Old Stock Cellar Reserve (Aged In Wheat Whiskey Barrels)
North Coast Brewing Co.

 

2014 vintage, aged 12 years. Surprisingly still carbonated and no signs of infection. Just a classic, well-rounded BA barleywine-type character. Nice interplay between the molasses, caramel, and toffee, and the barrel and bittering hop notes. Clearly an excellent candidate for aging, too bad they're no longer producing it

90/100

Picked up a 500 ml 2014 edition bottle from the Craft Beer Quick Stop in North PHX on 1-31-25 for $26. Consumed for review 2-2-25.

Beer poured dark brown with a surprisingly strong tan head with the initial pour.

Nose is very nice as it warms, getting dark fruits with a touch of toffee and vanilla.

Taste is a large malt base that gives me some burnt caramel and toffee along with some blackberries and figs. Barrel lends a touch of vanilla with some heat that balances the large malt base in the end.

Mouthfeel is light to medium bodied and is pretty smooth.

Overall flavor wise this has held up pretty well. The wheated barrel is a nice touch for the aging process after having brews like this back to back nights.

Pours a clear reddish brown, no head at all. Boogar factory says dark fruit, vanilla, oak and a hint of whiskey, taste buds say hell yeah and there's some toffee in there also. Smooth, creamy texture. I've always enjoyed the base beer and one this is showing it's age, but I am enjoying it.

 

 

 

Drank this beer while watching Fist Full of Dollars for the first time!

Poured from a recently purchased bottle into a small snifter. Ruby brown color with a nice beige effervescent initial head with minimal lacing. Pleasant smell of caramel, toffee and oak. The taste includes these as well as dark raisins, dates and figs. Nicely sweet and warming. Very enjoyable beer for a lazy evening.

500mL corked and caged bottle poured into a snifter. Pours a deep ruby-mahogany color with no head to speak of. Very rich and complex malt aroma. Toffee, vanilla, maple, raisins, bourbon. Taste mostly follows, although it lands a little flat. Don't know if it's just the age or something else but it seems to disguise the nearly 15% ABV well. Medium-full bodied and chewy. Nicely layered and rich.

2014 vintage reviewed in 2022.

Pours a deep, rich mahogany color with a finger of light khaki head that went away quickly.

Wonderful aroma. Caramel, toffee, burnt brown sugar, brown bread, raisin, date, slight nuttiness, slight maple, bourbon, light oak, some sherry from the oxidation. Happy that the barrel is still coming through nicely.

Taste brings waves of caramel, Sugar Daddy candy, raisin bread, some maple, some crème brulee, toffee, slight nuttiness, date, slight fig, some star anise, vanillin, bourbon, oak tannin. Like the aroma, oxidation presents some sherry notes, but it isn't off-putting at all and adds another layer to an already complex beer. Warming as it goes down. The oak tannin and bourbon spirit heat on the finish dry out the beer nicely.

Medium body. Light carbonation, slick, oily, sticky. Could use a bit more body and carb, but I'm sure it's age has a lot to do with that. Age has done this well though in terms of drinkability, quite smooth for 14.5%.

I had pretty high expectations for this beer because I love Old Stock Ale, but I also had reservations due to it's age. This exceeded everything. Extremely complex. The age has, from what I'm guessing, smoothed this one out quite a bit, but it also still retains a good amount of the wheated bourbon barrel character.

 

 

2014 bottle, drank on 06.10.21 out of a tulip - spectacular. Beautiful aging, nice wheat whiskey bite, just a great beer.

Tasted in a Rastal Teku glass from a 500 mL bottle on February 11, 2021.

L:. Pours a dark brown Amber with hints of purple with no head or lacing.

S:. Lots of notes of whiskey, notes of caramel and toffee, boozy with lots of oak and vanilla, this smells like a boozy treat.

T:. Lots of booze, notes of caramel, strong oak and vanilla, the whiskey is very strong in this one. I like the aroma better than the taste.

F:. Higher carbonation, bigger body.

O:. Solid beer, but this is a boozy beast, we aged this one for 6 years and still got a lot of booze.

2015 bottle

Cork has a tobacco, whiskey and oak booziness. Pours a caramel, turbid deep amber. Little fizzy head. Upfront nose of grainy whiskey, leather and tobacco. Mellow malt and sweet molasses on the low rounded it out. Full, dark malt foundation supports a serious whiskey heat and dark fruits. Very intense, some boozy bite, warming, somewhat smooth, medium-full body and a slight drying. Mostly tobacco-laced stickiness. Well worth a try, nice to sit and sip with during some r&r.

2014, wow! Can't wait.

This beer pours dark soft brown with essentially no head - just a thin khaki-colored film of carbonation and bubbles.

The smell consists of whiskey and raisins mostly. Brown sugar and vanilla appear too.

The flavor is a little syrupy and medicinal, but not overly so. The prominent flavors are raisin bread, cherry, rye, whiskey, and caramel. Burnt sugar, vanilla, and orange peel appear. There's an old fashioned flavor throughout.

The consistency is a little syrupy but has a light carb. The finish is more whiskey and raisin bread.

Overall, I expected good things, and this just about meets those expectations. It's not a phenomenal beer, but it's a very good beer. I suspect that the age took away some of the mouth-feel characteristics, but the flavors really shine here. It follows a classic English old ale profile, but with the added extra of wheat whiskey.