Old Stock 2009 Tasting

This was Advent day 6

Old Stock Ale, 2009 vintage
North Coast Brewing, Fort Bragg, CA
12.5%abv, 12oz bottle

Pours brown and cloudy with essentially no head.

Aroma is sweet malt and lots of alcohol.

Flavor is sweet malt with some light roasted character and significant alcohol.

Mouthfeel is thick and very rich with lots of heat from alcohol.  There is a good hit of bitterness in the finish to help the balance, but it still finishes a bit on the sweet side.

Overall I'd like this to be a bit more balanced, but it's still a decent  beer.

Update: I let this warm up for quite a while to see if it changed at all. It cleared up, but the flavor didn't change much. Really not something I like -- needs more carbonation and/or hops or something. Too sweet for me. I mixed the last few ounces with a bit of my standard draft English brown ale, and that was a pretty yummy combo.