We broke our stay-at-home-with-Chinese-food-and-watch-a-movie-New-Year’s-Eve string in grand fashion this year, with a blowout Mexican feast for 12 at the home of our friends Jerry Carbone and Kathy Maisto. Kathy’s twin sister, Karen, was there, and nine others. The program:
Dessert turned out to be a mango pudding and Mexican wedding cookies by Susan Healy. I brought the beer, naturally, and the tasting blasted right off with tonight’s pick, the Spiced Barrel-Aged Bigfoot Barleywine Ale from Sierra Nevada. It rolls in at a whopping 13.5% ABV. The regular Bigfoot that SN produces each year is a big beer to begin with, an annual sought-after classic that comes in at 9.6%.
This is the third year that the spiced and barrel-aged version has appeared, albeit in limited amounts. The brewers take the base Bigfoot and stash it in bourbon barrels for at least three and up to seven years. Then they go through the ordeal of tasting various casks, selecting the best, and then tossing in all sorts of spices: nutmeg, orange peel, clove, cinnamon.
It’s all there in the beer, the most succinct review of which was, “There’s a lot going on in there.” And it all works beautifully, and powerfully. The bourbon is right in the nose, but one sip and the tastebuds go a-swirling in all sort of spicy worlds. The beer was released in 11 lucky states, and if this is indeed a new SN tradition, the world is a better place.
I was lucky to visit SN’s Mills River brewery when Lynn and I traveled to North Carolina in May. (A trip I wrote about at greater length for Golf Travel Wire.) My nephew, Doug Honker, now living in Hendersonville with my sister and brother-in-law, has plenty of connections within the beer industry and he put them to good use in setting up the SN tour.
Another successful tour of the Sierra Nevada brewery, conducted by Amy Ebling, Tour Supervisor on right, Doug Honker on left
Amy Ebling, the Tour Supervisor, led us through the plant, with Communications Manager Ashlee Mooneyhan. (At one point, as he was passing in a hallway, we said hi to Brian Grossman, son of co-founder Ken Grossman.) The tour ended in a tasting room, where we sampled five beers unique to the brewery.
But then Doug and I met up with the rest of our crew in the sprawling taproom restaurant, where there are always upwards of 20 beers on tap and plenty of great grub. When heading to, or near, Asheville, a visit to the brewery should be a given.
I make sure to find some of each year’s Bigfoot, a beer that lends itself to aging, and I usually set a bottle or three aside to see how that goes. It always goes well. (At its online store SN is currently selling vintage sets from years 2014, 2016, 2019 and 2022 to ten states).
In a tribute to brewer Ray McNeill after he expired in the 2022 fire at McNeill’s Brewery in Brattleboro, Vermont, I mentioned the sixpack of years 2010-2015 that I had given to him for a vertical tasting we meant to have, but never did.
In the cellar (garage), I still have bottles from 2010-2016. Then a mysterious gap until this year’s batch. No matter. In any case I’ll likely never have another without thinking about Ray.
Name: Spiced Barrel-Aged Bigfoot
Brewer: Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico, California and Mills River, North Carolina
Style: Spiced Barrel-Aged Barleywine
ABV: 13.5%
Availability: Seasonally in CA, DC, KY, NC, ND, NE, NH, OH, PA, VA, VT
For More Information: sierranevada.com
[December 31, 2024]
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