Stone Old Guardian (Vintages 2004 and later)

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

2007 vintage sampled on 6/17/07: Pours a hazy dark copper bronze with a frothy thin light tan head. Aroma of fresh citrusy grapefruit hops and sweet caramel malt. Body starts sticky sweet and caramely with a big, biggering hoppy presence toward a drier, warming bittersweet finish. I’d prefer this with a little more aroma and flavor hops and not as many bittering hops, but then I’d probably taste the alcohol more.

2005 vintage sampled on 9/28/05: Pours a dark copper with orange tiint and a big, frothy off-white head with greenish hues. Aroma has a very nice balance of sweet caramel malt and piney hops. Body has a good, sweet malty and hoppy balance, but doesn’t hide the alcohol anywhere near as well as the Old Horizontal I just had. This will probably be pretty good after a few years of aging, but even six months has little effect right now. Needs more of a silky smooth, viscous palate as well.

2004 vintage sampled on 5/6/04: Pours a rich copper bronze with a thick and well-lacing white head. Aroma is a bounty of sweet caramel malt and floral hops. Body starts syrupy sweet, turning more bitter and lightly fruity toward a finish that masks the alcohol very well. All the flavors of a great barleywine are there, but they just don’t seem to mesh together as well as they could. A little more balance and more subtle bitterness, and this could be improved. Still a nice barleywine, but I expect a little more from Stone.

’07 Old Guardian BW [released 1/07]-on tap -pours an off white head and gold color. Aroma is medium malt-sweet, medium/dark fruit, raisin/plum/prune. Taste is medium malt-sweet, medium/dark fruit, raisin/plum/prune, spices, secondary hops, alcohol, syrupy. Sipping.

2005 edition. Light hazy amber beer with a small tan head. Malty dark fruit sweet aroma with a light alcohol note and some hoppy bitterness. Malty caramel sweet flavor with a solid hoppyness and a light alcohol touch.

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.

Bottled. Slightly hazy orange coloured. Aroma of fruits, raisins and prunes. Very sweet and fruity flavour with an alcoholic touch. Not very hoppy. Medium bodied.

2007 bottle. Pours copper with a nice white head. Smells of caramel, hay, some citrus, dark fruit. Tastes of brown sugar, floral hops, some dryness on the finish. Definitely one to drink on the fresh side.

Boozed-up pine trees treading on wet earth...Dried apricots and plentiful pale fruit falling like leaves and grabbed by hop bitterness and alcohol...At this point in its young life, it feels agressive and not cohesive...I’ll have to come back in a year or two...3.5/5

1-year-old bottle : Hops have wonderfully laid back and let the rich malts shine...Superb unity of flavors, balance is achieved and the smooth and nourishing mouthfeel warms the body...4/5

Young 2007 vintage: This newly-bottled vintage was quite disappointing to me...None of the complex maltiness required to develop with age, none of the blooming hops to seduce the nostrils and tastebuds, this is just a smooth, überclean barley wine for those in search of a thoughtless evening sipper...Not what I usually expect from Stone...3.2/5

Nov. 2004 bottle. Orange red coloured beer with a thin off-white head. Big cookie dough and biscuit malt aroma. Spicy and pine/resiny hops in the nose. There is good balance between sweet malt and bitter hops though. Flavour is malt dominant, cookie dough and bright hops. Alcohol is really apparent in this one. Fairly bitter finish. I could do without the rambling diatribe on the back of the bottle though.