Miasmatic Review

Bigfoot Barleywine Style Ale

I’m sorry that this week’s Beer Review is a night late. Yesterday was, uh, interesting. But that’s a post for a different day. Tonight I’m review another donated beer. Tonight’s beer is Bigfoot Barleywine Style Ale by the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co, Chico, CA as donated by Shadoglare.

It came in the standard 12 oz brown bottle. There is a white label on it. The Sierra Nevada logo is on the top in a yellow banner. The name of the beer is in the middle in green lettering. Between the name of the beer and the company logo is a small picture I can’t make out. There is a description of the beer on it. They also note that this is the 25th release of the Bigfoot barely wine style ale.

It’s dark brown in color with a nice rich ruby highlights. It poured a thin tan head that faded quickly to a film on the top of the beer. It is cloudy, light passes through easily enough, but you can’t see any clear images. There was some lacing.

The smell is of dark fruit with a hint of vanilla. The scent of bourbon from being aged in a bourbon barrel. The bitter scent of hops is present, almost overpowering. The taste is a mixture of roasted malts, vanilla bean and hops. The bitterness from the hops overpowers the scent and the taste of the beer, and leaves a very IPA like aftertaste to it. I’m not sure if this beer is just a little skunky or if it should taste like this as it doesn’t taste like any other barleywine style ale that I’ve ever tasted. Although I will say that you can’t taste the alcohol in this 9.6% Alcohol by Volume beer.

This is medium bodied beer that is light on the carbonation. There is some coating to it, which may be why the aftertaste sticks around for a long time.

This beer has been sitting in my fridge since June; I’m really thinking that it may have turned. I had two of them and in the non-traditional style of beer, the second one was worse than the first one. Overall I was not impressed and I’m currently giving it a 2 out of 10. Due to the circumstances I’d be willing to re-review this beer.

Mental note, cleaning out any beer in the fridge that has been in there from before I left for Oklahoma.