North Coast Old Stock Ale

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

12 oz bottle (2007 vintage 11.7 %) at Stockholm Beer Festival 2007. Reddish amber color with creamy tan head. Sweet rich aroma with berries, toffee and warming alcohol. Sweet and vinous flavor with berries, toffee, honey, candy and warming alcohol. Fairly balanced despite the sweetness.

Bottle. Very cloudy orange with minimal head. Robust nose of raisins, cherries, and alcohol. Dried fruit, oranges, cinnamon, and scotch blend nicely in the mouth. Very crisp and finishes remarkably smooth for this style. A really nice barleywine. I’d love to try this stuff aged for a couple years.

2007 vintage. Murky mahogany pour with a little tan film on top that is persistent. Aroma is beautiful! Brown sugar, some raisins and other dark fruit, the slightest hint of hops and lots of caramel malt accents...very well done! Flavor mimics the aroma and is full of malt sweetness, brown sugar, dark fruits, some molasses/maple syrup and is capped off with a strong warming finish that you can feel all the way up in your nostrils...not for the weak or faint of heart! Mouthfeel is a bit high on carbonation and full-bodied. This truly must be a wonderful beer to lay down for a while...can’t wait to crack open some of the ’03s in my basement!

2007. Caramel in color with amber hues and little head. Aroma is sweet malts, floral, spices, and alcohol. A bit weak in the aroma dept. Full bodied. Molasses, sweet malts, cinnamon, dark fruits, and noticeable alcohol. Dry, liquor-like finish. A real nice barley wine.

Pours a dark reddish amber with a significant small bead off-white head. Aroma is simply sweet malt and a little spice. Taste is assertive. There’s toasted malt sweetness, licorice, maple syrup, cinnamon, and a little dried dark fruit. After the swallow, alcohol warmth makes its presence known. This is really robust, chewy, and alcoholic (in a good way). I’m amazed that something so flavorful has next to no aroma. This stuff is good!

Thin head but amazing aroma like someone baking a pie - but it’s beer! the color is cloudy caramel amber. Mouth feel is not as full as you might expect from an 11.7 ABV, but you really don’t taste the alcohol. It tastes alot like a dubbel. You get that belgian wiff in the aroma and after taste bitter. You get alot of caramel malt balanced with a grassy dry bitter. It’s a unique Barley wine and it’s very good. I like it better than the Old Rasputin.

2007 Batch, 11.7% alcohol: (2) singles from a newly discovered store in my home town. Sparkling yet hazy rich amber color with a copper highlight. Lasting, thin, foamy tan head and very minimal lacing. Calm soothing aroma of strong red wine and figs. Cherries, mild strawberries, and butterscotch with caramel and an assortment of fresh cut flowers. The aroma isn’t too prominent, but it’s complexity lies in it’s strong subtleness. All these scents are in there, you just have to go searching for them. With roughly a year of age the mouth feel is sweet and smooth with a medium body. A sharp hint of alcohol is still present along with some mild bitterness. Not as rich as I prefer, but still drinks very nicely. Flavor mimics the various aromas. A lot more floral aspects in the taste. Fruity, sweet, with lots of miscellaneous fermented items. A nice bouquet of malts, fruit flavors, and aged hops. Reminiscent of many other great American made Barleyines, but a touch more subtle and mellow. Nice beer to be found.

My first beer from NC......quite delicious. Very nice aroma...rich and warm, very inviting. Notes of caramel and maple....rich vanilla and then undertones of fruits, possibly orange, fig, maybe candied apple. Flavors of warm alcohol, vanilla, oak, nuttiness (maybe hazelnut?) and underlying dark fruits. One of the best barley wines Ive sampled..definitely worth a try.