Sierra Nevada - Barrel-Aged Narwhal

I had to do dirty things for my two bottles of BA Bigfoot - including trading a bottle of BA 4th Dementia! I'm really considering drinking my last one this weekend, in celebration of the arrival of cooler weather. Nothing beats Michigan in Fall!

 

Agree that BA Bigfoot was surprisingly hard to find.

So if this is 50% more BA Bigfoot still had 4,000 cases. Stickee Monkee, Parbola, etc by FW are 3,500 cases ... still surprising to me how hard BA Bigfoot was to find. Much harder for me than the FW beers. I suppose the SN cases are spread over a bigger distribution?

NOTE: Leaving this up ... but it's funny that 3 or 4 separate people immediately had the same instinct to compare it to FW batch sizes!

 

Already been doing this with a scant thimbleful of Four Roses the last two winters. I'm sure this will blow that away.

 

Narwhalez! I have a bottle most likely on preorder, trade value?

 

All over this. Please come to CT

 

I dont understand why the ABV would be so different. Someone with a better knowledge of brewing and barrel aging please educate me. The nearly 3% difference in ABV suggests to me that this would be a different base beer.

 

Need this in my life

 

Got to get you into my life!

 

2013 GABF
Category 23: Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Stout, 89 Entries
Gold: Blot Out the Sun, Three Floyds Brewing Co., Munster, IN
Silver: Barrel-Aged Narwhal, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico, CA
Bronze: Barrel Aged BORIS The Crusher, Hoppin’ Frog Brewing Co., Akron, OH

No barrel room in MR... yet.

 

I might have to trade for this bad boy. ABV's too high for Ohio to handle, so I won't see any in-state.

I wondered about that myself...

 

Very nice.

 

"The barrel condition, treatment prior to filling, and type of barrel will all impact any abv change. I mentioned above that across literally thousands of data points that we have (in the brewery I work at), we see about a 3% average gain after aging."

http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...al-abv-of-the-beer.127914/page-2#post-1868747

 

Although the thread that comes from has some distressingly unscientific ideas, at least one or two people (the poster of your quote specifically) were able to be quite enlightening, thank you.

 

I also feel like Bigfoot is a more recognizable name than any of the FW beers. Also, they come in a cardboard box and are probably a tad more expensive than BA Bigfoot. But I also agree that despite the increased case numbers, there is a bigger distribution footprint.

BA Bigfoot for me was one of those personal whales for me, even more so because someone had pointed out a bottle to me when I was still quite the novice (don't believe I'd even had Bigfoot yet at this point). So, I looked at the price and balked (I don't remember what it was, but it was more then I was willing to pay for beer at that time; which has since changed), because I didn't know what it was. Then, Max's had it at some small event during the middle of the week, where they would do like a snifter pour from a bottle. I was disappointed (someone had already warned me of my enthusiasm prior to drinking it, since he had a bottle of it).

BA Narwhal, which I had at Max's, during their 2013 Rare & Obscure, was phenomenal and out of this world. Also, I believe this is one of @sierranevadabill's favorite SN beers.

 

Honestly, what I found hilarious was that one of the very first posts was something like "ugh, this is gonna be a crapstorm. Just google it." And that a google search is what led me to that thread.

But on topic: I really enjoy Narwhal, and think it's a great beer at the price point. Sadly, being on tour through January means I probably won't have a chance to go hunt down this version, but maybe I can task someone at home with finding a bottle. Sounds like a terrific sipper for a cold, snowy night.

 

yep and I hear yea, If I had unlimited funds and not on a navy pension I would not care either, but I live in the world of reality. and budgets. I also save allot for trips.

 

yea a 22oz bomber is 1 12 and 1 10 beer, at $12 a bomber that is 1 pricey bottle. no thanks but those are bar prices. I just cannot justify it, sure its only 12 bucks, but you buy 1 here and 2 there and it adds up fast.

then we see these folks posting about blowing $300 to $400 a month on beer and wondering why.

 

You are correct. This is one of my favorite beers that we brew. I had a significant part in the development of Narwhal, so I already have a soft spot for that beer, and the BA version is probably my favorite (non sour) barrel-aged beer. I'm already devising ways to hoard enough bottles to get me through the next year! (Note: Last year, I was only able to get one bottle of BA Bigfoot... and I WORK at the brewery!)

 

As @pitweasel correctly mentioned above, the state of the barrels has a big effect on how much alcohol is gained over the aging process. We typically see 1.5-5% ABV swings depending on the type of barrel, the freshness of said barrel and the length of aging time. In this case, Narwhal was aged in fresh bourbon barrels (a combination of Willett single barrel, Heaven Hill and various Beam brands) some of which had standing uncut spirit still in the barrels themselves. The amount of the char on the interior of the barrel has an effect as well, as distilleries who use high (alligator) char tend to absorm more spirit into the wood which over time expresses itself into the finished beer. In short, the recipe is exactly the same as the standard production Narwhal, the ABV bump solely comes from the aging.