Old Guardian Barley Wine Style Ale (2010)
Stone Brewing

Shared bomber bottle at Kite Hill Brewery in Clemson, SC.

Well this smells great but tasting shows that this 16 year old brew is clearly past its prime. It does has a distinct, moderately strong, and nicely complex flavor.

Cellar Review in 2024: 22 oz bottle

Pours very dark brown, foamy white head that eventually fades. Aroma is a mix of caramel malt flavors and then surprisingly some earthy piney hops. Taste is similar, the malt sweetness is still balanced by underlying bitterness. Still has good carbonation level.

Shared bottle, from Ølbutikken, Copenhagen. ABV was 11.1%. Deep orange to amber colour, moderate off-white head. Rich and intense sweetish aroma, notes of malts, fortified wine and molasses, some fruity hops too. Intense malty flavour, very sweet, but nicely balanced by distinct American hops. Yummy.

Ten-plus years old! Nice job, Stone. It presents a little murky, but nice head and good mouthfeel. Aroma is better than I expected and flavor is excellent. I suspect it had a lot of hop character ten years ago, but also as expected there's almost none today. Probably more on style, frankly. And I still have one more left!

 

 

 

 

Beer purchased at Nathaniel Square Corner Store in Rochester, NY. '10 vintage, drank in 2015. 5 year old barleywine, baby.

This pours a murky, slightly reddish brown, with a small head, and no lacing. Kind of looks mud and blood and mixed together.

5 years later, amazingly this still smells like piney and grassy hops, with some slight oxidation, burnt caramel, orange liqueur, and toasted bread.

This has aged quite nicely. There's some sweet sherry-like flavors, and very slight cardboard, from the apparent oxidation. It's not very strong, though luckily. There's still some somewhat intense piney bitterness from the hops, which are magically still present 5 years later. There's some orange marmalade flavor, which when combined with the slight booziness, kind of makes for a orange liqueur or Grand Marnier type thing going on. There's some unsweetened caramel, burnt grain, and toasted bread as well. The sweetness is at about at 5/10, definitely sweet but not overly so.

This is medium bodied, with a somewhat crisp but slightly syrupy mouthfeel, and a lower level of carbonation.

This was really nice and still quite good after 5 years.

Appearance: Semi opaque orange brown body with nice ring of head along with med. lacing

Smell: Brown sugar and caramel, complex alcohols and esters lending themselves to fruit notes of dried and fresh apricot, raisin and dried cherry.

Taste: Balanced bitterness supports sweet caramel and massive notes of dried cherry. Alcohol warmth with a lingering bitterness on the back leaves you wanting another sip.

Overall: 5 years has always seemed to be the sweet spot for Old Guardian and even at this point there are only faint signs of oxidation.