I don’t know squat about beer – or most alcohol, actually – and so have enlisted a true beer snob to educate me on the ways of barley. Or wheat. Or something. See? I don’t know anything! In any case, please welcome the newest addition to the Feisty Foodie, my beer blogger and buddy, BS! who will be writing Friday installments… The Beer Boor.
Sierra Nevada 2010 Bigfoot Barleywine
For my inaugural beer blogging entry, I decided on a classic seasonal beer from Chico, California-based Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. Sierra’s been brewing for 30 years, churning out memorably good beer for far longer than I’ve been able to enjoy them. The brewery has earned lots of shelf space in my apartment as a result. Bigfoot, their “barleywine-style ale,” is considered the benchmark of the American Barleywine style. It’s been brewed for 25 years, and is now released around the first week of February.
Style Notes
In a nutshell, barleywines fall into two categories: English style and American style. Both showcase a full, heavy malt profile, not necessarily sweet but often rather caramelly. That’s where the two diverge, however. The American Barleywine style also features an obvious hop aroma and flavor, typically citrusy or piney, associated with the Pacific Northwest hop crops – many, if not most, of the great American barleywines are brewed on the West Coast. As well, the massive hop charge in the beer makes it rather bitter, so it’s really not a style for the drinker new to craft beer. English-style barleywine, on the other hand, tends to focus much more on the malt profile, which can be more fruity, especially dark fruits like plums and figs. Barleywines are commonly “cellared”, or left in a cool, dark place, for years in order to let the flavors develop and meld together in different, interesting ways. While most beer styles are substantially better to drink as fresh from the source as possible, bigger, more alcoholic beers like barleywines often benefit from a little age, especially if they’re bottle-conditioned. Bottle-conditioned beer leaves the fermenting yeast in suspension rather than filtering it out, and as that live yeast eats more of the sugars in the beer, the flavor profile can change profoundly. In addition, the hop contribution to the aroma and bitterness drops dramatically over time, often disappearing completely, leaving that malt backbone (and alcohol) to carry the show. For these reasons, plus its obvious popularity, Bigfoot is probably the most-cellared beer.
That’s enough background. Time to drink!
Bigfoot pours a clear copper, leaving a finger of dense ivory head atop which quickly fades to a thin skim of foam in my glass. (Note that while I used a snifter-shaped glass, as it will concentrate aromas somewhat, you really shouldn’t worry too much about the shape of your glass. Always drink your beer from a clean glass, and you’ll be fine.) Aromas of citrus rind coupled with the prickliness of the alcohol dominate in the nose, while the slight sweetness of the malt, close to a cookie dough aroma, brings up the rear. Bigfoot is actually fairly low in alcohol among American barleywines these days, but at 9.6% alcohol by volume, it’s still about twice as strong as your average non-light industrial lager such as Budweiser or Stella Artois.
Grapefruit flavor and bitterness dominate the hop profile for this beer. As with any good barleywine, this is tempered here with a solid malt backbone, not too sweet or cloying, just kind of there to provide a full mouthfeel and carry the bitterness along without careening into mouth-puckering astringency. Naturally, the alcohol presents itself fairly strongly, as a peppery burn present in every sip. The beer is thick on the tongue, both because of the malt profile and the relative lack of carbonation compared to most styles of beer. Bigfoot finishes (surprise!) citrusy-bitter and alcoholic, but as the beer warms a bit, the alcohol smooths out, leaving a bracing bitterness that dries out my throat and makes me take another sip. It’s a vicious cycle.
Without getting into the simple yet profane rating system developed by my beer geek friends and me, Bigfoot earns top marks in my book. The enamel-strippingly bitter hops are backed up by a strong malt backbone that isn’t overly sweet. I think it’s fair to say that Sierra Nevada Bigfoot is my favorite barleywine.
Past experience with Bigfoot dictates that, while excellent fresh, it will hit a bad patch one to two years out, but will peak again in about three years if kept well, as the malt starts dominating the flavor and aroma. After about five years, all you have is a novelty that reminds you to drink your beer faster. You can find Bigfoot at better beer shops around the city. I picked up mine at the Whole Foods on Houston Street for $12.99 per six-pack. It’s definitely worth your investment if you want a challenging beer for cold winter nights.
Steve says
Were you also in Sideways?
T.C. says
Awesome. Bigfoot has been spotted and it’s in the form of BEER! 🙂
instepmom says
Anchor Foghorn barleywine…
I Love Great Beer!!! says
The Benchmark American Barleywine is definitely Anchor’s “Old Foghorn”. (Which used to be occasionally available on Tap as well-not recently here in New York though). Bigfoots beers are usually way to heavy on the hops, and very bitter hops at that. (Except for their new Porter and Stout which are excellent!) The Benchmark world Barleywine used to be Samuel Smiths from Tadcaster England, but I don’t think they make it any more. I Love Great Beer!!!
I Love Great Beer!!! says
I think that any brewer that uses “enamel-strippingly bitter hops”, as Bigfoot does in most of their beers, helps to hide the actual great flavor required in brewing great beers. That is why it is so hard to brew a great Wheat beer, or Hefe-Weizen for example, you can’t hide a bad wheat beer (of which there are many bad American examples, behind hops.) It is too easy for a Brewer to toss a bucket of bitter hops (or fruit -yuck, or perfume or herbs or coffee or chocolate or whatever) into a batch of beer after giving up on trying to achieve a great brew. That is why Germany had the:
Reinheitsgebot literally “purity order”), sometimes called the “German Beer Purity Law” or the “Bavarian Purity Law” in English, is a regulation concerning the production of beer in Germany. In the original text, the only ingredients that could be used in the production of beer were water, barley, and hops. The law has since been repealed but many German beers, for marketing purposes, continue to declare that they abide by the rule, in an attempt to convince customers that only the three permissible ingredients are used (although all modern commercial breweries in Germany add a fourth ingredient, yeast). Credit: Wikipedia
I Love Great Beer!!!
BeerBoor says
So I’ll comment here for all three of your comments. One, sorry, but massive aroma, flavor and bittering hops, of typical Pacific Northwest varieties, are hallmarks of the American Barleywine style. Old Foghorn is a wonderful barleywine, but it’s not the benchmark: it’s not hop-forward enough for the style. While you may appreciate Anchor’s more, it’s not the standard-bearer of the style.
Two, Sam Smith’s version is/was an English Barleywine, a vastly different style from the Americanized version. I mention the style in the review, incidentally.
Three, the style calls for massive doses of hops. Sure, massive amounts of hops hide flaws – there’s a reason beginning homebrewers tend to make lots of IPAs (and stouts, as roasted barley does similar).
Four, thanks for the Wikipedia cut-and-paste, but I hope you realize the harm the Reinheitsgebot did for beer brewing in Germany. Note that most of the Trappist beers and vast quantities of other Belgian beers would be prohibited under the Purity Law, due to their use of candi sugar and other adjuncts. All the Law did was prevent German brewers from being able to experiment and expand their technical knowhow.
Five, when used properly, fruit and other flavor additives post-boil can sometimes mask, but typically enhance, the base beer. Lots of brewers have successfully brewed fruit beers, coffee beers, chocolate beers, etc. You can’t simply whine that it’s always a shortcut or a crutch to mask poor brewing.
Six, the Purity Law has nothing to prevent a brewer from using any quantity of hops in their beer, enamel-stripping or not, to “mask” mistakes in the beer. If you don’t like hoppy beers, that’s fine, stay away from the American style, but to dismiss them out of hand as all done poorly or to mask flaws is incredibly myopic.
I Love Great Beer!!! says
I didn’t know that Barleywines were classified as English or American Style, but thanks for the info. Do you have a favorite benchmark or standard-bearer barleywine to recommend?
Not to be thought of as dismissive, or worse, of any beer style or brand, I love to try them all, and I am only seeking a balance of flavor.
As for additives and ingredients, I agree with your response that they have made for great beers: In fact… I remember when Blue Moon Belgian White was introduced…spiced with coriander and orange peel in addition to the hops found in most beers. Blue Moon has a more pronounced orange flavor than many other beers of the style, and also has a slightly sweet flavor. The grain bill for Blue Moon includes malted barley, white wheat, and oats.
(credit: wiki). I liked that beer.
Thanks FeistyFoodie & BeerBoor (not booring to me at all).
Beer Head says
WOW! Some people!
First let me say something that others may have forgotten; Welcome BeerBoor and thank you Ms. Feisty Foodie (Yvo)for bringing BeerBoor on for some Friday inspiration. I guess beer (good beers) can inspire some real subjective opinions. I am just really beginning to understand the complexities of craft beers and I appreciate your insight and knowledge.