Stone Old Guardian (Vintages 2004 and later)

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

Bottle, purchased at the brewery nearly one year ago in January 2009. Beautiful hazy dark orange-amber pour with a huge sponge-toffee head. Very malty aroma, caramel and breadcrusts, with fruity accents and low resin notes. Heavy, chewy malty palate, densely flavoured with treacle, breadcrusts, cooked peaches, and low piney accents in the very bitter finish. Warming finish, but no fusels or harshness. Beautiful.

A dark orange color with a really small head. The aroma is slightly toasty and citrus-like although a little muted. Flavor is rather bitter and sweet with a nice thick mouth feel. Finish is comfortably bitter and long lasting. Flavor becomes more complex and tasty with each sip. Overall an enjoyable and different brew.

Sweet, syrupy ,butterscotch-like aroma. One of the best I’ve smelled in a beer. Tastes of hops, orange peel, and maybe some vanilla. A little too much hop on the backend for me. Great mouthfeel. Can hardly taste the alcohol through all of the hops.

Aroma has a floral hoppiness that dominates. Mouthfeel is very oily and thick. Appearance is good. Too sweet for my tastes. Perhaps I am just not a barley wine fan.

Cloudy golden pour with a minimal head. Inviting sweet alcoholic aroma. Taste is very sweet like caramellized sugar. Sharp initial bitterness that fades. The alcohol is quite prominent but not overwhelming. A good experience. (Bottle @ Bulldog in Ginza, Tokyo February 2009. Served in a pint glass.)

22 ounce bottle, early 2007 release. Served in a nonic pint glass, the beer pours an orange/amber color with about an inch off-white head. Head retention and lacing are both good. Aroma is pine and citrusy hops, caramel malt, brown sugar, and some apricots. Taste is similar to the aroma. Surprisingly the hops are still strong in this brew after 2 years. Pine and citrusy hops dominate, while caramel malt, butterscotch, booze and brown sugar flavors are noticable, too. There’s also a good lingering bitter hoppy finish. Mouthfeel/body is medium, it’s a bit syrupy and slick with moderate carbonation. Drinkability is good, although you can tell there’s some alcohol in this brew! Overall I think it’s a good beer, aging it hasn’t hurt it although aging it a bit longer wouldn’t be a bad thing either.

This barley wine pours a deep copper, amber color with a off-white creamy head. Aromas are immediately of sweet alcohol, hops, and a good bit of malted barley. It would really smell reminiscent of a malty double IPA if it weren’t for all that barley. The rich body of the beer has more pleasant sweet flavors of honey, raspberries, and raisins offset with heaps of hops. Obviously, massive amounts of ingedients were used in the making of this brew. While this barley wine may not be a typical of the genre, its rich unrestrained flavors make it worth drinking down to the last drop. Stone doesn’t ever to seem to miss the mark.

’09 bottle from VBS. Aroma is barley and lots of it. You can almost smell how thick this is going to be. Pours a deep amber and relatively clear with a thick luscious off-white head. Taste is slightly sweet with a some bitterness. Leaves an almost fruity flavor (pear maybe?) as well as that bready barley taste. A very tasty beer, but at 11%, this one’s a sipper.