North Coast Old Stock Ale

Brewed by North Coast Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Fort Bragg, California USA

2008 vintage. Pours to a dark carmel color with a quickly dissipating off-white head. Nose is alcohol, malt, carmel, fig and brown sugar. The taste is as complex as it’s nose. With very little hop bitterness, this one is very smooth and warm. It’s sweetness is well balanced by it’s enormous malt, dried fruit and alcohol taste. I’ve got a bottle of the 2007 being cellared right now, and I’m curious to taste the difference. North Coast never fails to impress me.

12 oz. bottle. 2007 vintage. Reddish brown in color and quite hazy. Flavors of fruit, malt and toffee. Nice blend flavors hide high alc. well.

2007 vintage. Had this bottle on 3.26.08. Pours dark red amber with a decent off white head. Smells of roasted brown sugar, some fruit and rich grains. Tastes of dark fruit, toffee, anise, syrup, and rich candy. Some roasted malt notes, and a honey thickness. Lots of body, complexity, and richness. Awesome beer.

2006 bottle courtesy of jastack poured into a snifter. Pours a dark, slightly hazy reddish amber with a large creamy off-white head that lingers as a cap for ages and leaves some decent lacing on the way down. The aroma is super sweet with tons of caramel malts, toffee and brown sugar. Lots of dark fruit, especially raisins adding even more sweetness to the mix. Hints of booze in the nose as well, especially brandy. Taste is a bit more musty than the aroma with the same massive sweetness of the caramel malts and dark fruit. There is even more of a brandy presence than in the aroma with a big booze burn in the finish. There is a faint, faint hop presence that I couldn’t pick up in the nose. The mouthfeel is sugary sweet and almost syrupy but with plenty of carbonation that makes up for it. I enjoyed this one a good bit and I’m extremely impressed by the way this one has aged. Highly recommended!

Pours hazy reddish brown with a thin tan head. Aroma is big and malty, with sweet caramel and brown sugar coming through. Taste is also sweet and malty, with a slightly bitter finish, very good. 2008 bottle.

2008 vintage. Reddish amber in colour with no head and barely any carbonation. Sweet, prune and barley sugar aroma. Flavour was very sweet and syrupy, with toffee, raisins and some spice and a raw alcohol finish. Ok.

On tap at Flossmoor Station. Poured reddish brown with yellow off-white head. Aroma is sweet malt, dark fruits, citrus, caramel and some hops. Flavor is dark fruit, hops, sweet malt, caramel, molassas and touch of citrus. Nicely balanced for high ABV. Really solid barley wine.

Bottle 2008 vintage consumed late Feb 09. A bit spicy. I noticed no yeast in the bottom of the bottle - a bit surprising for a bottle designed to age. I wonder if it’s pasturized.I may try buying a few more and aging them.