, toffee, caramel, faint grapey character, boston brown bread, raisin, tinge of cold metal, other fruity esters. Soupy mahoghany color, completely flat. Tastes of strawberries, stone fruit acidity, honey, hazelnut coffee, caramel, and bread. Starts sweet, high acid middle. Heavy molasses on the final third. Finish thick, with more nuts and coffee, but mostly clean. Mouthfeel so heavy. Perhaps the heaviest beer I've ever had. To say "caramel" really does this an injustice. I've had artificial caramel and real caramel, and homemade caramel, and while the homemade is miles away in complexity, the caramel in this beer is like...it's like a range of caramels. As though you made a dozen or more batches of caramel, all with different finishing points from barely caramelized to almost burnt. And then you mixed them together but somehow magically kept the flavor profile of every one distinct. And then you gave it to me to taste. That's sort of what it's like. This is excellent. I have to be in the mood for it, but it's really, really superb. And I still have the barrel-aged bottles from 2004! Now I'm really looking forward to those. 8/3/9/5/17 4.4/5
Holy cow, what a beer. Holy cow.