I just poured myself a glass of bourbon (pictured left) and popped open a 22 oz. bomber of Stone brewery's Barley Wine Style Ale.
I like the beers Stone makes. This one has a really good nose. It reminds me of walking down a mountain trail with a bunch of honey tucked into my rucksack. Here and there I pass some mountain laurel and think about picking a sprig for my love, here and there I dunk my canteen into a stream and pop in an iodine tablet so as to avoid getting Giardia. It's a very pleasant experience, and by the time I am at the bottom of the trail, I am quite drunk on the mountain air. Some alpine dairy farmers seem to be having a pow-wow behind the chalet, and when I listen closely it seems that they are talking about how I will become the next president. I plunk my ass down on a moss covered rock and write poetry. I hear the various and sundry sounds of hand-hammered cow bells pinging off the snow-capped peaks, and then I get out my little leather journal and compose a couple sonnets about wildflowers and mountain streams, and the ethereal nature of romantic love.
Actually, I don't do any of that, and so I say goodbye. Here are the stats on Stone's Old Guardian Barley Wine Style Ale:
$7.99 per 22 oz. bottle; 11.3 percent alcohol by volume; round, "honey-like" taste, somewhat bitter, somewhat sweet; also, kind of like eating flowers; starts out prickly on the tip of the tongue, then gets kind of hoppy around the mid-tongue, then relaxes into something mellow (and again the honey), and then fades into something nice and bitter.
Overall, I probably won't buy this beer again, though I do approve of its high alcohol content very much.
