Bigfoot Evolution

For craft-beer buffs, these are the dog days of winter. The glitter of the holiday seasonal brews has long since faded, and the Irish ales and German bocks of spring are still a few wistful weeks away.

One recent evening, weary in body and spirit, I stumbled into the store to pick up some things for dinner, wondering what I would write about for this column.

There it was, staring back at me from the cooler: Bigfoot barley wine, traditionally the most extreme example of that biggest of all beer styles.

I picked up a six-pack, took it home, cracked one open - and wondered what had happened to the Bigfoot I once knew.

Now, for the uninitiated, you have to understand that Bigfoot, from the pioneering Sierra Nevada brewery in Chico, Calif., is one of the superstars of the microbrew world. Its arrival - formerly in late February, but getting earlier every year - is eagerly anticipated by beer geeks across the country.

It has long inspired critics to wax eloquent. “A remarkably aromatic interpretation of the style, with flavors that seem to explode on the tongue,” raved renowned British beer writer Michael Jackson in his “Ultimate Beer” (DK Publishing, 1998).

“It hits your palate like a Mack truck,” Steve Johnson opined in “On Tap Northern California” (Chronicle Books, 1996). And in “The Encyclopedia of World Beers” (Chartwell Books, 1997), Benjamin Myers deemed it “an almost overpoweringly malty and hoppy barley wine which can benefit from at least a year’s maturation.”

Two years ago, in this space, yours truly wrote that the 1998 vintage “starts out somewhat soft and innocent, but that’s immediately followed by a mouth-filling, resinous hop bite and a lingering, almost metallic aftertaste.”

But in 1999, I noted that the beer “seems somewhat tame.” And this year, it’s downright easy-drinking by comparison - still strong and noticeably hoppy, to be sure, but nowhere near the palate-numbing Bigfoot of old.

When I called Sierra seeking an explanation, brewery vice president Steve Harrison assured me the recipe hadn’t changed. Bigfoot still comes in at around 10 percent alcohol by volume, he said - close to true wine territory - and its hop bitterness units are in the stratospheric 90s.

Part of the difference could be natural variations in ingredients from year to year, Harrison suggested. “It’s kind of like wine and grapes,” he said. “It depends on the character of the grain and the hops that year.”

Perhaps a bigger factor, he said, is that Sierra’s recently updated equipment better controls oxygen, so very little gets inside the bottle. As beer oxidizes, it develops harsher flavors.

With the improved process, Harrison said, Bigfoot “might be smoother - which could be kind of dangerous.”

Indeed, I’ll probably be drinking more Bigfoot this year, since it’s become more of a beer for all occasions. (Bigfoot with dinner no longer sounds as absurd as it once did.) But part of me can’t help longing for that beastly Bigfoot of days gone by. Sure, it may not have been the best thing for me, but I was young and in love.

So, this Valentine’s Day, you’ll find me with a bottle of one Bigfoot in my hand - and fond memories of another in my head.

Falls guys

For proof that a barley wine doesn’t have to be hoppy to be good, check out the offering from tiny Lost Falls Brewing in Kettle Falls, Wash.

The beer, done in the maltier, more understated British style, is available in bottles in a limited supply at Jim’s Home Brew in Spokane.

“It doesn’t have all the heavy bitterness,” says Lost Falls’ Randal Richardson. “You can lose a lot of the nice malt complexity if you add too many hops.”

Richardson and his partner, Jerry Prolo, also have a pale ale and porter on tap at various restaurants and taverns in the Kettle Falls-Colville area, with a brown ale scheduled to debut next month.

Ooh la la

Following a long absence, another brewer’s dinner has been scheduled in Spokane.

C.I. Shenanigan’s will pour four of its house brews to accompany a French-themed menu Feb. 16 starting at 6 p.m. Cost is $19.95 per person; for information and reservations, call 455-5072.