Stone Old Guardian (Vintages 2004 and later)

Bottle@Home. Aroma of grapes, apples and malts. Orange/amber color, beige head, good lace. Flavor is like chewing hops with oranges, light malty and sweet. Too alcoholic. Overall a bit over the top.

Rust, filtered color, white head. Minimal lacing. A little syrupy, very sweet flavor. Lightly hoppy finish. Overall a decent barleywine at best. A little too sweet.

Pours medium amber, somewhat hazy. Medium foamy head, aroma of malts hops with resins, caramels, wet forrest in the end. Flavour is strong in the area of malted hops, resins and caramel. I’m afarid to say, it doesn’t seem as refined as I wold expect from a Stone ale product. The beer is drinkable, but far from remarkable (as I was expecting). Perhaps some cellaring would be in order, however fresh outa the barrel it really needs a little more.

2008 Bottle - All malt and fire at first. As it sat, the alcohol mellows, or maybe its just my brain going numb. One sip tells you its Stone, I’m guessing it will be better in a couple years...

2008 bottle. Aroma is very malty. Pours a reddish brown color, almost like rust. Starts off a bit sweet, gets maltier in the middle and has a big hoppy finish. A very good barley wine.

Fresh 2008 bottle. Aroma is so faint I thought maybe my nose was plugged. Smelled like a really far away dopplebock. Flavor is all alcohol and hops, but ESPECIALLY alcohol. Has a little bit of sweet malt presence but the alcohol dominates everything basically. I’m sure it’s better with age but I would definitely not want to drink this one fresh again.

strong hop and malt aroma. reddish brown color with medium off white head. Flavor is more well balanced than some of stones other BW offerings. Overall, a solid BW which retains some of the stone roughness/harshness.

I had Stone’s Old Guardian Limited Early 2008 Release and it was excellent!