Stone Old Guardian (Vintages 2004 and later)

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

Amber red with a thick and creamy head with big lacing. Caramel and spice in the nose. Malt and alcohol. Some brown sugar. Very spicy flavors of caramel and figs. Some brown sugar. Alcohol. bittering hops. Tangy and spicy palate with a bitter malt finish.

Pours that nice copper color with an orange hue.Aroma is sweet as is the flavor.Definately a good barley wine when you can taste the dark fruits of raisin, figs , etc.Nice and clean the whole ride with the warming of the belly.

Golden-amber color, head that surprised me that stuck around. Tastes warm from esters and alcohol, but also has a hop lingering flavor. Not bad, but not my favorite.

Gorgeous hazy peachy appearance, with a slimmish layer of foam on top. Exhilirating nose...yeasty and citric at first, toasty and potent, from the top of it...wide open citric fruit character, not what I’d expected...serious smell, leaking in the alcoholic content, slowly, tingling with further fruitiness, begging me to finally taste... mmmm...this is a new kind of yumminess, one I don’t remember from other versions...citric sweetness, a delicious oxymoron, is chief among the flavor contributions..peach and apricot, mix with honey and spice, while the booze facts stands tall above it all, as well. Very happy, humming, brilliant brew, this is...lands gladly on the palate, too, though it makes no considerable impact. Sits there comfortably, imparting juicy, jubilant flavor ...very interesting, and not what I expected, less like a typical American barleywine, and more like some English old ales, or even like certain Belgian brews, certainly in an exclusive class...this is a tangy thing, a powerfully flavored ale, confident and kind,it delivers it’s goodness, assured in it’s mission, it drops this delicacy and moves on, like all good soldiers should...

22 oz bottle, snifter. Caramel, cereal, toffee, candi sugar? malt (H); flower and perfume hops (M); light alcohol, white grapes, pear, peach, butterscotch aromas. Average sized, creamy, off-white, diminishing head sits on an amber-orange body. Heavily sweet, heavily acidic flavor becomes a heavily sweet, heavily acidic, moderately bitter finish. Medium-full body, oily/creamy texture, moderately alcoholic, lively carbonation, slightly astringent. The bottom line is: this one is really hot right now, but I expected that. Great toffee / butterscotch aftertaste.

The 2005 version is not hot out of the bottle close to it’s release date. Sure, there’s some alcohol, but nothing like last year’s. Also, there’s a big biscuit presence that I didn’t notice previously. I’ve adjusted my ratings to go with what would be found on the shelves right now.

Bottled, 2006 release. Superb appearance. Beautiful orange-red with elegant, slow rising carbonation, and a good sized and lasting white head. The beer is hoppy, it’s fruity, ya know, it’s the barley wine I would expect Stone to brew. Which is a good thing. Tastes kinda like an amped up Arrogant Bastard to be honest, thicker and slightly syrupy. It does have a little alcohol heat to it, but nothing you wouldn’t expect from a beer of this ABV. It’s not too hot. It’s pretty damn good all told.

2004 drank Jan 2007. Malts are really taking over. It has that BW taste to it... Strong, old malts, a little rustic, cellar like. It’s not all that sweet. Flavor is similar to Third Coast, with less sweetness and syrupy mouthfeel, also less fruity. Very good at 3 years.

2005. Aroma of butterscotch, toffee, pinepple, watermelon, tangerine. Appears orange-reddish-brown with good clarity, slight and slow effervescence of small bubbles, and a little frothy wisp of a cream-colored head. Flavor starts suprisingly bitter and hoppy, but quickly gives way to a raisins and molasses; its way out of balance right now, but age will mellow the hops and this should be super in years to come. Palate is appropriately chewy with slight bubbliness. Overall, this beer is greater than the sum of its parts; and I expect it to come into its own in the future.

2004 release. This poured nicely. Good head with an amber/brown color that displayed just a bit of murkiness. Rich complex aroma of malts, hops and dark fried fruits. The palate was well balanced, with enough hops to differentiate this from an English Style Barleywine, yet not too over the top either. Sweetly complex flavor to match the aroma. This one is well done.