SN 30th Anniversary Black Barleywine

Dang-i moved mine from the cellar to the fridge last week and pulled it last night to open it, but changed my mind at the last moment. I'll probably open it in the next week or so and give a full report

 

Opened my only one about 2 months ago - unfortunately, I tasted a little cardboard as it warmed. That said, I never had it fresh.

I bought it off the shelf last year (after reading about it on here), then moved it to my cellar... Perhaps the extended duration on the store shelf was the cause.

Hopefully yours fare better, let us know!

 

Had one last week and thought it was drinkable, but the body was thin and not what I was hoping for. I do have another and I don't know if I should just drink it now or sit on it for another year just to see what happens to it.

 

I've only got one. The agony of choosing the perfect time....

 

Had this on tap a couple months ago and didn't care for it as much as I did fresh, but that'll (obviously) be quite different than a bottle experience.

 

Oh I had it fresh and at one year. Almost no change at one year, so I figured I'd wait a while on my last bottle. I've learned with Sierra your fall-back should always be wait longer. No change in one year this, no change in one year Bigfoot, no change in one year Grand Cru, etc.

 

I would not be surprised if it's still hoppy five years from now.

 

Gonna have to disagree with you on this. Every year when Bigfoot first comes out I do a side-by-side with the previous year's, and there's always a profound difference. That said, I would certainly agree that it's only after 2 years that Bigfoot really starts to hit its stride.

 

Happened to walk into a random liquor store that I've never been to before and found 4 cases of this sitting on the floor, covered in dust, and marked $5.99/each. At first I was like, "OMGWTFBBQCHZ," but then I was like "probably been stored like shit," so I only grabbed one to see how it was holding up.

After popping it open and giving it a whirl, I promptly decided that I needed more as this was doing great, so I called up the wife who was out running errands, asked her to stop by the store, told her I wanted 4 more bottles, described where they were and what the bottle looked like and that they had 4 cases on the floor. Her response was, "you want me to buy you all 4 cases of this beer!?" She knows me too well!

 

I asked about this not too long ago. I still have three bottles of this, not sure when to open it.

 

I've had bottles with some minor notable differences (tastes more like a red ale, less bright hop flavors) and bottles where in a blind tasting I seriously doubt a majority of BA's would be able to tell it apart from fresh Bigfoot. There's some batch variation and always the issue of how it was stored, but if someone had limited access to Bigfoot and was wondering how to do tasting I would (and do) tell them to ignore the "taste it every six months" arrangement. If you only have a four pack, you'll end up wasting two or three bottles doing it that way.

On another unrelated note, does anyone know when in 2010 XXX Black Barleywine came out? I don't remember seeing it on shelves in Illinois until August, meaning the 3-year anniversary is just around the corner. However, I've also read that it was bottled in February of that year.

 

Just another note on the issue of cellaring unpredictability, there are some widely differing reviews here from within the last year. Hops mostly gone, no wait this review still mentions profound pine bitterness, tastes like a porter, no tastes like a Black Ipa/American Black Ale/Cascadian Dark Ale, varying accounts of alcohol flavor, etc.

The fact that three reviewers between March and April of this year---three years after 2010, when it came out---are still comparing it to a black IPA or hoppy stout continues to reinforce my belief that Sierra does some sort of black magic to retain hop flavor. It's like the Fountain of Youth is somewhere up there in the mountains and melds with the water feeding their deep-well aquifers.

 

this...I love Bigfoot with about 1.5 to 2 years on it. Ambrosia.

 

I hope so too! I have a few left, planned on drinking one every year. But after having one last year I was considering drinking more then because it was so fucking good, I couldn't really imagine it getting much better. I'm going to crack one very soon here, I didn't realize its about 3 years right now, it takes stuff from sierra a good month to reach my area, it sucks. The Fritz and Kens was awesome after 3 years so I have faith in Sierra Nevada.

 

Bumped into a case a month or two ago and had a similar story (although at double your price, which still felt reasonable). Grabbed one to test- was blown away. Never had it fresh - or anytime in the past 3 years for that matter - but I think it's developed wonderfully (with no real reference point to compare with). Went back and grabbed the last 5 bottles.

Side bar: recently had the Helles Bock and Grand Cru as well. Both seemed a little weaker than in years past- definitely don't feel they held up over time as well as the Black Barleywine. Have never had the Fritz and Ken's stout, which is unfortunate-- really need to go ISO to complete the XXX quad.

tl;dr = It tastes good now.