Friday 8 May 2015

#268: A New Old Friend

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot is one of my favourite beers ever, one that never fails to deliver an indulgent, complex, invigorating drinking experience, not to mention it's suitability to ageing, thanks to the fact that it is at once a hop and malt bomb. 

So when The Sober Destrier says she'll buy me a bottle of it only on condition that I drink it that very day in the sun, and not squirrel it away for seasons untold, I clearly can't say no, even if it is a spanking new 2015 bottling. And I'll be damned if I won't be writing about it, regardless of how often it has and will continue to appear on this blog.

Bigfoot 2015, like the others, is a particularly burly monster when fresh. Deep toffee and chocolate sweetness delivered with syrupy aplomb is the greeting, with heady alcoholic effects elbowing their way into the sensory experience too. Grapefruit dominates the citrus fruit hoppiness in the aroma, but not without a smothering dollop of sweet deep malts. The palate gets things a tad gentler than this; a wash of orange pith and sugary marmalade open proceedings, again followed by some thick toffee and booze soaked light fruits, skins and all. The booze thankfully disappears from the latter stages though; there's no coarse, grinding burn to interrupt the flavour, but it's still pretty full-on. Green crunchy stuff, leafy, fresh C-hops and even some ripe, red berries can be found throughout too.

Overall, this beer when fresh is definitively bittersweet, and although it supplied a wonderful beery moment, it simply isn't the Bigfoot I love. 
At least, not yet. The Bigfoot I love is the one inside this very bottle, at least one year from now.

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