Stone Old Guardian Review

Name: Stone Old Guardian
Style: Barleywine
ABV: 11.6%
IBUs: 80

After having all of those light beers, it's time to get back to the heavier stuff. The best way I can think of right now is to review a barleywine of all things. In this case, it's Old Guardian from Stone Brewing, which is their annual barleywine that is usually released in the winter/early spring.

I actually picked this up about a couple months ago from Blue Max, and I kind of lucked out when I bought this because this is from 2014. I actually had this about three years ago when I was visiting Minneapolis from Chicago and managed to grab it as I was leaving. I had it upon arriving back to my apartment in Chicago and absolutely loved it but taking notes wasn't at the top of my list of priorities.

Appearance - A hazy dark red color with no visible carbonation. The head takes on a foamy, light khaki color with some pretty good lacing along the sides of the glass.

Aroma - Strong caramelized malts on the front of the nose followed by some potent piney hop and grapefruit notes, before being rounded out with some toffee sweetness.

Taste - Virtually the same as the nose. You've got strong caramelized maltes and piney hop notes upfront with grapefruits and toffee notes after that. The big difference here is that the caramelized malts and piney hops are a lot stronger here. The aftertaste is mainly toffee sweetness and bitter hoppiness

It's not the most complex tasting barleywine out there, even with some age but for the price I paid for it, I still consider this to be pretty good. If this were $15, I would recommend avoiding this but since I paid half that price, I'd say this is worth checking out.

Stone Old Guardian - 8.5/10