Sierra Nevada Brewing Co: Bigfoot Barleywine Style Ale

I was intrigued by Mattie's barleywine post, so I decided to take a crack at one and see if I liked it. But you don't see Barleywine's all that often outside of beer specialty stores so I had to grab the first thing I saw. As it happens, the first Barleywine I stumbled across was by none other than Sierra Nevada.

Bigfoot's taste is complex, but not subtle. This has got to be one of the maltiest beers I've ever had, but its balanced by a pretty healthy dose of hops as well (in true Sierra Nevada style). There's some faint floral notes in there as well, but they pretty much get entirely muscled out of the way by the malt and the hops. That adds up to a truckload of flavor. The beer doesn't have a very heavy body, though.

All in all it's quite tasty, though it's also definitely one for sipping rather than guzzling.