Harvest Ale (Limited Edition)
J.W. Lees & Co (Brewers) Ltd

Harvest Ale (Limited Edition)Harvest Ale (Limited Edition)
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From:
J.W. Lees & Co (Brewers) Ltd
 
England, United Kingdom
Style:
English Barleywine
Ranked #77
ABV:
11.5%
Score:
94
Ranked #2,108
Avg:
4.24 | pDev: 13.21%
Reviews:
925
Ratings:
1,670
Status:
Active
Rated:
Feb 25, 2024
Added:
Dec 18, 2000
Wants:
  279
Gots:
  229
Our limited edition vintage barley wine is made but once a year. It's brewed with the first hops to be harvested, and then we add the very finest British malt. Each vintage brings different flavours, which then evolve as they age, so it's no wonder it's gained a cult following among ale enthusiasts. Pop the date in your calendar.
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Ratings by Cavery:
Photo of Cavery
Reviewed by Cavery from California

4.65/5  rDev +9.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5
2006 vintage 12oz Shared with my brother Klym, epic night cap!

A: A cloudy brown tea with a bit of rustic orange character to it. This beer poured like thick rust! Love it! It has that real vintage ale look that you'd hop for, with all those suggestions of complexity in the body. Speckles of floaties that ride around a very smokey brown core. The glass is noticeably lighter around the edge, and much darker in the core. Looks like a liquid tree trunk! Rings and all. Pretty awesome. Just wish there was a bit of a head! might be too much to ask given the age. No foam on a violent pour.

S: Complex fancy leathers, the kind that have quite a lot of use and abuse on them. There's a real fresh cut piece of old note that drives me wild. Deep seasonings of Thyme and Cider alcohols. Cinnamon sugared dried apricots. Rich nose with tons of complexity, love the cinnamon dusted pie crusts and other complex pastry notes. Sick good in the nose. Old shortbread coffee biscuits in the finish.

T: Complex fancy cider reductions. I have never tasted anything like this, this is brand new territory. There is an endless fall of depth in here. Aged apple ciders, fancy old maple wood, and a dusting of seasonings that ever so slightly veils the sweetness. The most subdued note of coriander ever. Complex notes of barrel-aged peanut sauces mixed with leathery teas. Ugh, it's so good. Slightly bitter dried fruits help transition into leather plum skins.

M: The mouth is showing it's age, but not a bad one. Soft sugary liquids hit the tongue like heavily brown sugared teas. A noticeable thickness on the tongue that makes it seem like the milkshake of teas. That said the alcohol cuts through and reveals a deceptively lighter body. Due to this complex mouth transition, I'll settle on that it's medium. Emulsions of old tea blends that even feel thick with ingredients.

O: Easily the best English Barley Wine that I've ever had. This thing drinks like an everlasting gobstopper, the depth of flavor is crazy. Leather, fruits, spices, aged maple syrups, and the list goes on. The craziest thing about this beer is that I think this thing has not even come close to peaking. What I am tasting is progression, and by no means completion. This is a beer to sit on for years, and then open it to witness its glory. Truly a memorable beer, I need to try more aged barley wines.
Jul 23, 2011
More User Ratings:
 
Rated: 4.17 by DVMin98 from North Carolina

Feb 25, 2024
Photo of ChaosUncaged
Reviewed by ChaosUncaged from Illinois

2.63/5  rDev -38%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 2
2001 Vintage

Taste: Molasses, Brown Sugar, Old Oak, Green Vegetation, Earthy grass

Feel: Thick and viscous

I would recommend some time sitting before consumption.
Feb 18, 2024
 
Rated: 4.59 by meanmutt from Ohio

Jan 26, 2024
 
Rated: 3.62 by RalphStanley34 from French Polynesia

Dec 16, 2023
 
Rated: 4 by Nyoder

Nov 26, 2023
Photo of TwentyDimes
Reviewed by TwentyDimes from Massachusetts

4.4/5  rDev +3.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
Vintage 2001 purchased 17 years ago and refrigerated all along.
Poured to a white wine glass, clear deep amber, no foam, very light carbonation.
Starting out shy, bouquet and flavor evolving slowly, ripe fig, molasses, honeyed raisin, mixed nuts, hint of licorice nose.
Taste similar to the nose, rich, oily thick but not cloying, balanced by excellent acidity, alcohol well concealed, no sign of oxidation.
Chewy, layered, refreshingly sweet dried fruited finish, feeling closer to a dessert wine.
A delight to drink, this is holding up exceptionally well.
Oct 17, 2023
 
Rated: 4.48 by not2quick from Missouri

Sep 02, 2023
Photo of beergoot
Reviewed by beergoot from Colorado

4.16/5  rDev -1.9%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
Turbid amber pour and partially cloudy in the glass; yeast sediment; thin, patch head, white foam. heavy caramel nose; figs; raw white oak; leather. The taste faithfully mirrors the aroma; richer and fuller. Heavy, sludgy mouthfeel; big residual sugar stickiness; a modicum of alcohol dryness balances the sweetness.

A fine, robust and sticky sucker, this barley wine style ale packs a delicious punch.

Pouring temperature: 51.3 ℉; bottling info: n/a
Source: local purchase
Jul 29, 2023
Photo of MikeWard
Reviewed by MikeWard from Pennsylvania

4.87/5  rDev +14.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 5 | taste: 5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.75
12oz bottle into a teku. 2002 vintage, so 21 years old. Mouth is watering already.

Black body, deep red wine when held up to the light. Loose bubbly head doesn't last long.

Aroma beyond enticing. Molasses, brown sugar, dark fruit.

On tasting, just, wow. Sweet, with raisin, plum, molasses, brown sugar, but this is not cloying at all. Incredibly smooth.

Mouth just about medium. It seems a little thinner than you would like, but I swear it gets thicker as it rolls around the tongue.

Finish is warming, not a trace of alcohol harshness. Sweet, but again, not cloying. The abv is there of course, but you really dont notice it among the flavors.

A magnificent beer, one of the best I've ever had.
Jul 19, 2023
Photo of Beer_aenima7
Reviewed by Beer_aenima7 from Idaho

4.53/5  rDev +6.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 4.5
This is based off a bottle I had in 2023 which was brewed in 2005.
L - Looks like typical dark ale, muddy and can't see light through.
S - Smells richly of brown sugar and caramel. Complex, not excessively sweet.
T - Tastes sweet and caramely in a familiar way, but complex to a point which makes it hard to describe.
F - no carbonation. Flat, substance seems to be drawn from the sweetness and the alcohol content.
- in general, when I popped this beer I didn't quite know what to expect, the flavor is amazing. This is a great aged ale and I know I will be consuming plenty of jw lee's harvest limited. What a cool concept.
Mar 18, 2023
Photo of Treyliff
Reviewed by Treyliff from West Virginia

4.18/5  rDev -1.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
2011 Vintage
9.6oz bottle

A- pours deep amber in color with a ruby hue, razor thin off-white head disappears almost immediately

S- a bit of oxidation up front is followed by aromas of sherry, caramel, leather, peppery tobacco, raisins & figs, brown sugar and a hint of an almost peat-like smoke

T- caramel malty sweetness up front, complimented by notes of sweet sherry, red cherries, brown sugar & rye bread. The finish gives more malty sweetness and lingers of cherry and faded stale hops

M- medium body with low carbonation leads to a slick mouthfeel that turns slightly creamy into the finish
Feb 27, 2023
 
Rated: 4.25 by trevorpost from Pennsylvania

Jan 22, 2023
Photo of AzfromOz
Reviewed by AzfromOz from Australia

4.73/5  rDev +11.6%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 5
Drunk overlooking the ocean on the father-in-law's deck in January 2023, after having received it way back in February 2022 from @turkeysdrinkbeer. The view and the alcohol might have gotten to me, so strap in for the review...

L: Pours a rusty orange-brown, with little to no head, but what does hang around is bright white. A slow, languorous stream of carbonation threads its way up the glass around lazy, suspended sediment. That the sediment is there at all is due to my inattention while pouring. The beer is 6 years old as I pour it and I should have been more on my game. That all said, the beer screams barleywine. It looks thick. It looks rich. It looks like it wants a fire and a pair of wolfhounds at my feet while I drink it.

A: It smells like an old English farmhouse. There are years in the carpet, pipe tobacco in the air, coal dust by the back door, and age seeping deep into everything. There's a strong umami scent - redolent of crushed beetles, soy sauce and oxidation. There's booze and old sherry, old enough that the liquid has begun to crystalise in the bottom of the bottle. There's marmalade, thick and bursting with peel and sitting beside the jar of Marmite. This is comfort and warmth, cold nights, warm fires and old, old tweed jackets.

T: First blush is sweet malt, quickly gaining an umami edge before the marmalade washes over the tongue. There's an earthy, woody bitterness that never stretches itself beyond mild, and stays away from anything resembling a new word hop. Booze follows, mild at first, building as it warms and then softens out. There's a whiskey note right at the end as the beer thins after the swallow and a nice warmth in the throat and stomach. Everything works in harmony. It's not as loud and proud as the nose, but it perfectly fits the aural scene, and the subtle differences and softening of the taste work brilliantly after the build-up.

M: It's as thick as it looks in the glass. If ever a beer needed a spoon - fine old silverware, if it please m'lord - this one is it. Carbonation is an afterthought. The beer rolls over the tongue with almost no carbonic prickle and leaves only the slightest calling card on the way down.

O: This beer is the perfect synergy of nose, tongue and eyes. It looks like a barleywine, smells like a barleywine and sure tastes like a barleywine. All of those elements build on each other, and it's the evocative nature of that relationship, the building of a sensory pyramid that far outstretches its foundations, that make this beer so good. It's important to understand this is an English barleywine - there are no screaming hops, no face-melting bitterness; instead, there is malt shoved proudly front and centre, and a nod to classic English condiments, lifestyles past and times slower. Drink this beer whenever you see it.

Cheers!
#169
Jan 10, 2023
Photo of MagsBonham
Reviewed by MagsBonham from Pennsylvania

4.91/5  rDev +15.8%
look: 4.75 | smell: 5 | taste: 5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75
Found a 1997 vintage in our beer fridge. We have no idea where it came from. Poured with no head. dark mahogany brown in color. As smooth as can be. No alcohol burn n the after taste. Heavy toffee & dark sweet cherry notes. Just exquisite.
I'm not a beer judge, so my ratings for attributes are really useless. I love it, that's all I know.
Dec 24, 2022
 
Rated: 4.05 by einman from Minnesota

Dec 11, 2022
Photo of DrDemento456
Reviewed by DrDemento456 from Pennsylvania

4.2/5  rDev -0.9%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
Bottle of 2011 vintage Pours a very deep brown some sediment floaties that settle to the bottom and just a bit of carbonation that settles to a ring. Initial smells of brandy and booze repeated smells of apple cider vinegar and some wood. Taste is much sweeter than the smell very fruity barleywine mostly apricot and stone fruit slight wood and a bready finish. Very surprised by this. Smooth ABV at 11.5% its worth sipping to unlock more subtle notes of tobacco and leather.

While I wouldn't run out and get more I wouldn't mind trying a fresher vintage to see how it stacks up. Cheers!
Oct 26, 2022
Photo of ghostfacekilla69
Reviewed by ghostfacekilla69 from Virginia

4.48/5  rDev +5.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5
20 year old 2002 harvest ale from bottle. Very smooth and mellow with lightly burnt butterscotch notes. I’m a big harvest ale fan and think if you’re lucky enough to see it, you should snag it.
Oct 25, 2022
 
Rated: 4.07 by travolta from California

Oct 09, 2022
 
Rated: 4.15 by Gkruszewski from New York

Sep 26, 2022
Harvest Ale (Limited Edition) from J.W. Lees & Co (Brewers) Ltd
Beer rating: 94 out of 100 with 1670 ratings