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’10 vintage, reviewed 02/10
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The usual copper clarity on the pour but it seems much more carbonated this year. Fresh and clean and sweeter than many other vintages. The hop bitterness seems reserved for the finish and the aftertaste. Less hop forward than many previous years. I enjoyed this more than I though I would.
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’09 vintage, reviewed 01/09
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Good, reddish copper colored pour and it still has that flesh colored head. Sooo typical of SN with hops, hops, hops everywhere. I KNOW it’s typical of the style, but SN just overdoes it all the time!
More fruity than in years past, but still just basically 100% grapefruit (perhaps with a touch of lemon). A little easier to drink than recent vintages for me.
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’05 vintage, reviewed 02/05
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Oh dear. This is a brew that FRESH, is purely and simply, poorly constructed.
It looks like a Barleywine with a classic viscous reddish pour and small and flesh colored head, and it smells like a Barleywine with the alcohol and malts coming through good and strong and long, but then it turns into a West Coast hop nightmare.
There is absolutely NOTHING in the taste other than a pungent, cloying, saliva sucking tannic grapefruit that fades to leave an equally unpleasant feeling of having sucked on some copper coinage. This is one of the nastiest, unbalanced, out-of-style beers I have had in sometime.
It’s meag-hopped out of the style, and then goes on to fall further toward the undrinkable end of the hop scale. I drank the remainder of the bottle because I can hardly ever face pouring beer away, but it was a struggle.
Two further thoughts; firstly there are countless other better examples of the style out there – try them ALL before Bigfoot, and secondly I will cellar the rest of the six pack for at least 12 months to see if things change. For now – YUK!