Sierra Nevada’s Bigfoot is of the Old Guard and an American classic. This 2008 edition of this barleywine (billed the "25th Expedition"—their 25th year!) is 9.6% alcohol by volume and absolutely maintains its status as one of the best American barleywines around.

Appearance: Beautiful clear orange-amber color; nice, thick, dense, creamy head—three fingers worth—slight amber tint to it, too.

Smell: Syrupy sweet barley, Crystal and Cascade hops. They’re powdery and green. Malt—caramel, rock candy, some caramelized sugars.

Taste: Thick and full of American hops and alcohol heat… it’s delicious. Juicy and rich, with toffee and light molasses and roasted grains and a hint of vegetable… sweet alcohol notes and bright crisp hops.

Mouthfeel: Full and smooth and just a touch dry in the finish. Very well balanced all around.

Overall: I think the praise throughout my notes is pretty telling, but I’ll just reiterate: this is a fantastic beer.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of A-. On RateBeer, it scores 3.89 out of 5 and is in their 98th percentile. High marks all around.