Stone Brewing Old Guardian Barley Wine

“Enticing cinnamon, allspice, clove, dark chocolate, sweet raisin notes yield a remarkable nose. The flavor also delights with an almost Mexican hot-chocolate character. Smooth alcohol and a long rich finish. Outstanding!”

Aroma: “It started off mild and built into a nice combination of malt aromas that include the requisite nutty, caramel, toffee, and light roast. The hops are woody and spicy, and there’s alcohol evident, in a slightly sweet way.” Flavor: “This shows signs of great aging with sherry and dates coming on strong and complemented by wet black malt, roast, earthy hops, medium bitterness, lots of alcohol, and finishing with a dessert-wine sweetness that stops just short of cloying. Throughout, there’s rich layers of chocolate, plums, dates, dried cherry, and other assorted fruits.” Overall: “It’s a big, complex English-style barley wine with a sweet finish—a great beer to share with friends but one that might be harder to finish alone. It seems prime for aging, but the rich layers of malt and ester flavors offer no reason to wait. It’s not a subtle beer and doesn’t try to hide its strength. This is an after dinner, around the fireplace sipper.”

**Aroma:** “Nice malt sweetness with hints of orange, lemon, and pine. Bready and sweet malt aroma.” **Flavor:** “Bright and juicy hops avors push forward over moderate caramel sweetness and yeast esters that almost venture into Belgian-style bubble gum territory. A slight nuttiness adds an earthy foil against sweet orange and grapefruit citrus and lingers into the aftertaste with only a slight alcohol heat and a smidgen of phenolic bitterness.” **Overall:** “An enjoyable beer that starts off fruity with strong citrus hops char- acter over a light and sweet malt base. The phenolic component was slightly off-putting and the hops aroma wasn’t quite as assertive as hoped for, but it was earthy, well-grounded, and very drinkable as an American barleywine.