North Coast Old Stock Ale

Brewed by North Coast Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Fort Bragg, California USA

Serve in Snifter

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UPDATED: OCT 23, 2007 Original Rating 2/28/03: My first barley wine. Yikes. It’s like a malted martini or something. Well, no, not the way I make martinis. Color looks like a brown bottle, no head at all. Very strong alcoholic taste, what you would expect from wine (duh) or maybe vodka. Fairly potent stuff. Didn’t really taste like beer to me, but it’s okay. 6/3/6/3/16 Re-rate, Cellar Reduction Night, Oct 20, 2007; 2003 Vintage: Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve rated this one. Murky brown color with no head. Good aroma of sweet brown sugar and a little salt. Very sweet malt taste, coupled up with a distinctive herbal taste, focusing on mint. Port-like. Delicious. I’m glad my tastes have changed!

Very strong, but still tastes great. Good color. Very little head. Very good beer. Fun to drink also.

Dark amber with a small quickly disapearing tan head. Aroma of berries and raisons. Flavor is sweet, dried fruit and alcohol. Very heavy body. Dry bitter alcohol finish. This will definitely warm you up and has the strongest alcohol flavor of any beer I've tried so far.

Deep red in color with a wonderful sweet, malty aroma. Alcohol well hidden. Very port-ish with dark fruits in the mix, also a dry, slightly hoppy finish. Very easily drinkable barleywine and quite enjoyable.

Another night tasting more barleywine at the 2003 Toronday Barley Wine Festival. I was just going to have 4 more samples and ended up stumbling out 3 hours later after having 7. Started with North Coast Old Stock Ale. Lots of molasses and brown sugar rising from the brew. Very soft and smooth to taste. Fruit flavors of grape and watermelon with lots of chocolate. A bit acidic. Great barley wine - I grabbed a 4-pack of 2002 recently and will cellar for a while.

cedar and blood-orange, pouring fiery and clear. hazelnut-cream colored foam isn't huge, but enough to signal a vivacious beer locked and loaded. aroma is plum-toffee, with a ripe note of aged rind of gruyere cheese, and more aromatic stirrings from dried rhubarb and peach. breezing throughout the solid more wholesome notes are corrupting wafts of peppery alcohol: wine, port, spiced rum, moonshine, call it what you will, it's potent. i started getting my hypnotic buzz at about the same time i'd decided i liked the beer, so the effect took me from open-mindedly analytical to blubberingly exuberant. (hey, it happens all the time with great beers). there's a sharp spot where the carbonation hits the tongue upon first sip: it's somewhat overbearing but it chills with a little warming (if you get my drift). that smart effervesence awakens sleepy taste buds (like a paul revere of the palate) to the flavor shellacking that's just arriving: a big sweetness that might seem sissy if it weren't for the concommitant and warming whallop of intoxicants. finally a fierce tongue-wringing of bitterness twists out even more caramel rum fruit cake, sizzling and roasting sugars and a winning finish.

On tap at the 2003 Toronado Barleywine Festival: Creamy. Fairly one-dimensional. Thin. Quite sweet.

2002 batch - Pours deep amber with a quickly dissipating head. Aroma of hops and alcoholic strength. Flavor was a decent hop + malt balance that covered up the alcohol well. It did have a tinny, metallic taste though that detracted from the flavor. Aftertaste was sharp hop bitterness. Overall it wasn't a bad beer, but it will definitely get better with time.

Pours with a nice reddish color, with a tan head. The aroma is great. I can't pinpoint what it is, but if it was food I would definately eat it. Flavor is strong and unique. It has a bit of a sweet aftertaste.

I cannot believe I found a 2000 case of this at my local distributer, and it only cost $50.00. It pours with a small tan head that developes only slightly in the first minute. Color is opaque burnt orange. The aroma is malty and sweet, and slightly metallic, which is why the lower rating in aroma. I might change this after cleaning the glass and sampling again. Taste is heavenly! Rich malts with a smokey presence. A nice fuzzy finish with hops at the end. Very much like a Fullers 99 but more smokey and heavy and not quite as fruity. An excellent beer!
Update: after cleaning my glass throughly and re-sampling the metallic taste has gone away. It now has a port wine and slight grape aroma, just fantastic.