Stone Old Guardian (Vintages 2004 and later)

The color was cloudy, peachy, brass. The head was thin, creamy, and off-white. The aroma was apricot, hoppy, sweet, and alcohol. The flavor was hoppy, sweet, waxy/bitter

Thanks abcfan. Poured a nice thick peachy copper with a one finger creamy light amber head. The nose was much sweeter than I would expect from Stone, figured it would be a bitter hopbomb, sweet, caramel, very malty, citrusy, mainly some grapefruit peel, a little alcohol. The flavor is similar, alcohol could be much worse, sweet, malty, a little bitter, citrusy, grapefruit peel at the sides of the tongue. Finish is initially sweet and gives way to a warm bitterness.

Poured chestnut with ample white head. aroma was malty and very fruity, lots of english ale esters. Flavor was a bit too much of a competition between malts and hops, a very busy beer, but it improved as the drink when on. Very malty and very bitter, finishing very resiny. full mouth feel. decent, but I expected better.

There’s good bitter and there’s bad bitter. This fell way to far on the bad bitter end of the spectrum. It reminded me of when you chew on an aspirin and it feels like the taste is never going to leave your mouth. Poured a nice ruby color with a decent long lasting head. Smell was pretty nice. I’ve definitely had better barley wines.

A- Poured a deep amber color with an ample 2 finger eggshell head that adorned the top of this brew for quite a while. S- Smell was very distinctly Stone, strong maltiness, little bit of hop tinge. T- Taste was a barage of malt and alcohol flavors. Dark fruits, deep roasted flavors. M- Mouthfeel was fairly thick and had quite a bit of carbonation. D- For 11 percent this beer is damn drinkable. Very enjoyable.

This was my first barleywine and will most likely be my last. The flavor just didn’t sit well with me, as there was a huge aftertaste of alcohol. It’s almost like mixing an ale with a shot of vodka. I was however, feeling quite nice after finishing a bottle.

It had an amber body and a taste of fruity alcohol with a bit of bitterness.

Draught Orange-amber, just a small undefined rim. Fine, but quite affermative C-hops, further grapes, other dark fruit and lunaria. Wry, nearly tart hopsflavour. Some obvious caramel and piecrust. Well-bodied, slick, slightly burning MF. Surprising beer, in the sense that it feels sharp, aggressive at first, then gradually becomes dangerously easy-drinking. Less subtle (well...) than the older version, IMO.