Recently I opened up a bottle of Stone Old Guardian Extra Hoppy, a one-time release in 2015, which is currently available around these parts. The brewery warns you about this beer, which is a tweaked version of their regular Old Guardian Barley Wine. The promo material proclaims this version “takes a downright excessive brew into uncharted, extra-hoppy territory”. They claim it to be almost a Triple IPA more than a barley wine.

I debated aging it a while or drinking it now – about 15 months old. I opted for the latter as my cellar is bursting at the seams these days.

It pours dark copper with a moderate, off-white head. It leaves traces of lacing down the glass. The aroma has rich dark fruit, caramel, light citrus and a noted vinous hop resin. It has a very rich and fulsome smell.

The first sip brings out rich malt, fruity citrusy character at the front end, as well as some honey, floral and an earthy note. The middle starts to bring in a resiny hop flavour, some alcohol and a bit of citrus. The finish has a moderate bitterness but mostly a resiny hop character. Linger is warming and slightly citrusy. I wonder if I also pick up a bit of wood, but can’t be sure.

It has an interesting flavour but nothing really stands out for me. It is also a bit hot. I can’t pinpoint a particular area of concern, but neither can I identify anything that really stands out for me. Despite all of their protestations that the beer is big, huge, monster-sized, that isn’t what really comes through for me.

Normally that wouldn’t be a problem, but I found myself as I sipped it contemplating if they simply put TOO much into this beer. Old Guardian is a fairly intense American-style barley wine. Upping the hop character and bitterness may be a step too far. It is just too many things in one intense beer. The flavours kind of muddle together rather than draw my attention to a couple of key aspects.

I wonder if this is a lesson in trying to do too much in one beer. Big malt, big citrus, big alcohol, big resiny hop flavour, big bitter. All of those, in combos of two or three can make for an impressive, memorable beer. All of them together may just be less than their total parts.

I kind of think that is what happened here. Maybe age will help, although I doubt it as beer tend to become more rounded with age. They just have too much of too many good things.

Thoughts from others?