This Fourth, Make Mine Red, White and Brew, Brew, Brew!
Written: Jul 02 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Big hops, big malt, big beer...
Cons: Not available in IV bottles...
The Bottom Line: Bigfoot is the classic aggressor of the barleywine style, showing the rest of the pack what it means to be arrogant, big, and beautiful...
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| mrkstvns's Full Review: Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale |
One of the funniest things I ever heard a beer writer say was one night at the Brickskellar in Washington D.C. when Michael Jackson was doing one of his infamous beer tastings. Jackson said something along the lines of "People talk about lawnmower beers. I don't know what they're talking about. I live in the city. You need a mighty big beer when you're mowing the concrete."
I identify with Jackson.
Lawnmower beers are for women, children, and domestic animals. Give me a man's beer any day, and any day includes a hot, humid, scorching Fourth of July weekend in South Texas.
So in that spirit, I'll toast the Spirit of Independence by saying "screw a bunch of weak kneed girly man beers, gimme that Sierra Nevada Bigfoot!"
Interlude...(totally ripped off from proxam, but a great gimmick)
What's the difference between Bigfoot and an Italian woman?
One is 6 feet tall, covered in black hair, totally gross, and smells bad. The other has big feet.
Okay, now on with the review. But first, a little background on what it takes to make a truly great barleywine...
What I Look for in Barleywine Ales...
Big and bold and sweeter than sugar itself! That's the essence of barleywine in a nutshell. Barleywines are among the most powerful, rich, and potent denizens of the beer world.
Within their bigness, barleywines can vary considerably. Some are fairly light in color, while others are dark brown. Many have light carbonation. Most have hugely complex aromas with fruit and malt obvious to even the most untrained palate.
While these are beers that emphasize malt sweetness, they are also hugely hoppy beers with hopping rates of 70 IBU and more. The hops don't always show themselves though, they kind of hide behind the curtain of malt and just work to push the beer a little bit towards the middle of the balance scale so that it doesn't come across as a glass of sugar. The hops balance and they add complexity to what is already a very complex flavor profile.
Some people don't like all that complexity. The alcohol levels are sometimes obvious, and the beers can bear signs of oxidation that would be considered flaws in other styles, but that add to the mileau of flavors in a barleywine (to a point anyway -- there is always such a thing as excess).
In the brewery, barleywines are often made using first runnings from a parti-gyle mashing scheme (where two batches are made from a mash, one high gravity, one low gravity). Gravities of 25 Plato and higher are common. Long boils may be used. Additional sugars may be added. Many breweries age their barleywines before bottling. Occasionally, American made brands (such as Sierra Nevada Bigfoot) may bear a distinctive citric hop signature.
When I'm drinking a glass of barleywine, I think about all of this stuff, but I mostly concentrate on the immensity of the beer and the cleanliness of the flavor. The two factors that I think separate the men from the boys (or the girls from the women, in a couple breweries) in this category are the balance and the way that off-putting flavors, especially fusel alcohols, are minimized.
But enough chit-chat, let's pop open the Bigfoot and laissez les bons temps rouler....
Big and Bold...
Some folks use snifters for barleywines, but mostly for tipples like Foghorn, I think most folks would prefer a classic bar glass (aka, "pint" glass) for Bigfoot. I sure would...
Appearance:
A lovely glass of beer! You can tell this is a beer of substance just by watching the way it pours, with the shimmering little beads of nectar that always seem to hang on the lip of the bottle as the last drops slip slowly into the glass. The beer is rich and robust looking with a color that's somewhere between a deep brown and a bright ruby red. There's a thin layer of foam for a head, but it mostly slips its way to the fringes where it will sit in contentment for as long as it takes you to finish the brew.
Aroma:
Whap! Whap! Whap!
If you don't know what Cascade hops smell like, sniff this beer. Huge grapefruit citric character hits your nose like a Mike Tyson in a prize fight. The character doesn't back down easily either --- though it does pick up some complexity as your olfactory senses get numbed into a obedient submission. A second sniff shows a little lemon on that citric character, and you start to appreciate some deep caramel, and even a hint of deeper roast notes in the smell.
Flavor:
This bottle is from the 2003 Expedition, so it's had a few months to age --- not as much time as most purists would probably want, but what the heck, I live in the city, I've been mowing concrete and I'm thirsty.
Bigfoot always hits me with a syrupy malt sweetness right off the bat, but I can't help but marvel at the complexity of it all, with the rich mileau of deep red fruit flavors and the almost chocolatey smoothness of the body. But this is not just a "malty" beer, despite the nagging little factoid that it's brewed to gravities as big as Bigfoot himself, and usually clocks in with alcohol levels just under 10 percent by volume. No, the beer is fundamentally hoppy and bitter on the balance. Although the big grapefruit nose strongly suggests classic American hop strains, the flavor of the hops is harder to nail down since Sierra Nevada comes to the table with not just citric, but also a lot of peppery depth to that hop flavor.
You always have to look for big alcohol on a big beer, and while there's an unmistakable alcohol warming on this beer, I actually find it to be a remarkably smooth and drinkable beer, at least for one that wallops me upside the head with huge hops and huge malt and huge alcohol levels. But hey, a real man has just gotta be happy with that kind of beer!
Overall Impression:
You kiddin'? Bigfoot is one of the best beers ever made in America. It's as American as baseball, apple pie, and mom.
If you love the soft, caramel smooth barleywines that some English breweries produce, Sierra Nevada Bigfoot might be a bit of a shock for your tongue. It's a blatantly American variation on a classic style. But if you're a confirmed hop addict who also happens to love huge malt characters, then Sierra Nevada Bigfoot is a decadent delight that's totally right, no matter what the night....
Until next time, see you at the fireworks. I'll be the guy drinking the biggest beer in town!
Recommended:
Yes
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