Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale (2007)

This would be my first Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barelywine. This is the 2007 version, released earlier this year. Barleywine is a style I stayed away from when I first entered beer geekdom (late 2004). I had gone to a Stone tasting at a local liquor store and after that hop assault to a then-newbie I decided I would try to pick up the barleywines at a later time. Earlier this year I actually had my first, going back to Stone Old Guardian, and I thought it was really good.

The Bigfoot Ale was exactly what I expected it to be, based on what I had heard about it. This thing is hoppy. Very floral hoppiness to it, and there's tons of malt in there that initially gives off quite a lot of sweetness. As you get further and further into it the hops just keeping hitting you and seem to take over any of the sweetness you got from the malt. The bitterness is pretty heavy and leaves the back of the tongue and throat tingling. I expected a really soupy sort of beer, but I was actually pleased that this was no more viscous than about medium, maybe medium-heavy. I tend to not like really viscous hoppy beers (like some double IPAs) so that was a big score for this beer in my book. This still isn't a style I can drink all the time, but I imagine this was a pretty good representation of the style.