Big Rock Grasshopper Wheat Ale

Brewed by Big Rock Brewery
Style: Wheat Ale
Calgary, Canada

Smells malty. Deep amber, slight head. Sweet taste, where is the wheat? Sticky sweetness. Average.

I’ve often wondered, when it comes to so-called american wheats why they even bother putting wheat in the name. They usually taste like Rogue’s Buckwheat Ale - ie. not a hint of wheat in sight. This product from Big Rock is little different. It’s a clear, bland ale-like brew.

Bouteille de 341 ml achetée au Beer Store (Gananoque, ONT) lors d’un séjour au Charleston Lake Provincial Park. Arôme: Odeur de miel et de malt. Apparence: La couleur est blonde avec une densité de bulle presque nulle. Présence d’une fine dentelle sur le verre. Saveur: Goût de miel et de céréales. Durée moyenne de l’arrière goût. Palette: Le corps et la texture sont mince. Moyenne effervescence en bouche. Présence de céréale en arrière goût. (Rating # 535)

Draft in Waterton Lakes: Golden hue with a nice head (looked good in the dimpled mug). Light and clean tasting and feeling. Fairly refreshing. Light malted caramel with subtle honey. Very light bitterness. Nothing too special, but surely drinkable.

Courtesy of kiefdog. Pours gold with thin white head. The aroma is grainy, floral and sweet with a modest level of malts. The taste consists of sweet malts, graininess, floral hops and little else. It ends thin and too sweet for my taste.

Here is what I said about this beer when I first rated it: "First of all, this doesn’t have any wheat beer character." I was wrong. In a head-to-head comparison with another local American wheat (Liplock by Nelson Brewery) it became evident that this is unquestionably a wheat beer, it’s just that American wheats are never as wheaty as their German counterparts (that took me some time to get used to I guess). Anyway, I’ve always liked it, probably as much for sentimental reasons as anything. Faint aroma of wet hair and mild estery wheatiness, with a wheaty fresh palate and a soft finish. A terrific summer beer.

Don’t bother unless this and Molson are the only thing on the shelf or taps. A filtered wheat beer. Bland and mediocre.

Rather bland, light, but that’s not all bad, a refreshing ’Hot Summer’ brew, well at least in Arizona. Nice malt nose and a bit of grainy tone and some hop presence, but just to mild for me, maybe better in the draught version.