Stone Old Guardian (Vintages 2004 and later)

bottle, 2007 vintage, sampled 3/1/07. Pours a clear, rather light amber color with a thin head of off-white head that clears quick to leave some decent lacing. Aroma features a very heavy booze bite that overpowers much of anything else in the nose. Flavor unfortunately follows the nose, with little character other than lots of alcohol heat. Some smooth semi sweet grainy malt does show up in the background, but any significant hop character is drowned out by the booze. Palate is on the sharp and oily side, as one would expect from all the booze notes. Far from one of the best Barley wines.

65cl Bottle. Poured a nice orange/red color. Looked really inviting in my Gulden Draak glas. Aroma is sweet and malty with plenty of toffee,caramel and fruit. Taste is riped fruit,caramell,sweet malt,toffee and some sugary notes. Pretty well balanced but a bit on the sweet side.

Massively malty with a good amounts of hops too. Not the best barley wine, but it is well made. Lots of alcohol and puts you on your ass pretty quick!

I really like barley wne, but one thing that can let me down with a beer is too much alcohol taste. IMO, it ruins the flavor. This is a good beer that could have been a great beer.

Just had a fairly fresh 08 vintage and it was too hot for my liking. After a bigger part of the bottle you get numb though and youre able to enjoy the rest of the otherwise really nice array of typical stone flavours. Got a few bottles left that I intend to drink the coming winters.

Cloudy color head fades quickly good balance between sweetness at beginning and alcohol at end, more hop taste then avg. barley wine

"You know how when you go to a restaurant, they call out your name? Like "Dufrain, party of two... Dufrain, party of two." And if no one answers, they’ll say it again "Dufrain, party of two, Dufrain, party of two." But then if no one answers, they’ll just move on the next name: "Bush, party of three." What happened to the Dufrains? They’re missing, and no one cares. Right now, they’re tied up in the trunk of someone’s car, with duct tape over their mouths, and they’re hungry. That’s a triple whammy! "Bush, search party of three. You can eat once you’ve found the Dufrains." 2008

On draft at Abraxas. Probably the early 09 vintage. Clearish red orange pour with no real head. Piney hop resin flavor is well balanced. Some citrus notes. I guess this thing must need a bit more time to really bring out the ’barleywine’ flavors i’ve come to expect.