Bigfoot
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

Overall, this is pretty good, but don't think for a minute it's a barleywine - just a good IPA.

2026 edition, packaged 12/24/25, poured from a 12-oz bottle into a goblet.

Look: Beautiful translucent, dark amber, with a massive off-white head with outstanding retention, and leaving copious lacing behind a foam ring and island.

Nose: Ripe stone fruit, some pine, some fresh-cut grass.

Taste: Full, deep malt on the attack and lasting long, smoothly transitioning into the hop bitterness.

Mouthfeel: Thick and smooth, perfect carbonation.

Overall: No wonder this has the reputation it has, and shame on me for never drinking one till now! And as it promises to grow even better with age, I think I shall never again not have some in my cellar and/or fridge. Wow!

 

I’m going to mirror some comments others have made: this just isn’t as barley wine forward as past versions. More of a strong ale as opposed to barley wine. Going to put a couple back for a while… Taste them next year.

Foamier than expected pours emptied two brown twelve ounce bottles entirely into a clear glass liter mug. It's, the foam, tightly knit and tan in color, leaving erratic glass lacing. Beneath, a brew that's darkly caramel-brown lies. A little sweet, a little hoppy, a little malty and even a little alcoholic are the characteristics for the nose. It drinks richly and smoothly, in nice balance of the malt and hops. It's both sweet and bitter in diverse, yet prominent flavor contributions. Somehow, the alcohol boosts the initial sweetness, then adds to the biting hop finish. The overall result makes for a good drinking barleywine, but not a great one. Minor complaints are the taste is not quite as complex and the alcohol is a little more noticeable than in the elite ones in this style. Its hoppiness could be preferred by some, but to others, there's more bite than necessary for a barleywine.

2026 vintage
12 oz. bottle
9.6% ABV
Packaged on: 12/12/25
$13.49 6-pk @ Publix

Note: The brewer states that this beer will continue to develop in the bottle for years to come. Which is why I indicated the vintage that I am reviewing.


AROMA: Mildly sweet, with mild floral scents, bread, spice, and hops.

APPEARANCE: Pours an deep amber with a 4-finger, tight-frothed, tan head that dissipates very slowly with excellent lacing. Very inviting!

TASTE: As the beer first touches my palate, I get a brief sense of sweetness that is immediately overcome by moderate-to-high levels of bitterness. Individual flavors are somewhat masked by the bitterness, but I get faint flavors of grass, malt, and caramel.

MOUTHFEEL: Full-bodied with a smooth, creamy texture at the beginning of a sip and then it transitions to a much coarser texture. Which is probably due to the bitterness level and the ultra-dry finish. Carbonation is average.

OVERALL: I've only had a few barleywine beers over the years, so I am certainly no expert on them. But I find this one to taste nothing like the others I've tried in the past. This one is very hoppy and tastes more like an or American strong ale than a barleywine beer. I was genuinely excited to try this beer because I haven't had a barleywine beer in ages, and thought this would be a nice change of pace. But I found myself disappointed because, to me, this was just another hop-forward ale .

The beer is actually a well made beer. It just wasn't what I expected for a barleywine beer, nor anything I would have bought had I known what it was truly like. I've tried many other beers from this brewer, and have enjoyed the vast majority of them. However, I won't be buying this again. Simply because it doesn't fit the barleywine style, or at least not my interpretation of the style. I have a few bottles left so I will let them develop in the bottle, for a year or two, and give them another try. But I'm not holding my breath.

Note: I've been drinking Bigfoot for probably 30 years now. I've skipped a few years along the way, so this review is of the 2026 Bigfoot release only.

Poured from a 12oz Bottle into a Sierra Nevada pint glass, it comes out a deep brown/reddish color, which has a decent full inch, off color, head which slowly dissipates, but it anchored continuously by solid lacing. The nose is malt and HOPS! and some piney hints too; but mostly malty body.

> The front end taste is bitter hops, malty body, caramel, toasted/roasted bits. If you want to relate it to something, I would say that it is a more aggressive version of Stone Brewing Arrogant Bastard (double) ale. It is an palate assault. And I love it.
> The back end sticks around and stays for a while. You are going to taste Pine, Grass, Grapefruit, and all of the other things that make up West Coast goodness on the back of your tongue for a loong time! Fantastic!

That said! Perhaps it is just my ancient senior citizen taste buds talking here, but this 2026 version of Bigfoot is not the super scary, ultra repulsive, scotch and barley wine style ultra wee-heavy ale that I remember guzzling regularly (and scaring off my friends with) beer that I am used to.

Sure, it could just be me, but I remember this as a far more challenging palate killer in years past. Maybe. But I don't care. I got a great deal on a case of this blessed stuff and I am going to enjoy it! Damn it!

Just be warned. It is not for the virgin palate. No.

An easy pour released two fingers of creamy beige foam with long retention, a fat ring and cap leave behind irregular blotches of lacing. Clear copper-amber body, burnt orange in front of bright light.

Bold smell, caramel and toffee leed over bready toasted malt with pine, resin, citrus and herbal hop aromas. Faint alcohol and indistinguishable older fruits in the background.

Semi-sweet at first with high bitterness, quickly drying sweet malt tastes are replaced by bready malt and a warming alcohol astringentcy. Hop flavor is very high, grass, spice and white pepper are added to the mix. Caramel, toffee and fruit flavors last throughout, apple, raisin, lemon, plum pear. The finish is semi-dry and very bitter, drawn out to a bitter aftertaste featuring the spicy pepper with residual fruit and almost burnt brown sugar.

Meduim full bodied, malty rich and oily with generous carbonation. Warms extremely well, smooths out as fruity and sugary flavors return. Alcohol smell and taste are low for 9.6 ABV, astringentcy is average. Matches style guidelines.

RB transfer

Way too hoppy to taste anything like a barleywine. Horrible.

 

Excellent - as in very good. Well buried alcohol. Potent and flavorful. One beer type of beer, dangerous at a liter or more.

Bigfoot 2026

Appearance: Warm, deep amber with some good head retention with some modest lacing. Head has an odd, grey/green color to it around the edges.

Smell: Big aroma. Malt, wood, pine, resin, citrus oil/zest

Taste: Intense malt sweetness. Caramel notes. Quickly washed away with intense bitterness. Pine resin explosion. Mellows out with some residual toasted malt flavor to temper the palate.

Feel: Heavy body when it touches the tips, but that quickly fades with the bitterness creating a very brisk and balanced experience, being more inline to their double IPA offerings. Relatively clean finish with very little residue that doesn't stick to the mouth.

Overall: Extremely competent with a unique IPA style twist that, as other have said, is a sipper, but a fast sipper. Hides the booze well. Will cellar a couple and see how 2026 matures without those intense pine notes.

2/11/2026 - Clear, very dark copper, nice foamy head, lacy; Good flavor, slightly bitter; Good tingly mouthfeel; Not bad, a petty good beer. In the unlikely event I were to see it in a restaurant, I would order it.

Bigfoot 2026. Bottle dated 12/12/25
Pours a rich mahogany with big off white head on an aggressive pour.
Smells sweet and citrusy with hints of caramel and toffee.
Tastes follows. Sweet malty greatness
Feels thick and resinous. Definitely a sipper.
Overall and outstanding brew

2023 Vintage. 12oz bottle purchased as a six-pack. I picked it up for a friend and kept two of the bottles for myself. I think that it was $14.99 plus tax for the sixer. Not a bad price at all for such a big beer. PKGD 11/22/22, so this beer is 3 years and 2 1/2 months old.

Look: Beautiful dark amber/ruby color with excellent clarity. An aggressive pour yielded two fingers of compact, small-bubbled light tan-colored head. The head slowly receded to a thin layer. I notice that there are several lines of very small bubbles of carbonation rising up the glass.

Smell: The aroma of this beer is intoxicating. Even far away from my nose, I am getting the lovely caramel and toffee notes. It smells like a big, hoppy, West Coast-style barleywine. I know that such a style does not exist, but so many of the quintessential American Barleywines are from West Coast breweries (Stone Arrogant Bastard, Rogue Old Crustacean, Hair of the Dog, etc.). Up front, it has strong caramel and toffee notes. Underneath, I'm picking up some resinous, woody hop notes. Secondary notes of cocoa powder, cinnamon, and vanilla.

Taste: It's been a long time since I've had one of these. It's really delicious. Definitely a sipper. Up front, it's got those lovely malty barleywine notes of caramel and toffee. The flavors on the palate gradually transition to bitter, woody, and peppery hops. The finish is long with tons of bitter, woodsy Chinook hops. Even though the bitterness is strong, it's pleasant. It's just really comforting. I think that it also really helps me savor this beer and take my time drinking it. Otherwise, I would basically be pounding this! The 9.6% ABV is really well-hidden.

Feel: Medium to full bodied with an excellent chewiness. It has mouth-coating finish with an oily, resinous mouthfeel.

Overall: This is excellent. It's no wonder that this beer has stood the test of time. I would recommend cellaring this beer, as it can be overpowering when fresh. Some people like that, but I prefer it with a bit of age. I have one other bottle from this vintage, and I am in no rush to drink it anytime soon.

 

Bigfoot 2025 (so it's been hanging out a year now). A solid beer but a bit heavier on the carbonation and lighter on the body than I'd generally want from the style. Tastes great; nice fruit and wood notes.

Bigfoot 2026. From the bottle, it pours a clear mahogany color with a very large lustrous light tan head that slowly reduces and leaves lacing. The nose gets a dose of roasted malts, sweetish malt, and molasses. Themouth follows with a somewhat boozy bitter malt leaving a slightly bitter aftertaste.

I will save a bottle or two to age...

Copenhagen 20/2 2018. 35,5 cl bottle from Den Gamle Købmand, Skt. Annæ Plads, Kbh. K.. Scared guy with a donkey examining Bigfoot's footprints.

Pours sightly hazy red amber with off-white head. Settles as thin bubbly layer of foam covering the surface of the beer. Moderate lacing.

Aroma is rich and intense. Fermented fruit with a hint of decay, citrus, Grapefruit sweet caramel and a whiff of sherry.

Surprisingly strong carbonation and thick, oily texture.

Flavor is heavy sweet but nicely balanced by pretty strong bitterness. It does not feel heavy or cloying. Aftertaste is bitter with notable sweet notes.

Feels kind of light and refreshing for a Barley Wine - but no complaints from me.