ray m
01-18-2005, 05:13 PM
Finally tried this from a 22 oz. bottle of '03 vintage that I aged in my cellar for a year......lessee..........
Moderate hop aroma upon opening the bottle. Poured a quasi-hazy, nice medium amber color. Barely any head---just thin wisps of extremely shallow foam that settled to even more sparsely numbered foam wisps after a few minutes. Also smelled of loads of malt upon pouring into a glass.
Taste was certainly not the "HOPS!!!!!!!!!!" battle cry that I expected from Stone. I guess the 1 year aging mellowed the hops out. Taste was nicely balanced for a barleywine, very thick and full bodied. First taste is of lots o' juicy malt, with an alcohol middle, then bitter hops at the end, which linger on your taste buds for quite awhile. Nothing offensive, though, & with none of the aforementioned tastes coming up to you from behind and jackin' ya like they had a sock full of pennies.
I think the ABV is 9.91%. Decided to drink this today since the high was only 18*. I ate lunch at noon, it's 5:15 pm now, with nothing to eat in between, so I'm drinking this on an empty stomach. I'm about 1/4 way through the bottle, and I'm already hurtin'. Don't know if I'll be able to finish this one or not.
I'm not really a huge fan of HUGE beers, like barleywines, although I like something different every once in awhile. This is definitely a warm-you-up brew on a cold winter's night.
Moderate hop aroma upon opening the bottle. Poured a quasi-hazy, nice medium amber color. Barely any head---just thin wisps of extremely shallow foam that settled to even more sparsely numbered foam wisps after a few minutes. Also smelled of loads of malt upon pouring into a glass.
Taste was certainly not the "HOPS!!!!!!!!!!" battle cry that I expected from Stone. I guess the 1 year aging mellowed the hops out. Taste was nicely balanced for a barleywine, very thick and full bodied. First taste is of lots o' juicy malt, with an alcohol middle, then bitter hops at the end, which linger on your taste buds for quite awhile. Nothing offensive, though, & with none of the aforementioned tastes coming up to you from behind and jackin' ya like they had a sock full of pennies.
I think the ABV is 9.91%. Decided to drink this today since the high was only 18*. I ate lunch at noon, it's 5:15 pm now, with nothing to eat in between, so I'm drinking this on an empty stomach. I'm about 1/4 way through the bottle, and I'm already hurtin'. Don't know if I'll be able to finish this one or not.
I'm not really a huge fan of HUGE beers, like barleywines, although I like something different every once in awhile. This is definitely a warm-you-up brew on a cold winter's night.