Stone Old Guardian (Vintages 2004 and later)

Brewed by Stone Brewing Co.
Style: Barley Wine
Escondido, California USA

Bottle from early 08 . Poured a cloudy thick copper amber. Nose was hoppy with a hint of the 11%. Strange that a beer this strong was slightly watery. Flavor is of hops and a bit boozy, but very smooth, with a sweet finish. Pretty good, but not great.

Location:22 oz bottle from Capital Ale House, Innsbrook, 5/7/09

Aroma: Sweet fruits, caramel, maybe a little raisin, earthy hops
Appearance: Amer/orange color
Flavor: Nice hops character, a little tangy, seemed to improve as it warmed
Palate: Decent mouthfeel, long finish
Overall Impression: I was pretty excited to try this one, but I wasn’t all that impressed. It was a decent Barley Wine, but I was expecting it to be better. Maybe the bottle I got wasn’t so great? I split it with a friend and he agreed that it wasn’t quite as good as we had hoped it would be. I’d try this one again if only to see if it was the bottle I got or the beer that didn’t do it for me.

(Vintage 2008) Enjoyed from a 22oz bomber in a whiskey snifter. Pours a nice deep copper with a relatively small white head. In the nose, I got a lot of what I thought were raisons very quickly dipped in maple syrup. I also got some notes of character and specialty malt. Very impressive and appetising. On the palate, this one was really impressive. With an abv of over 11%, and the fact that my bottle was relatively young in terms of vintage, I expected a fair bit of alcohol character. However, I was really pleasantly surprised by the fact that there was no indication of the high content. The only indication the drinker gets of the gravity of this beer is its full-flavored nature, as well as the fact that one gets a nice warming feeling soon after the experience begins. The finish is not overly sweet, another impressive feat. Overall, I loved this beer, and can’t wait to sample it again.

I was excited to find this on tap at the Hopcat in Grand Rapids but when I actually had it I was severely disspointed and really had a hard time finishing it.The appearance was a nice amber and had a great head with good retention. The mouthfeel was good overall but had some astringency and flavor was not good to me at all. The finish left an aftertaste that was not positive.

2007. 8 oz on tap @ Rattle n Hum. An awesome barley wine. Pours an hued orange golden. Brutal strength but some sweet bitterness keeps you sipping.

Pours hazy dark orange amber and a thick tan head. Aroma has berries, honey, pine, spice, and sweet fruit -peach, pineapple. Incredibly well balanced in taste. The aroma lead me to believe it would be sweet, but I would say that the taste is more bitter that that. It is quite roasty and dynamic also having a pine-like finish. Somewhat is like a thick cough syrup in taste, but not in a bad way.

Bottle and draft. Pours an amber body with an off white head. Amber body with an off white head. Sweet and malty allt he way with a light fruit character but more like liquid caramel and a strong earthy hoppiness, evervescnet and strong like white. I see why people love this but its not for me. This is one brutal bastard on bitterness.

Small white head. Hazy amber body. Papery caramelly malty straw aroma with alcoholic toffee notes. Dry straw, resin, and caramel taste with nutty notes. Fullish body. Some alcohol heat. Dry-hot cocoa and caramel aftertaste with resiny notes. Lots of alcohol. Probably why the notes were kind of hard to read. (0.65l bottle.)