Big Rock Lime

Brewed by Big Rock Brewery
Style: Fruit Beer
Calgary, Canada

A blonde lager with a thin white head. In aroma, a light mix of lime and malt. In mouth, a light adjunct laced lager with a sharp lime attack, mineral water, boring. Tasted Nov. 6 2009 at Ottawa Wine and Food Show.

(Can) Sometimes you don’t know why you are sampling a beer, other times you don’t care. I suppose this would be the latter as, in recent years, I’ve tried to drink beers that are appealing and avoid the mass market stuff. But on the Plains, sometimes you become intrigued or confronted. A can of Big Rock Lime stared at my during the brief period of opening my brother-in-law’s fridge. Now I never expected much, and this didn’t let me down on that front, but this would be my first of a lime-series macro... and I can honestly say it wasn’t as bad as I had feared. Obviously lime-centric, but some watery grain base. It looks horrible with a straw-coloured body and an artificially large white frothy head - but you can drink a 6-pack of these to become hydrated. It is what it is.

I was at The Joyce on 4th and the waitress told us about the new Big Rock beer. We spit a bottle at happy hour price between 4 glasses. Less fizzy than Bud Light Lime and with a stronger lime flavour. Very pale. So we end up with a paler, less fizzy soda water and stronger lime. I found a number of press releases with varying descriptions going back to Ed McNally importing tequila to Alberta while working for the Mexican government.

I’m going against the grain here, but I think Big Rock got this one right. It seems that "lime lagers" are this year’s big fad, much like low carb beers were last year (or perhaps 2 years ago). Nearly every one I’ve tasted has been shit, with a saccharine soda-pop sweetness that is more cooler than beer. This beer is not sweet, nor does it come across as artificial. The pale malts are clean, and the aroma and flavour is more like lime zest (rind), and it does not knock your teeth out. The finish is very dry, keeping the palate fresh. This is by far the best take on a lime lager I’ve yet tried.

Clear yellow. Smell is fat lime with little else. Taste is tiny lime with no other redeeming qualities. Too dry and tasteless. Strangely enough, this was all the rage when I went up north.

Consumed in Brad’s hotel room in Jasper. Super light gold, small white cap, dissipates to nothing. The aroma is a bizarre Tostidos Lime blended with perfume, odd malts something or another. Pretty much terrible. The taste is just brutal. Dry wheaty water with a weak plasticy lime, corn, bleck. This is hard to drink. Mouth feel is weak, dry and unwelcoming. Glad I split this free bottle and then drank free premium Scotch on his tab later on in the night.

"Review done in my hotel room the night before my wedding and 20 minuets before I burnt my mouth on the hottest pizza ever produced by man, seriously it melted the wax on the coffee table. Beer courtesy of my parents, I stole it from there hotel room because no way in hell would I buy this. Brew poured a clear light yellow with zero cap, looks just like a glass of sparkling pee in my small hotel room water glass. Smells of corn and faint lime candy, it reminds me of “Tostito’s hint of lime” What a waste of beer taste is so light and fizzy with zero substance. Corn malts, weak fake lime flavour, and zero enjoyment. Good job Big Rock by jumping on the shyt beer with lime bandwagon, you could of at least tried to do better the bud light lime but you didn’t, you suck the end."

So I sampled this out of a can, mistake #1. I though a once reputable brewery would have some pride in what they did and wouldn’t copy a terrible marketing ploy by one of the big companies... Mistake #2. Tasting this beer... Mistake #3. I honestly didn’t think that it was possible to make a lime beer worse than bud light lime. This smelled at first like XO lager (which I really don’t like). Some grassy hops and their terrible strain of yeast, yuck. Then I swirled the glass and I got some rank, sour, putrid dry lime smell. The taste is well, nasty. Watery lime juice with a grassy bitter note that does not fit in this "style". Gross. I’m saddened that I have to bump BLL for this nasty bastardization of beer. Ed, what happened???