A dark amber beer with a disappearing beige head. The aroma is woody with notes of sherry as well as light notes of alcohol. The flavor is sweet with lots of caramel as well as alcohol and hints of sherry. The mouthfeel is sticky.

An amber beer with no head. The aroma is domintated by alcohol, but also with notes of peach and spices. The flavor is extremely sweet and very malty as well as lots of caramel, but there is surprisingly no Port present.

Slight gushing to good yellowish head, slightly irregular; hazy orangey amber beer. Very nutty, sweet nose: aroma of rainwater in which sugar, honey and red jam have been dissolved. Short jam-fruity flavour in the taste, then some (bitter)hops, obvious but not aggressive (enough?). Leafy aroma, mainly sweet taste. Jam (strawberry?) returns with each sip. Palate clears off quick, leaving hoppy, slight bitter flavour. But I can still feel stickiness in the O.C. Medium bodied at best. Let’s say I’ve had way better from Middleton Junction. I suppose this is boy’s Lees?

Clear amber body, thin off-white head. Dense aroma of port, soy, honey, caramel, raisin, and alcohol. Rich, leathery, salty palate. Nice apple flavors complement rich, sweet breads, honey, a touch of soy, caramel, and ethanol. Rather syrupy body masks the alcohol quite well; even though the flavors are apparent, there is very little to no associated "burn." Very good, bordering on over-the-top.

Copper to strawberry blonde in color, with a heavy nose of syrup, caramel and a hint of the port - thick mouthfeel feels slick on the tongue - lots of cherry and strawberry - caramel and an alcohol burn that is pleasant, not overwhelming - I don’t sense much of an impact on the flavor from the port barrel aging - there is a slight vinous character, but it is far in the background, and I would hardly call it port-like in quality - grapes and slight bitterness in the finish - overall quite nice, but not as good as regular old JW Lees.

AOBF 04, Lagavulin Cask aged. This is the best example I’ve tried of using whiskey cask aging to improve a beer. The naturally highly sweet nature of this beer is cut perfectly by the rich, smokey, dry, alcoholic single malt. Complex and stupendous tasting. Pours a lovely amber-auburn with some darker mahogany tinges, smaller head than the regular version due to the single malt no doubt, but still good looking. I just can’t say enough about this one. It’s like milk and cookies, peanut butter and jelly, thelma and louise, etc. . . Perfect match that seems made for each other. Wonderfully complex, powerful and has the typical lee’s harvest ale smooth, creamy mouthfeel. This is pretty close to perfect, but I want to try a larger sample again and then rerate. I think the small sample size may have contributed to my very high rating, as I think this beer may get very overpowering in large quantities. Big downside is that these are highly pasteurised; there is no sediment whatsoever in the bottle. Rerate, finally. The finish is still divine, with a perfect lagavulin flavor rounding it out, but the problem (and the problem with the regular Lee’s Harvest, IMHO) is that it is just too damned sweet, cloying, and a bit too lacking in complexities due to the heavy filtration and pasteurisation. A wonderful combo here, though, I just wish you could taste the lagavulin more throughout the body, not just on the end. I can’t say I find this beer to be a worldbeater; the lagavulin is spectacular, but the beer, not so much.