Mmm… This one has been sitting in my fridge for almost two weeks — I could wait no longer.
Hoppy with an almost bourbon-ish flavor in the back of the mouth — it does lean on the bitter side, but not in a bad way. And for coming in at 9.60% ABV you can definitely taste the alcohol, but it isn’t overwhelming. The more that it warms up the more kindly caramel aroma that you get from it. Overall it really calms down quite a bit after you have been sipping on it for a while. Really a pretty nice beer from Sierra Nevada.
I should also say that this is a very beautiful beer from a color standpoint. It’s a nice reddish-brown color that is just dark enough, and when freshly poured has a very nice creamy head with decent lacing as you drink.
When I go to the Boise Co-op this weekend I’m thinking I’m going to pick up a couple to keep around for a couple of months or maybe a year or so and see how this one progresses in the bottle.
Ageing a couple could be pretty interesting, would be fun to compare with you current take on the brew. Think there is currently a pretty good selection of other barleywine at the CO-OP right now too.
I grabbed a bottle of the Alpha Dog IPA last week that I'll probably be breaking into tonight. I'll let you know how that one goes down.
Please do, I was thinking of getting one of those this weekend.
Alpha Dog was OK. The aroma was great, the brew smelled really good for sure. It is an Imperial IPA and the hoppyness certainly came through, but it maybe bordered on getting a little too piney/resiny in the aftertaste. Co-op tasting notes say it got a bit more malty as it warmed up, so perhaps I should have let it warm up a bit more.
Also had a bottle of the Bridgeport Fallen Friar Trippel earlier this week and it was a tasty brew. Enjoyed it with a little pizza.
I find that a lot with Laughing Dog, for as good as their beer is when it is spot on, sometimes it falls below expectations. Not to mention, that is one brewery that I've gotten a lot of funked bottles from — a lot being about 4 or so, which isn't bad, but then again I don't buy a ton of LD.
Nice. I've been meaning to try Bigfoot, just haven't gotten to it. I'm on the fence with Laughing Dog myself — almost picked a bottle of Alpha Dog but decided not after hearing it was fairly piney. I did pick up a bottle of Fallen Friar and have every intention of trying it this weekend. Thanks for the advance review Monty. Being a Belgian-style beer fanatic, I'm curious to see if Bridgeport can pull it off as well as Deschutes did.
Which Deschutes brew are you referring to? I might need to try it.
I think the Co-ops tasting notes mentioned Fallen Friar as a good value and I would totally agree with that. It's pretty cheap when compared to other brews of its style and quality.
Deschutes made Dissident, which was a Flanders styled ale. Apparently, its a seasonal, so hopefully we'll it again around November. Anyway, it was a spectacular beer that demonstrated that they are capable of brewing outside of their established Northwest hoppy beers. They also made a really nice Wit for their Anniversary this last summer.
Yeah, I may have tried that at The Front Door, was interesting stuff. I really enjoyed the Wit last summer, went through a few bottles of that.