TLDR Beer Club

[kidcolin]

Hey y'all,

Tonight I picked up 4 beers at my new favorite grocer in town (the bacon from the butcher is AWESOME).. I picked up 3 22oz's: Stone's Old Guardian Barley Wine, Anderson Valley's Brother David's Belgian Style Double Ale, and La Fin Du Monde. Also picked up a 12 oz. bottle of Old Rasputin Imperial Stout.

I started the night off with the Imperial Stout. I won't give a long review for this. I liked this a lot. I liked it more than Sam Smith's Imperial.. The roasted flavor came through a bit more. I'm not a major stout head, but I could really see myself drinking this regularly.

On to the main attraction: Stone's Old Guardian Barley Wine. The bottle says it's a limited early 2007 release. It cost me $5.00, which I think is pretty fair, considering the 11.26% ABV punch.





This is only my second trip down barley wine lane, so I wasn't sure what to expect. As you can see, it poured a darkish amber color, with a very healthy head. The nose left me guessing.. I smelled some floral hops, but it wasn't very strong or pronounced.

I let the head settle some and took a sip. First impression: resiny hops. A strong pine flavor came through. I was having trouble characterizing this one, to be honest. Aside from the resiny hops and pine flavors, I couldn't distinguish much else. A little bit of an alcohol finish, but it wasn't overwhelming and I enjoyed it.

Ultimately, I don't have much else to say for this beer. Leaves me second guessing my palate, I suppose. Looks like I have some work to do! I give it 3.75 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]'s, though that could go up easily. I definitely enjoyed this beer a lot, but it didn't knock my socks off. It did, however, get me fairly drunk.

Pick this up if you have a chance, and share with us your thoughts.