Big Rock (India) Pale Ale

Brewed by Big Rock Brewery
Style: English Pale Ale
Calgary, Canada

Light bronze colour. Toasty, sulphury and fucking awful diapery aroma. Big Rock is not known for lack of brewing talent but this aroma is flawed. Flavour has residuals of this, but in the background. What you mostly get is the toast...lots of it...like a toasty bagel with butter. But not a real bagel. Like a Tim Horton’s imitation bagel. And it’s margarine, not butter. I happen to like toasted bagels with butter so it’s cool, well as long as I plug my nose, but it’s not a good beer. Seriously, I’m not trying to pick on Big Rock, but I just had a Hacker Hell and it terms of malt character, hop character, cleanliness, it’s a professional beer. This is not.

Draught at Ship and Anchor, Calgary
Light amber color. It’s a mild Amber Ale, with a light cheesy touch, more evident in the flavor than the aroma. Can be boring.

Light amber colour with a thin-white head. Slightly hoppy aroma, but only because I'm looking for it. Aroma is more reminiscent of a pilsener than an IPA. Maltiness is too prominent and beer is seriously underhopped. The description says that it's dry-hopped, but I don't think so. More crap from this generally crappy brewery.

Bottle (341ml). Thanks to tupalev for this one. Clear copper, smallish fizzy off-white head. Aroma of cardboard, light grainy sweet malt, a fair amount of dry hops, but they seem pretty stale. The taste is let cardboard, more bitterness, not bad; Light body, quite fizzy, slightly burnt aftertaste - pretty okay

On tap at Cest What?
Appearance: Clear light amber look with mid light creamy top. 3-
Nose: Plain , hint of hay , light hop with grainy ending.
Flavor/Palate : Thin bodied. Grainy edge with watery fill in. Forgettable brew.

Bottle courtesy of Tupalev. I have had this a number of times over the years and apparently not bothered to rate it. I remember it being pretty decent but either it has changed or my taste has improved. Golden yellow body with a small white topper. Sweet malt aroma with notes of caramel, hops and muted citrus. Flavour is similar with a sweet grainy malt foundation and light accents of caramel and light hoppy bitterness. Not bad for a fairly mainstream offering but its fairly modest overall.

Note: Bottle sampled said IPA, not Pale India Pale ALe. Dark gold color. Medium head. Aroma is hoppy. A medium bodied IPA. Malty and hoppy. Somewhat juicy. Nicely balanced. A not to hoppy IPA. Grapefruit and citrus flavors are mild. More in the English style of IPA. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean. Aftertaste is slightly bitter.

Poured dark amber with big lacey head. Impressively floral nose. Sweet, bountiful flavors, ripe with both malt and a bit o’ hop, very well rounded. Surprisingly good! (Re-rated from a bottle in Canada, 5/14/07: Poured with a ncie amber hue with an initial flourish of carbonation, then quieted. Maybe my olfactory senses are dulled, because I find little aroma, maybe a little crystaline malt. But this has a nice flavor ... solid tangy malt with a litle hoppy, woodsy addendum that appears as it rolls of the tongue.) Downgraded a bit from original.