{"id":95,"date":"2010-04-14T18:58:12","date_gmt":"2010-04-14T22:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thehopandmalt.wordpress.com\/?p=95"},"modified":"2011-05-20T09:57:05","modified_gmt":"2011-05-20T13:57:05","slug":"brew-review-sierra-nevada-bigfoot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thehopandmalt.com\/?p=95","title":{"rendered":"Brew Review: Sierra Nevada Bigfoot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Brew<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehopandmalt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/100_0725.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-97\" title=\"Bigfoot\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thehopandmalt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/100_0725.jpg?w=224\" alt=\"\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/thehopandmalt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/100_0725.jpg 1524w, http:\/\/thehopandmalt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/100_0725-224x300.jpg 224w, http:\/\/thehopandmalt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/100_0725-768x1024.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px\" \/><\/a>ery: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sierranevada.com\" target=\"_blank\">Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.<\/a> Chico, CA<\/p>\n<p>Style: Barley Wine<\/p>\n<p>ABV: 9.6%<\/p>\n<p>Served: Pint glass from 12 oz. bottle. Purchased at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.juliosliquors.com\" target=\"_blank\">Julio&#8217;s<\/a> for $2.25\/bottle.<\/p>\n<p>A good friend of mine who is a central California native asked me when I was going to review some west coast beers. I have been remiss in not tipping my cap to the ales of more Pacific persuasion. I still think the best beer in the world is made on I-95 between D.C. and Portland, ME, and I&#8217;m not at all biased. That said, I will be featuring exclusively west coast brew for the next week or so. Sierra Nevada is a close 2nd to Sam Adams when it comes to balancing availability with integrity. Their year-round beers are more than respectable, let alone their seasonal and specialty offerings.<\/p>\n<p>The Bigfoot is a dark honey amber in the glass, with a few bubbles, and a dense persistent off-white crown one finger thick. The aroma is amazing. Full and well-rounded, with an aggressive hop presence followed by pine, melon, pastry, and earth. Complex and powerful. The first taste is a blitzkrieg of big brown sugar sweetness and cantaloupe. This is quickly is taken over by big-time hop bitterness. The sensation is not unlike a grapefruit, sweet and bitter in turns. The bitterness sticks to the palette and is hard to shake. Tasting hoppy beers is tricky, because you can&#8217;t go back for a second taste with a clean slate. The mouthfeel is medium-bodied, and smoother than I might expect for such an overpowering bitterness<\/p>\n<p>Hop-heads might guffaw at my medium tolerance for hop presence. I certainly wish I had a better appreciation for Double IPAs and aggressive barley wines. But I&#8217;ve heard it opined from more than one source that making extreme beer is easy. Crafting a balanced, subtle ale takes skill. This is a good beer, but I didn&#8217;t get the balance I have had with others in this style. This is probably my most subjective review to date; I have seen too many glowing reflections on this beer to believe I&#8217;m the normal one. That said&#8230;<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>C+<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brewery: Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Chico, CA Style: Barley Wine ABV: 9.6% Served: Pint glass from 12 oz. bottle. Purchased at Julio&#8217;s for $2.25\/bottle. A good friend of mine who is a central California native asked me when I was going to review some west coast beers. I have been remiss in not tipping my [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[64,53,69],"class_list":["post-95","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brew-review","tag-barley-wine","tag-california","tag-sierra-nevada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thehopandmalt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thehopandmalt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thehopandmalt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thehopandmalt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thehopandmalt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thehopandmalt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thehopandmalt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thehopandmalt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thehopandmalt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}