Big Rock McNally’s Winter Spice Ale

Brewed by Big Rock Brewery
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Calgary, Canada

Bottle, thanks Greg. Looks nice -dark copper, big thick foamy creamy head, lots of streaming bubbles. Mild but decent aroma - some nutmeg, ginger, lots of sweetness. Taste is decent as well - more toffee sweetness, and the mild spices. Body is a bit too thin. That thick creamy head lasted the whole glass as well. Surprised by this, it is more than decent and a solid effort by Big Rock.

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.

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.

341 ml bottle from TBS. Pours oraggey amber in colour, with decent cream coloured head. Aroma is dominated by cinnamon and nutmeg. Taste is sweet with similar spices. Smooth drinking. Nice warming beer.

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.

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.

Bottle (341ml). Shared by jerc and mabel with me and garthicus - courtesy of GregClow. Clear amber with a quick-diminishing off-white head. Aroma of brown sugar & squash, mild pumpkin pie spices - it grew on me after an initial "vegetal" thought. Sweet, earthy and spicy cereal grain taste - mild. Slick, still body with a quick finish and a sweet and spicy aftertaste. I liked it a fair bit.

Pours a clear, copper-tinted gold, with a moderate white head leaving a little early lace. Spicy, biscuity malt aroma. Toffee malt foundation with a healthy dose of nutmeg/mace spice, a little cinnamon, a little ginger, but not much clove for me. Despite the 6% ABV this comes across as lighter bodied. This is a nice pleasant fall-flavoured session ale that stops just shy of being too sweet or too cloying. The packaging is pretty smart, designed to draw in the less adventuresome with beer glasses and cookies, while also making it a pretty cool party gift. Big Rock has got some marketing smarts IMO, and not a bad seasonal to back it up.