Old Guardian Barley Wine Style Ale (2010)
Stone Brewing

Old Guardian Barley Wine Style Ale (2010)Old Guardian Barley Wine Style Ale (2010)
Beer Geek Stats | Print Shelf Talker
From:
Stone Brewing
 
California, United States
Style:
American Barleywine
ABV:
11.1%
Score:
92
Avg:
4.14 | pDev: 9.66%
Reviews:
204
Ratings:
339
Status:
Retired
Rated:
May 08, 2021
Added:
Feb 13, 2010
Wants:
  11
Gots:
  83
No description / notes.
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Ratings by nhindian:
Photo of nhindian
Reviewed by nhindian from Pennsylvania

4.17/5  rDev +0.7%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
22oz bottle poured into an Stone Old Guardian glass.

A - Pours a dark goldenrod color with about a finger's worth of khaki colored head. Decent retention. Lacing is sporadic, yet thick. Relatively muddy body and no hint of carbonation.

S - Upon first smell this beer is definitely heavy on the malts, sweet, thick and bready. Not biscuit-dry but a bit chewy. But then the rest of the nose comes through and you can tell this is pretty heavily hopped. Juicy citrus crowd the back-end of this beer and it's appetizing.

T - Taste certainly follows the nose for this beer. The front end is very malt heavy, almost like biting into a freshly baked loaf of bread, but quite sweet. This sensation doesn't last for very long, however, before switching to a surprisingly hoppy finish. Easy to pick up flavors of pine and citrus, especially orange, which helps switch the beer from malt to the bitter finish. And the finish is quite bitter, both as a result of the hops and the high alcohol.

M - Mouthfeel is medium bodied with low carbonation. Finish is long and especially bitter. Leaves a nice coating in the mouth.

D - Drinkability is moderately high. Honestly, a great transition beer to the more malt forward beers out there and probably one of my favorite barleywines I've had so far. It is a great balance between the two extremes of malt and hop and although the alcohol is there, it's certainly not apparent that it's 11.1%.
Jan 06, 2011
More User Ratings:
Photo of Sigmund
Reviewed by Sigmund from Norway

3.96/5  rDev -4.3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
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.
May 08, 2021
Photo of BKotch
Reviewed by BKotch from Texas

4.15/5  rDev +0.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
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!
Nov 08, 2020
 
Rated: 4 by brittanylicious from Indiana

Jun 10, 2018
 
Rated: 4 by heysuz from Indiana

Jun 09, 2018
 
Rated: 4.38 by Imperialjake from North Carolina

Jul 04, 2017
 
Rated: 4.24 by jeff1973 from California

Apr 20, 2016
Photo of GreesyFizeek
Reviewed by GreesyFizeek from New York

4.26/5  rDev +2.9%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
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.
Jul 03, 2015
Photo of Eriktheipaman
Reviewed by Eriktheipaman from California

4.35/5  rDev +5.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5
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.
Jun 23, 2015
 
Rated: 3.65 by GRG1313 from California

Jun 01, 2015
 
Rated: 4.15 by BostonJustin from Massachusetts

Apr 19, 2015
 
Rated: 3.5 by rderedin from Maine

Mar 14, 2015
 
Rated: 3.89 by Stinger80OH from Ohio

Mar 01, 2015
 
Rated: 4 by exl_90 from Texas

Jan 01, 2015
 
 
Rated: 3.75 by olradetbalder from Sweden

Nov 21, 2014
 
Rated: 4 by Dicers from California

Oct 19, 2014
 
Rated: 4.36 by shoegueuze from California

Sep 17, 2014
 
Rated: 4 by firstlighthiker from Tennessee

Aug 15, 2014
 
Rated: 4 by zestar from California

Jul 19, 2014
Old Guardian Barley Wine Style Ale (2010) from Stone Brewing
Beer rating: 92 out of 100 with 339 ratings