Big River Grille & Brewing Works: Chattanooga - Downtown
Brewpub
in
Chattanooga,
Tennessee,
United States 🇺🇸
Owned by
SPB Hospitality
Associated Venue: Big River Grille & Brewing Works (Downtown)
- Out of business
Established in 1993
Out of business
Contact
Description
Located in downtown Chattanooga, next to the Tennessee Aquarium, IMAX Theatre, and a short walk from the Children’s Creative Discovery Museum, Big River Grille & Brewing Works features innovative cuisine, award-winning ales & lagers and a spacious outdoor patio. Enjoy championship billiards or see live entertainment at Big River’s music venue, Rhythm & Brews. The restaurant also features a working brewery, bar, and semi-private dining areas for groups and parties.
6/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6
Sampled at GABF on Saturday October 13, second sessionHazy copper color, off-white head. Sweet, hoppy scent. Hoppy, malty taste. Medium mouthfeel, medium high bitterness.
Tried
on 17 Oct 2012
at 12:19
6.8/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 7
At GABF on Thursday October 11, 2012Black color, brown head. Sweet, malty, roasted scent. Sweet, lactic taste. Medium mouthfeel, low bitterness.
Tried
on 13 Oct 2012
at 09:15
6.2/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 5
Flavor 6
Texture 8
Overall 6
Draft @ Big River Grille in the Disney Boardwalk. Pours clear brown color with tan head. Aromas of caramel, chocolate, and brown sugar. Sweet caramel malt flavor with some chocolate. Medium body with moderate csarbonation.
Tried
from Draft
on 12 May 2012
at 08:34
6.6/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 8
Overall 6.5
Draft @ Big River Grille in the Disney Boardwalk. Pours amber color with light tan head. Aromas of citrus hops and caramel malts. Sweet caramel malt flavor with graprefruit hops. Medium body with average carbonation. My favorite of their beers I’ve tried.
Tried
from Draft
on 12 May 2012
at 08:32
4.5/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 4
Flavor 4
Texture 8
Overall 2
Draft @ Big River Grille in the Disney Boardwalk. Pours pale yellow color with white head. Grainy aroma. Bland flavor. Light body with average carbonation. Meh.
Tried
from Draft
on 12 May 2012
at 08:26
5.5/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 4
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6
I’m guessing this was the holiday porter, since there weren’t any descriptions and the waitress said it was their seasonal "dark". Whatever. Not bad, watery, decent roasted malt but too sweet with a very mild, forgettable finish. Better than my sandwich.
Tried
on 27 Dec 2011
at 14:37
7.1/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 6
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
I hate to say I’m surprised by the quality of this stout, since I’ve no qualms with Big River, but I am. Here’s why: over a decade ago, my friends and I would regularly visit Chattanooga, and would inevitable end up getting snockered at Big River off their house beer. However, over the past few years as I’ve become a horrendously unapologetic beer snob, I’ve learned that pretty much everything I drank in my college years was utter crap. So I’m very, very pleased that Big River’s Iron Horse Stout is so damn tasty after such a long interval between trips to this restaurant/brewery. Sufficiently bitter and roasty with a smooth, chocolatey middle, this beer never gets mired in the metallic fruitiness that plagues so many smaller American stouts. Plus, you get rich stout flavor without a daunting ABV, which is always welcome. And I have no clue when it comes to beer-and-food pairings, but this stout was pretty good alongside my meatloaf.
Tried
from Can
on 22 Apr 2011
at 18:18
5.1/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 4
Flavor 5
Texture 6
Overall 4.5
This beer suffers greatly from being pushed into a popular style without the necessary features. As an IPA, this brew is an underhopped bummer. As a regular American Pale Ale, it fares much, much better. Unfortunately, it’s been declared an IPA, so I have to rate it as such. And the results are very average. The flavor has a deep malt vein that runs underneath, which proves too much for the mild hops (mild, of course, being relative.) The hops are apparent, piney with a hint of citrus, but the malts trounce any blossoming IPA-dom. This beer would probably rate in the mid-3s as a APA. As it is, blah. So just ignore their signs and treat it as a regular Pale.
Tried
from Can
on 22 Apr 2011
at 18:06
6.9/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 6
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7.5
Tried on tap at the Florida Brew Fest 2011 addition. It pours deep copper – amber with thin mocha head. The aroma is a modest level of bitter pine hops, caramel malts and a bit of caramel kettlization caramel like candy. The taste starts off on the thin side but likely pretty good for a Pale Ale offering up caramel malts, crystal malts and modest levels of pine hop flavor and bitterness. The malts fade while the hops remain pretty consistent in strength right into the finish.
Tried
from Draft
on 11 Mar 2011
at 17:01
5.1/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 5
Flavor 4
Texture 6
Overall 5.5
Clear medium brown with a small soapy head of white. Some malt in the aroma. Some sourness that shouldn’t be there as well. Not much flavor for a style that should present lots of malty goodness. Very disappointing.
Tried
on 10 Jan 2011
at 17:31