Beer Review: Stone Old Guardian Belgo

22 ounce bottle/ $6.49 at Total Wine

I'm enjoyed doing the beer review last week so I decided to do another one this week.

This week I'm reviewing the Stone Old Guardian Belgo Barley Wine. This is a what they call an Odd Year Release. I've wondered myself, and been asked the question, what is a barley wine? Well it is pretty simple, a barley wine is just a very strong type of ale, usually between 8%-12% ABV and a specific gravity of as high as 1.120. Basically it is just a full bodied, full flavored, high alcohol content beer. This happens to be one of my favorite styles of beer and I will try any one I can find.

Getting down to this example. The difference between their regular Old Guardian is the use of Belgian yeast. I haven't seen this odd year release before, but that doesn't mean a whole lot since I really haven't gotten interested in craft beers except in the past couple years. If you've never read the back of a Stone beer bottle you definitely have to. They are very entertaining as they print was seems like a novel on the back of every beer bottle. This one tells the story of one of the brew-master's visit to Belgium and his lamentation of how little they know about and enjoy craft beers. Some of they are much more entertaining. This was the second bottle of this beer I've tried.


One thing to make you aware of this beer comes in at 12% ABV. So it is definitely something that you'll want to either have some time to enjoy it or someone to share it with. Pouring this beer into a glass you can definitely tell it is thick. It produces almost no head, provided that that you pour it on the side of the glass. The color is a reddish hazy amber. When I put my nose to the glass I get notes of malt, hops, and citrus. After taking a sip of this beer I'm surprised at how complex it is. The first taste is a bit of sweetness , followed by citrus, then a hops bite, all finished by molasses note. One thing I also note is how heavy this feels in the mouth. The carbonation level didn't seem to high, but that seems to be normal with these higher alcohol content beers. The cloudiness also seemed to clear up as I let it sit. I did enjoy this beer, but not as much as some of the other barley wines I've tried. I think that is was just a little too smooth, I like a little more bite in my beer.

I did decide to smoke another cigar after getting the tastes from this beer. I chose to light up a CAO La Traviata Maduro. While it was a good pairing, it wasn't as enjoyable as the pairing from last week.

I can recommend this beer to anyone who likes these fuller and heavier beers. With the low price of this limited release it won't break the bank if you don't particularly care for it. Also if you are ever in the Escondido, CA area I would highly recommend visiting the brewery for a tour. You can read about my experience here.

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