About
Proud Early Bird of Craft Beer - The Big Rock Story
17,000 years ago, a glacier carried a huge rock onto the Alberta prairies where none like it had been before. This "big rock" is the glacial erratic we take our name from, as no doubt, our founder's notion of creating a craft brewery in 1985 was a bit erratic at the time.
The rooster represents our early arrival as craft brewers. It's also a bit of a nod to the "cock of the walk" bravura that Ed McNally had when he started Big Rock Brewery.
We craft our beer with our brewmasters’ skill and imagination, utilizing local ingredients and innovative processes, all rooted in Ed McNally's original passion for excellence and in doing things differently and better.
Part of the group
Big Rock Brewery owns 3 breweries/brands:
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Lubiere (25160) reviewed
Maibock from Big Rock Brewery
20 years ago
5.8/10 — Appearance 6 Aroma 7 Flavor 6 Texture 4 Overall 5
Clear brown with a ruby hue, and a thin dissipating off white head. Nice nutty malt aroma, a bit woody. In mouth, sweet nutty malt, with some smokey notes, but rather thin and short in mouth. Maibock for the mass. Merci, JM.
Tried on 23 Jan 2006 at 18:00
Oakes (34715) reviewed
Session IPA (India Pale Ale) from Big Rock Brewery
20 years ago
3.4/10 — Appearance 4 Aroma 1 Flavor 5 Texture 4 Overall 3.5
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.
Tried on 18 Dec 2005 at 02:28
Oakes (34715) reviewed
Maibock from Big Rock Brewery
21 years ago
5/10 — Appearance 4 Aroma 5 Flavor 6 Texture 4 Overall 5
Medium red-tinged brown colour. Aroma is fruity (plums), tobaccoey and molassesy. Body is moderate (so, light for style), malty (hints of caramel and earth). Fruity overtones are distracting. But I don’t think it’s esters, just the way the malt comes across, possibly a function of what appears to be light oxidation.
Tried on 21 Aug 2005 at 19:22
Oakes (34715) reviewed
Co-op Classic Premium Ale from Big Rock Brewery
21 years ago
4/10 — Appearance 4 Aroma 4 Flavor 4 Texture 4 Overall 4
Golden-brown colour. Metallic, caramelly aroma with graham cracker undertones. Slight malt accent but it’s about as complex and rich as "whole wheat" sponge bread. Clean, but exceedingly boring, this is the beer equivalent of a trepanning accident, leaving you in a pool of your own slobber staring at the ceiling.
Tried on 25 Jun 2005 at 01:23
Oakes (34715) reviewed
Co-op Gold Premium Lager from Big Rock Brewery
21 years ago
1.9/10 — Appearance 2 Aroma 2 Flavor 2 Texture 2 Overall 1.5
Pale straw colour. Cidery, lightly grainy aroma. Quick, with a mineral water fizziness. A beer so flavourless the carbonic acid plays a major role in the character.
Tried on 23 Jun 2005 at 01:35
Boutip (10207) reviewed
Grasshopper Kristallweizen from Big Rock Brewery
21 years ago
2.6/10 — Appearance 4 Aroma 3 Flavor 3 Texture 2 Overall 1.5
Bottle: Poured a fizzy golden color ale with a small head with no retention. Aroma is comprised of weak wheat. Taste is again quite weak on wheat with a gross watery aftertaste. There is also some sourness that I could detect that wasn’t pleasant at all. Bad bad stuff.
Tried from Bottle on 26 May 2005 at 10:30
Lubiere (25160) reviewed
Jack Rabbit from Big Rock Brewery
21 years ago
2.8/10 — Appearance 2 Aroma 3 Flavor 4 Texture 2 Overall 2
Very pale yellow in colour with a resilient white head. Faint malt and corn adjunct aroma. In mouth, light corny sweetness closer to mineral water, like most of these babies. Bought in Halifax, at Vin-Art.
Tried on 03 Apr 2005 at 14:28
Oakes (34715) reviewed
Honey Brown Lager from Big Rock Brewery
21 years ago
3.6/10 — Appearance 6 Aroma 3 Flavor 3 Texture 4 Overall 3.5
Thanks for microakes for buying a sixer...I might never have had it otherwise. Golden-brown colour. Grainy, vaguely caramelly aroma. Light body, fizzy. Very sweet with heavy corn syrup notes.
Tried on 19 Mar 2005 at 01:29
Oakes (34715) reviewed
Alberta Genuine Draft from Big Rock Brewery
21 years ago
2.5/10 — Appearance 2 Aroma 3 Flavor 2 Texture 2 Overall 3
Swillfest ’05
This was one of the more drinkable beers on the night. Straw colour. A little biscuity, grainy aroma. Neutral wonderbread flavour.
Tried on 13 Feb 2005 at 14:03
Oakes (34715) reviewed
Jack Rabbit from Big Rock Brewery
21 years ago
1.1/10 — Appearance 2 Aroma 1 Flavor 1 Texture 2 Overall 0.5
Bilious green-yellow colour with large artificial bubbles. It actually smells like vomit. I only wish I was making that up. Taste is bland. I might taste a hint of malt but certainly there are no hops. This is because hop are loaded with carbs. They must be, since there are no hops in any low-carb beer I’ve ever had. In summation: Wow. This beer really blows.
Tried on 06 Feb 2005 at 03:13