I post my tasting notes of good (and bad) beer that I find in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. I don't write snooty or nuanced reviews, nor do I only drink one style of beer.

I'll generally rate beers on this purposefully crude scale, with a few accompanying tasting notes:

0 = offensively bad
1 = bad
2 = meh (mediocre)
3 = good
4 = exceptional

Follow me for an eclectic mix of beers and info about where to find them. I am Stephen Goggin. When I'm not writing about good beer and drinking it, I'm a PhD candidate at UC Berkeley.

 

Sierra Nevada’s 2011 Bigfoot Barleywine. A 3 out of 4. Great barleywine. Nice balance between the bitterness and the overly sweet malt presence. A little bit of spicy and caramel nuance comes out of the malt, but not too much. Very good six-pack, and while it isn’t exceptional, it is definitely worth trying. Beautiful color too. Along with Hoptimum, this is probably one of my favorites to come out of Sierra Nevada.

Sierra Nevada’s 2011 Bigfoot Barleywine. A 3 out of 4. Great barleywine. Nice balance between the bitterness and the overly sweet malt presence. A little bit of spicy and caramel nuance comes out of the malt, but not too much. Very good six-pack, and while it isn’t exceptional, it is definitely worth trying. Beautiful color too. Along with Hoptimum, this is probably one of my favorites to come out of Sierra Nevada.

2 years ago