Big Rock McNally’s Winter Spice Ale

On tap. Pours reddish brown. Kind of bland, ginger aroma. Ginger, cinnamon, grain, spice, with a malt backing. Very interesting stuff, Christmasy. Perhaps a bit too much ginger for my personal tastes, but great stuff overall. Impressive offering from Big Rock.

On tap at The Kick Off. Taps a clear cinnamon brown with a small white surface film. The aroma is faint, clove, cinnamon, ginger, chrystal malts. The flavour is quite promising at first with some delicious gingerbread qualities but fades quickly into an empty shell of a beer. Mouth-feel goes from full to zero within the span of a second. Kind of a let down for how watery it becomes, though it’s still tasty and not tragically flawed.

Pours a chestnut colour with a small off white head. The first thing I notice is the distinctive Big Rock yeast. Their yeast smells like moldy food and stinky feet. Looking past the nasty yeast character there is nutmeg, cinnamon and roasted malt. The taste is quite similar to the smell with a gaping hole in the mid-palate, there just isn’t anything there. Roasted malt, nothing... and then nutmeg and cinnamon. The palate is watery and dull. This beer isn’t totally off putting, just not that pleasant.

Ppurs Amber, thin head, no retention. Smells terrible. With subtle notes of artificial cinnamon. Flavour is nice kind of a smooth nutmeg flavour with a little cinnamon in the finish. Not bad for Big Rock.

341ml brown bottle. Poured deep golden/amber, small head. Some decent lace. Sweetish nose with caramel and ginger, cinnamon. Mild caramel malt flavour, subtle spices, clove sweetness, background ginger character. Aftertastes of cloves, and especially cinnamon. Medium bodied, carbonation seems a bit dull. Overall it’s a likeable, mellow, winterish ale, and I think most would agree that it’s a good effort from Big Rock, though I do wish they kicked up the malt bill a bit.

Bottle. Deep golden-orange with a spare white head. Aroma is mildly sweet and spicy - hard to pinpoint specific spices, but I got some cinnamon and ginger. Medium bodied - too light for what is supposed to be a "winter warmer", but OK. Flavour is nice, with some bread and toffee and spice, but again, too subdued to be a really solid winter seasonal. Still a decent brew, though, and it went well with the cinnamon-molasses cookies that came in the package.

[2059-20090402] 341mL bottle. Sweet green beany freshness aroma. Clear, dark amber body with a quick creamy off-white head. Flavour has every mild: malty fruit, wateryness and alcohol. Medium body. Average.
(c/o GregClow, w/ garthicus, HogTownHarry, jerc)

Shared by jerc and mabel withHogTownHarry and I - courtesy of GregClow. Appearance: Golden red body with a small white head. Aroma: Cinnamon, malt, winter spices, slight stewed cherry. Flavour: Malt and cinnamon, quite ’bready’, yeast and spices with a nice mild spice finish, not bad.