1987 Bigfoot

This is exactly why this beer has a great reputation as a cellar beer. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone not liking it aged for any amount of time. Was the 87 good enough to be worth chasing down an older vintage?

 

Now if only I can track down a 1986 birth year beer

 

What's Bigfoot's first year?

 

I love when people post stuff like this.

 

Yeah thanks for sharing OP. Great post.

 

If not held properly, these do oxidize badly. We did a vertical back to 1999 last year, everything past 2008 was a mess.

 

"First introduced in the winter of 1983..." according to Sierra Nevada.

An old pic of an early label (probably before the Feds settled on allowing the use of the term "barley wine/barleywine" on US beer labels):

 

Good stuff OP. Does anyone know if the Bigfoot recipe has changed over the years?

 

I know someone who had an '87 recently. He said it was absolute and utter garbage, so it seems that these may age differently, depending on storage conditions.

 

This is awesome. I like your point about using a 12 so as minimize the hops masking the older vintage. I did a 2008, 2009, 2014 and 2015 tasting about a month ago and could not believe how well the hops held up. The bitterness fell off in the 2008. No longer the dominating quality, but still present.