Barrel Aged Bigfoot Barleywine 2016
 

Review Date 7/18/2025 By John Staradumsky

 

Style:  Barleywine

  Brewery: Sierra Nevada   Country: USA   State: California   $ Per OZ: $.31 (B)   ABV: 11.6%

A toast to beer legend Jack McAuliffe, who passed away Tuesday at the age of 80. Jack opened the pioneering New Albion Brewery in California in 1976, the very first American microbrewery, and lit a fire on the American brewing scene. Exposed to quality ales in Scotland while serving in the navy, he wondered why American beer was a sea of tasteless, bland, watered-down pilsner, and resolved to change that. First through homebrewing then with his small brewery, Jack introduced many Californians to delicious pale ale, porter, stout (and if you were really lucky, barleywine).

New Albion closed in 1982, just as I was beginning my craft beer journey. I never got to try the originals, though thankfully I did try New Albion Ale in 2013 as revived by Jack’s daughter Renee DeLuca and Boston Beer Company. I will always be grateful for that.

I wanted to raise a glass to Jack’s memory, but I wasn’t exactly sure which beer to fill it with. And then it dawned on me…it didn’t matter which one, as long as it was an American craft beer. Because with all the craft breweries we have in America today, with all the styles and brands being brewed…it all started with Jack. To be fair, Fritz Maytag deserves equal credit, but Jack is the father of the microbrewery movement, whereas Fritz revived a regional brewery that had been around since 1896.

So, if you enjoy a good beer as much as I do (or even almost as much), I hope you’ll join me in a toast to where it all began, and to the man who set us down the path from which there is no departure almost half a century ago. The beer I ultimately chose to do this with was Sierra Nevada Barrel Aged Bigfoot Barleywine.

Now, I had had this beer before, but I hadn’t had this beer before. I did enjoy Sierra Nevada Barrel Aged Bigfoot released in 2013, which is slightly different than the one I am here to talk about today. For one thing, it had an alcohol content of 12.2% by volume, and came in a crown corked 750 ML bottle. I enjoyed a sample at a beer tasting in March of 2013, then sat on my bottle until May of 2015. I remarked it could have gone much longer.

So, that’s what I did with my next bottle, purchased in 2019, which I am now here to speak of. I aged it longer. This beer has an alcohol content of 11.6% by volume according to the label. This one I bought as part of the Sierra Nevada High Adventure 4-pack of “stubby” style 24-ounce bottles at Costco, where I paid $29.99 for the sampler. It included, in addition to Barrel-Aged Bigfoot, one bottle each of:

Sierra Nevada Dunkelweizen Bock

Sierra Nevada Six Rights IPA

Sierra Nevada Chocolate Chili Stout

Believe it or not, I still have my bottle of Six Rights IPA, though I do not hold out high hopes for it after all this time. I will add that my bottle of Barrel Aged Bigfoot is stamped PKGD 03/29/16.

Why did I ultimately choose this beer to toast Jack McAuliffe? It’s a truly impressive beer, for one reason, but Sierra Nevada seemed a fitting choice, because Ken Grossman founded Sierra Nevada in Chico, California, in 1980 just four years after New Albion opened. Jack and Ken were friends, and indeed in 2010 the two collaborated to brew Sierra Nevada 30^th Anniversary Jack and Ken’s Ale: Black Barleywine.  This was an homage to Jack’s New Albion barleywine and would have been most apropos to toast Jack, but I drank my bottle long ago.

From my bottle label:

Our Bigfoot Barleywine-Style Ale is a craft beer legend. Each winter, this beast of a beer appears to ambush unsuspecting palates with its intense bittersweet flavors. We matured this special barrel-aged version in oak Kentucky bourbon casks for nearly a year before unleashing it into the wild.

Sierra Nevada Barrel Aged Bigfoot 2016 pours to a murky brown color with a moderate head of creamy tan foam and a nose of rich chewy malt and boozy bourbon. Taking a sip, the beer is full in body, lush and full in mouthfeel. It’s rich with caramel, toasted malts, is slightly woody, and hints at chocolate. I do get lots of boozy bourbon up front as you sip and moreso in the finish where it really pops. There is a respectable bitter grassy hop character, especially for the age, and more hoppiness and alcohol warmth at the last.

Outstanding, a special beer to toast the passing of a legend. Rest in peace, Jack. We all owe you a debt we can never repay. New Albion may only have operated for 6 years, but it’s legacy endures today and blazed a trail for countless American brewers to follow.

Glad I tried it?  T