Stone Brewing Co. - "Old Guardian 2015 Off-Year Release" barleywine

It's that time of year, folks - Stone has released the latest iteration of their Old Guardian barleywine series. For those of you unfamiliar - barleywine is a kind of ale made with barley originally brewed in England a few hundred years ago. Despite the name, it's a strong ale, usually made with the strength of a wine (roughly 8 - 14 % ABV) Today's is 11% ABV.

I happen to love barleywine, and review it quite often on this blog: here, and here, also here,  aaand here. So when I saw this in the store, naturally I had to grab a couple - 5 to be exact. Stone releases two Old Guardians a year - the Classic Release, then an off-year release. They only had one Classic Release on sale, which I bought, but many Extra Hoppy odd-year releases, 4 of which I bought. These will cellar well and so I'll have samples for years to come, and will likely peak in a few years, around which time their ABV is roughly 16 - 17%. I have Old Guardian bottles in my cellar dating back to 2010.

Since we had a snowy day today (which saw me trudging, nonetheless, through a beautiful-yet-frigid US Capitol campus), I figured once I slogged home and finished shoveling, it was time for something strong. Enter the Old Guardian 2015 Extra Hoppy barleywine. Kept extra cold by submersion in the snow for a while.

Pours swiftly, with a nice reddish-brown color and a puffy tan head that clings to the sides to the glass.

Wow - what a strong and pungent aroma: clean, aged hops notes with and undercurrent of something I can't quite place. Interesting.

The taste is equally perplexing. It's got the usual malty caramel tastes of a barleywine, but is accompanied by the hoppy dryness of a strong IPA. It's an interesting mix, definitely off the beaten path, a serious blend of IPA-like bitterness and barleywine strength. I like it, and is a diversion from the typical OG barleywine offering. It drinks less like a barleywine and more like a very strong double IPA, which is kind of interesting. I did end up liking it, and I think it is a little more sessionable than its predecessors - something which I favor. I'm interested to see how this beer will turn out in 2016 and beyond - all the way to 2019.