REVIEW: Stone Old Guardian Barleywine

The first time I had a barleywine I really didn't like it. It was at a beer tasting in Madison, Indiana when I was a junior at Hanover College. I don't even remember exactly which beer it was, just that I didn't care for it. It was weird. It didn't taste like a beer to me. Needless to say, in the intervening years my palate has become more refined and my tastes have changed. Barleywines are still far from my favorite beer style but I'm always excited to give them a shot. They're always big, complex, interesting beers. I also attribute my coming around on barleywines to some of the more hop forward varieties that I've had. Beers Like Avery's Hog Heaven and the recent Cincinnati Beer Week Barleywine are both great beers for folks looking to get into barleywines but who are more familiar with more of an IPA flavor profile. They are both big malty complex beers but the big hop presence sort of leads the way. Both are great beers and good gateways to the style. But enough about those, I'm not drinking either of those beers today. Today's barleywine comes from Stone, one of the greatest breweries in the world. At least if you ask me. Stone is known for huge beers. Beers that are big, assertive, highly flavorful, and complex. I'm excited to see what they have to say about the barleywine. To the beer!

From Stone's website:

Allow us to present you with the Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine, in all its unadulterated glory. We make small adjustments to the recipe every year, just a little bit...as it provides an opportunity to try some different hops or malts. For the 2012 release, we made a deliberate effort to move away from the English hop influence of the past few years, taking out the East Kent Golding hops, subbing in a blend of American Chinook, Calypso and Cascade. Yes, that's right, Cascade. This is the first use of Cascade in one of our beers, and we really enjoyed the hints of grapefruit and pine it contributed to the aroma and flavor. We also bumped up the Maris Otter crystal malt by a mere 0.5%, and it's amazing how much of a difference it made in the color and the upfront body. All in all, it's resulted in a well-rounded beer that is ready to drink now, or can be aged at cellar temperatures for many years. (If you can wait that long.) 

Old Guardian pours a really pretty red color with golden highlights at the edges. It's capped by a thick layer of white foam that doesn't leave much in the way of lacing.

The aromas coming off of this beer are unbelievable. Big caramel and toffee notes are evident first but they are followed by some really interesting sweet fruity notes. There are also some subtle chocolate, roasty, bready notes. You can also get a whiff of the boozy alcohol. This beer means business. This is definitely the most complex aroma profile of any beer I've done on the blog so far.

Old guardian is a medium to heavy bodied beer, pretty typical of a barleywine. Wow. So, I mentioned that I could smell hints of the alcohol, that was no coincidence. The 11% ABV in this beer isn't hidden at all. There are some high ABV beers that you can drink and forget that you're drinking such an alcoholic brew. That is not the case with Old Guardian. It doesn't let you forget that it's a big boozy beast of a beer. There's also a big bitter hop finish. The bready, caramel, toffee flavors are at the forefront here. They're followed by some crisp citrusy hop flavors that are quickly smashed out of the way by the 85 IBU.

As the beer warms a it mellows a bit. The alcohol and hop bitterness are still very big, but not so punishing. Which makes the beer a little smoother, almost creamy.

I was expecting Old Guardian to be a big assertive beer and I was not disappointed. A word of warning though. Watch your back with this one. If you're not careful all of that malt, hops, and alcohol will leave you on the floor by the end of the night.

HD