North Coast Old Stock Ale

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

-2003 vintage- Highly effervescent head that bubbles and fizzes nicely but reduces to a small film of bubbles around the edge. Color is dark amber/red, cloudy with a small amount of sediment. Smells extremely vinous with a definate alcohol and sweet fruit note that is pleasant. Overwhelmingly get the smell of alcohol and sweet fruits. Taste is unexpected. There is really a lot happening but here goes. A really wine like quality that live up to the BarleyWINE name. Extremely smooth in your mouth and it is almost sugary as it washes over your tongue, then your brain deciphers it and you get the true tastes. Sweet fruity flavor with a alcohol backbone, I get no hops characteristics whatsoever. A good caramel taste sticks with you in the aftertaste. VERY good.

Vintage 2004 - tasting notes 2005). Dark red with a quickly decending head. Melon, peach, raisins and some alchol in the aroma. It’s a heavy barley wine, no doubt about that, vineous, sweet malty and yeasty with a good bitter finish. Good to be a couple of guys, going into this one.

Vintage 2006; fresh. Let to warm, it’s sweet and softly rich. Pours to a mahogany red, smelling of various spirits of its color, which I’m too unfamiliar with to really distinguish. Vanilla, caramel, nutmeg. Magnificent, towering malty texture; a substantial surface of pale malt for a honeyish beginning and a molten core of dense caramel malt. Raisiny, scotchy, very sweet, but not too aggressively. A nice snow-day or bonfire accompaniment. 7/4/8/4/16 3.9

Vintage 2004; three years and five months. Pours a ruddy, reddened amber hue, bubbles hissing furiously but forming no foam. Full aroma of pecan pie, dates, cinnamon, and bread; skirtings of melon fruit character, port, raisin, and caramel. It has this really evocative, abiding tone of seared dessert crust of something like chocolate chip or brown sugar cookies that gives it a special warmth. Flavor is lightly oxidized and quieted by the weight of sherry and wet cardboard, but still gives a rich and complex presentation of toasted vanilla, brandy and port, black pepper, date, and walnut. Sweetness has tempered itself quite a bit and run aground into some seriously oily and earthy nut flavors; tangy licks of pineapple, apple, and gingerbread liven up the midpalate very nicely. Hops seem perfumey and musky. Barren, wooden alcohol brings a bit of oxidation again; too noticeable. Really, at times this seems infinitely complex and polished, while at others it only gives a stale, moist cardboard effect. Definitely hard to gauge, but overall the first impression is more dominant. Palate is rich and full; scantily carbonated and port-like in texture. Winks of tropical fruit in the smack, with molasses and pecan bread; dense, lengthy and generous. Two and half to three years would probably find this example in top form, but as is, it’s quite a fine one. 9/3/9/4/16 4.1

Ages great! Had off tap and bottle. Aged bottles come out very thick and malty, almost syrup-like. Off tap it seem smoother and less malty. Pours dark. Make sure not to drink this one too cold or any barley wines for that matter. Complex flavors and high quality make this a great beer!

07 bottle. Poured a reddish brown, with a very thin head, that did not last. Had a strong alcohol smell, with some sweetness, but the alcohol did not come through in the taste. Maybe a bit too sweet, at least for me, but might have been too young for drinking.

I tried this after a Sierra Nevada Bigfoot barleywine. The difference is profound and not in a good way for the North Coast ale. This is brewed more according to British style with traditional Brit hops and they don’t play a major role in aroma or flavor. Also, like many others have said, the alcohol is definitely evdient in this brew. This would be a last resort for me as a barleywine.

(bottle) Pours deep amber with a tan head that lasts. Aroma is very sweet with brown sugar, molasses, and raisin. There are also some hops in the aroma. The taste is very sweet with raisin and molasses again leading to a nice bitter finish with light alcohol showing up. The mouthfeel was full and chewy, not too bad.

The high alcohol content is very evident with this beer. very little was done to incorporate other subtle tastes with the alcohol. It is very in your face and not really my thing.