Big Rock Brewery
Regional Brewery
in
Calgary,
Alberta,
Canada 🇨🇦
Associated with 3 Venues
Established in 1985
Contact
Subsidiaries
Description
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.
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.
5.3/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 5
Flavor 5
Texture 6
Overall 5
Light green apple. Clear pale gold with a decent white head. Light honey and biscuit. Weird.
Tried
on 12 Jun 2019
at 17:20
5.1/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 5
Flavor 5
Texture 6
Overall 4.5
Sweet bready notes. Clear pale gold with a decent white head. Sweetish and light esters and honey.
Tried
on 12 Jun 2019
at 17:19
4/10
—
Appearance 4
Aroma 4
Flavor 5
Texture 2
Overall 4
473ml can. Pours a clear gold with a medium, foamy, short lived, off-white head that leaves spotty lacing. Mild aroma of toasted pale malt, corn and slight vegetal. Mild, sweet flavour of bready malt, corn, vegetal, honey and grass in a dry finish. Light body with a thin, watery texture and soft carbonation. Not horrible, but not great either. Clean, easy to put back. An ok camping or lawnmower beer.
Tried
from Can
on 08 Apr 2019
at 03:57
5.8/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 5
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6
Super sweet candied apple notes. Clear pink. Surprisingly dry and some tannins but still candied red apple.
Tried
from Can
on 21 Mar 2019
at 19:36
4.9/10
—
Appearance 4
Aroma 5
Flavor 5
Texture 4
Overall 5.5
On tap in Vancouver. Aroma is soft apple, barely there. Has an okay gold body but no foam. Flavour is adequate apple juice with white wine hints. Mouthfeel is medium, a little sugary. This is an okay cider, not memorable but certainly drinkable.
Tried
from Draft
on 10 Mar 2019
at 15:57
4.2/10
—
Appearance 4
Aroma 3
Flavor 4
Texture 6
Overall 5
On tap in Vancouver. Aroma is minimal grain. Has a corporate brown gold body with shareholder defined foam. Flavour is indistinctive malt with a hint of nothing; seriously this has no character. Mouthfeel is dry enough, well refined by corporate interests. Probably the most boring beer I've had in awhile.
Tried
from Draft
on 10 Mar 2019
at 15:54
5.1/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 5
Flavor 6
Texture 4
Overall 4.5
On tap at the brewpub. The aroma is soft urinal puck, has a darker brown body with little head. Flavour is odd cloying cream soda overlaid with some grain, not necessarily awful but very odd. Mouthfeel is medicinal, seems like perfume was dumped in the beer. This is not working, this is a poor experiment.
Tried
from Draft
on 10 Mar 2019
at 15:52
5.8/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 5
On tap in Vancouver. This corporation makes too many pilsners with the same name. Smells a bit vegetably hoppy, minimal head. Okay darker medium gold. Flavour ia middling medium adequateness, nothing wrong but nothing interesting. Drinkable and yet hugely forgettable.
Tried
from Draft
on 02 Mar 2019
at 02:46
6/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6
On tap at the corporate brewpub in Vancouver. A motion filed by interested shareholders allowed me to sample this beer. Once the lawyers and board had authorized the administration and notified the stockholders I was thereby handed a sampling glass. It smells somewhere between roasted beef jerky and rotting plums. The body is a very dark brown nearing black and okay beige foam. The flavour is dried barley with lots of plum juice to try and make it interesting. Finish is okay, a little bit of vinegariness to make it interesting. After an in-camera meeting between my lawyers and Big Rock's executive council I am pleased to report that this beer, notwithstanding variances endured due to uncontrollable economic or seasonal events, may be satisfactory for individuals to consume periodically in a manner that may be socially acceptable to the community at large.
Tried
from Draft
on 02 Mar 2019
at 02:34
6.1/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
On tap at the brewery. Murky brown body and minimal head, smells like sweet malts and honey. Flavour is more honey and malt - missing the hop character. I like IPAs with malt character but this has no hops to be seen, little bitterness, too sweet, too corporate.
Tried
from Draft
on 02 Mar 2019
at 01:59