Stone Old Guardian Belgo is richer than chocolate cake at Taste of Texas

2011 is the first year for the Stone Brewery "Odd Beers for Odd Years” program. Consider it Stone's attempt to implement a 'gifted and talented' program. My brother Warren was in that program in elementary school and brewery Greg Koch probably was too because Stone makes incredible beer. For this Belgo Barleywine, he directed 30 barrels of the barleywine batch to the fermenter with the yeast used in the Cali-Belgique IPA. Basically they spiked the Barleywine with some Belgian yeast. Sounds crazy but could be awesome - how does this 'odd' flavor party turn out?

My mouth just imploded. This beer goes up to 11.

It's incredibly rich. I love the Old Guardian series and there's a bottle of the 2008 Barleywine under my bed for an extended aging, but this Belgo is woweee zowee. So incredibly rich! I like it, but my shirt flew off after drinking only half the glass. It happens.

For sake of creativity and in the name of interesting delights, this is a really special beer but it's not a beer I can drink every day. I like drinking this now, but it's definitely meant for a big craft brew fan. Only for the lionhearted. TRANSFORMERS rating.

...It would sure be interesting to see how the Belgian yeast and sweet caramel notes withstand time, maybe I should buy one just in case...