What breweries no matter how hard...

To each his own I guess. I'm usually bored with SNPA before I finish it. It is to PAs what Harpoon was to IPAs for me. But then I almost always mix and match beers, never drinking the same thing twice in a row.

 

And with that statement, I think I'm now officially done with "craft beer."

 

I'll admit it. I like beer.

 

Glad I'm not the only one around here.

 

God, get a room.

 

No it's not, and it's not even an argument. Bigfoot is trash. If you want a good American Barleywine, Uinta's Cockeyed Cooper is far better and even then it's inferior to any properly done English Barleywine. And I type this as I'm sipping on a glass of CC.

EDIT: As to the OP, with the major exception of Frootwood, Founder's disappoints me every time.

 

I agree that Saranac should stay on the shelf, but I don't mind Southern Tier's IPA or 2X. I've also had some New Belgium beers that weren't bad. My absolute never buy, ever; Sierra Nevada.

 

Just saying something doesn't make it so, so I'll just let Bigfoot's reputation and awards history speak for itself. Oh, and since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, there's a lot of that pointed it's way as well.

But if you're able to articulate why, I would be sincerely interested in what you think makes Cockeyed Copper stand out so much.

Fwiw, I also greatly prefer English Barleywines and Old Ales, but to say that they were better than the American style would make as much sense as saying pineapples are better than mangoes. It's just a preference, and everyone has them.

 

Locally: Hammerheart, everything had tasted amateurish and yeasty. Their beers come nothing close to the styles they claim ( i Know they want to be 'out of the box') but come on, a pale ale should not be as dark as a scotch ale.

 

You are free to look like what you like, no argument there. But whhhhhhhaa??? Just a bunch of base beers with a few added flavors. My 0.02$.

 

I felt this way about magic hat until I tried their zirkus boy hefeweizen. It was crazy good.

 

Barleywines, American or English, should be exceptionally complex beers with multiple taste profiles assaulting your palette at once and have enough of a body that it coats your tongue and everything else on the way down. American Barleywines should have enough of a hop presence that the malt and hops balance each other out and allow the beer to be drinkable even fresh. Cockeyed Cooper accomplishes this; IMO the balance is perfect and there's a sort of background stone fruit character to the beer that makes it enjoyable to drink. Bigfoot, on the other hand, is a watery, cat pee flavored mess that I don't find enjoyable in any beer, never mind a Barleywine.

It's not so much that Cockeyed Cooper is a truly exceptional beer, it's the sort of standard bearer that you'd use to introduce somebody to a style. Kind of like PtE or Two Hearted are for IPAs.

Does that include their limited release beers, for example their Barrel Room series? Because those are truly fantastic. The normal beers I would argue are the sort of thing you'd check off if you wanted BJCP style guideline examples; well executed beers to an exacting standard without much deviation.

 

Thanks, for the post and the rec. Sounds like a nice beer. I'll make a point to check it out.

Not to belabor the point too much, but we do seem to be perceiving Bigfoot in different ways. I do get the complexity in it, citrus, evergreen, berries, nuts, toffee, no cat pee, certainly not watery. Something about it just doesn't work for you, I guess.

 

Well, nobody's taste buds are the same and I'm a smoker anyway, which might have something to do with it. Maybe the wateriness I get from it is merely perception relative to the style. I generally expect Barleywines to be fairly sticky, for lack of a better term. If you can't find CC where you live, I can pick a bottle up for you and send it your way. It's always a pleasure to talk with somebody who enjoys the style as much as I do.

 

OK, as long as there's some Sierra Nevada in the fridge... this isn't San Diego.

 

Thanks! I do appreciate the offer, but after a little checking around I seem to have reasonable access to it.

 

Against the Grain. Though I won't rule out trying new offerings in the future, their flagship brews that get distribution out here are very forgettable.

 

I can see the others, but I need some reasoning behind this one.

 

I think this thread has officially marked my entry into the "get off my lawn" phase of my drinking career.

 

I didnt mean to sound harsh as the original poster. I dont hate Sierra Nevada or Sam Adams. I dont think they make spit or whatever. Its just the main brewery that popped in my head that people always try to convince me to drink. Im not a fan of their pale ale or ipas. I'd still drink them and im sure if i went to their tasting room i would enjoy it. Theres just way to many better breweries in my own city that i havent tried yet.
Im not too hard to please so if a brewery is really making top notch beers then i shouldn't have to be convinced that they are good. My post is more about the breweries that my friends try to convince me to drink( i could name a lot more). Its not about breweries that i hate.