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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Bottle of the 2001 vintage. A great color, deep mahogny, but the head was rather plain and flat. The aroma screams candy, fruits, alcohol, and sweet malts. Soft and smooth. A nice robust flavor.

Outstanding beer. Aroma is brandy like, Dark amber in color. Some fruit flavors, very malty, slightly sweet. Very strong, warms the mouth and stomach.

UPDATED: FEB 18, 2005 2003 vintage pours a murky dark reddish brown with a small light brown head with large bubbles that leaves a thin lacing in my glass. Fruity plum, vanilla and grapefruit aromas, dark fruit, caramel, chocolate and nutty flavors. Full bodied with a full and thick lightly carbonated mouthfeel, finishes on the dry side, alcohol well hidden, very nice.

scary clouded and brilliant..i mean brilliant red hinting at getting browner..but not doing so...the head, what was left of it..settled in an uneven ring with soapy discharges lingering in the center..the aroma was fruitifully creamy..cherried..twilzerific..cream covered grapefruit juice, with a shot of orange juice to downplay the bitterness...I’m not sure the downplay worked..very citrusy without being too puckery..leaving some room for creaminess..subtly..very different I like it..its snazzy..if it was russian..it be old stockski..

This was a bit overkill when it came to alcohol presence. I know that this is a barley wine, but it had features of a very fine brandy. Almost too much for me, but still worth seeking.

UPDATED: JAN 19, 2003 2000 Bottle: Strongly alcoholic aroma, in fact alcohol is all I smell. It smells like a damn liquor drink. Well, now it smells like grapes, which is much more attractive. Dark, cloudy burgundy color. I had to pour it rather hard to get a head to form, which rapidly dissipated. Medium to thin body, very sweet, and leaves a nice aftertaste on your lips. No lacing, and I keep thinking I"m drinking some really hardcore grape juice, this is a very interesting barley wine. This is really good, though extremely sweet. I"ll have to find another bottle to try again. 2001 Bottle: The beer pours a dark and cloudy amber color with almost no head at all. What little head there is rapidly dissipates. The beer leaves no lacings on the side of the glass. The aroma is strongly alcoholic and grape-like with a nuttiness and malty sweetness evident. The flavor is strongly malty, with hints of vanilla and grapes. The finish is sweet and alcoholic. Quite a fantastic brew.

Aroma is sweet and chock full of toffee. Flavor is smooth and rich, though not as vinous as the nose suggests. Lots of maple, sweet malts, and chocolate. Becomes toastier as it warms. Some bitters to balance the malts, but a bit too sweet for my tastes. Also seemed a mite thin in body, unexpected in an ale of this strength.

UPDATED: AUG 6, 2012 GABF 2003: Brown sugar aftertaste. Up 0.2 from last year. On tap GABF 02: Sweet malty aroma, dark orange color. Smooth tasting and nicely balanced.

This is the last bottle of a 6-pack I bought in 2001. Brown and murky with almost no head. Flavor is bready, caramel, raisins and maybe apricott. Alcohol is present but it is quickly wiped away by a very smooth, malty finish.

this barleywine was definately not my fav of the style-good peer nose, murky brown appearance, but the taste was oily and kind a hard to describe-very malty with little bitterhop bite-i perfer the hoppier barleywines such as hog heaven and bigfoot-this was not my thing