Abandoned Abbey - Big Rock Brewery (Canada - Alberta - Calgary)

Abandoned Abbey - Big Rock Brewery (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 9.2%

A strongly yeasty, herbal aroma; cloves and banana. Very dark in a glass without much of a head of foam.

The taste is also strongly yeasty: banana, herbs, cloves. Lightly spicy, the faintest bit of licorice. Sweet with some dark, dried fruit flavours. A bit of chocolate comes out in the finish, and dark crusty bread out in the aftertaste. These same flavours are there in the main body but overshadowed by the Belgian yeasty tones. A well constructed Belgian Style Dark Ale that conceals it's hefty alcohol content dangerously well.

Euro Life Lager - Big Rock (Canada - Alberta - Calgary)

Euro Life Lager - Big Rock (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 5.0%

Crisp dry hops aroma, pale gold and crystal clear in a glass. A touch of the grain I associate with Big Rock. Dry hops taste just like a Euro Lager, not musty probably because it's fresher than any actual European Lager you could get in North America. They aimed to make a Czech style pilsner and they did a great job - they nailed this style.

India Pale Ale - Big Rock (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 5.5%

India Pale Ale - Big Rock (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 5.5%

Earthy, malty aroma with some honeyed sweetness and a green hops touch that reminds me of fresh celery. Moderately bitter with some melon (cantaloupe) tones, sweet and slightly musty. A slightly amber colour in a glass with a decent head and lacing. Not a bad beer at all, very sessionable, but not quite the taste I expect from an IPA, the hops character is just a little more subdued than some other IPAs.

Helles Bock - Big Rock (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 6.66%

Helles Bock - Big Rock (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 6.66%

Full gold in a glass with quite low carbonation. A sweet aroma with a little grain, some faint nectar tones and faint hints of dry hops bitterness.

Quite sweet but the taste is much too, well, tasty and balanced to call Helles Bock syrupy. It is a little thicker on the tongue than other beers but this thickness is definitely a trait to be expected from a Bock style beer. There are also floral and nectar tones that remind me a little of the way apple blossoms smell (note: apple blossoms don't smell like apples). I occasionally picked up hints of honey when the sweetness built up but that was quickly swept away by mild dry hops bitterness. At no point is there any hint of the higher alcohol content making Helles Bock devilishly (see what I did there) drinkable.

As far as food pairings, I think Big Rock's Helles Bock could easily step in for a sweeter white wine due to its sweetness, texture, fairly low carbonation, the floral and nectar tones, and even its colour and slightly higher alcohol content. Over all, this is a really nice craft beer that is worth trying and quite amenable to delicious food pairings.

Barghest Barleywyne - Big Rock (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 9.5%

 Barghest Barleywyne - Big Rock (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 9.5%

A dark fruit aroma (plum) sort of like a port, ginger bread (ginger and molasses), rye bread and just a bit spicy. A very dark brown or amber colour in a glass, depending on the angle.

Lots of dark fruit flavours, molasses and a bit of spice that has me thinking of ginger; the combination of molasses and ginger has me thinking gingerbread in turn. Powerfully malty but balanced to the point that it is dangerously easy drinking and though it is not bitter I'd say it's only moderately sweet. Truly an extraordinarily balanced beer.

A really nice, smooth, wine-like and slightly thick (without being viscous) mouthfeel with only light carbonation. More molasses as well as many chewy malt and bread flavours in the aftertaste. It is easy to overlook the hops but they're definitely there (how else could it be so well balanced?) with some high, faint green notes and some subtle wood tones that reinforce the impression that your drinking a wine made from barley.

The alcohol took my breath away at first along with such a strong and interesting collection of flavours. I want to be careful to point out that because Barghest Barleywyne is so well-crafted you don't taste the alcohol, not with so much else going on in this delightfully flavourful beer, but that you can feel it tingle on your tongue and warm your chest.

I drank it around 10 to 12.5 degrees Celsius and would suggest that's perfect temperature, though I'd rather have it warmer than cooler: I always feel it is better to err on the side of warmth with a Barley Wine. There is some light sediment at the bottom of the bottle that doesn't seem to make much of a difference to the taste if some of it makes it into your glass.

Barghest Barleywyne is one of the best examples of a Barley Wine I have had: the balance is truly impressive. If you are in the Calgary region make sure you go out and pick up one of these, they only made 3000 individually numbered bottles so I feel quite privileged to have gotten my hands on bottle 1376. And speaking of the bottles, these wax-sealed and individually boxed little 275 ml beauties are the perfect way to present a beer that so much care obviously went into crafting.

Big Rock Winter Spice Ale (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 6.0%

Big Rock Winter Spice Ale (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 6.0%

A clear burnt amber in a glass, not much of a head. An aroma of spices such as cloves, nutmeg, with cinnamon a touch of oak. A definite alcohol warming with those same spices in the taste, cloves, nutmeg, strongish cinnamon, as well as ginger with a red fruit, slightly appley touch that makes the whole thing seem like a perfect beer substitute for mulled cider, the more traditional spiced Christmas drink. Obviously, Big Rock's Winter Spice Ale has no where near that much apple flavour. A spiced, smoky and lightly bitter aftertaste with some dried red fruit tones. Fairly sweet as well as all the rest. Quite a nice spiced winter ale as long as you know what to expect: the strong spice flavours can be a shock if you aren't anticipating them.

Espresso Stout - Big Rock (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 4.2%

Espresso Stout - Big Rock (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 4.2%

Pours a dark, dark brown in a glass: nearly black, nearly opaque. A bitter aroma of dark black coffee and grain with a touch of milk chocolate, more than a touch of smoke like burnt toast. Very smooth mouthfeel, fairly sweet and not as bitter as I was expecting. A moderate coffee flavour (much stronger in the aftertaste), milk chocolate, a faint grain flavour. Big Rock's Espresso Stout is a very nice beer with subdued but pleasant and interesting flavours. It's tasty even though its coffee flavour (and stout flavour for that matter) isn't nearly as strong as I expected it would be: more of a sessionable stout.

Scottish Style Heavy Ale - Big Rock (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 7.0%

Scottish Style Heavy Ale - Big Rock (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 7.0%

Brown hued amber in a glass. Sweet, caramel, slightly oaky aroma with hints of vanilla and roast with just a bit of hops. A complicated flavour with heady fruit esters and roasty sweetness, some caramel, some wood tones and bread flavours. Some hops flavour here and there lending some balance. Not much taste of the 7% alcohol except mixed with the fruit esters and hops to generate a port-like flavour and the wood tones respectively. I'd recommend serving it warmish to get the full flavour. A bit of a different take on a Scottish Wee Heavy: Big Rick's Scottish Style Heavy Ale is on the sweeter side but without those heavy, almost chewy, malt flavours.

Big Rock Honey Brown Lager (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 5.0%

Big Rock Honey Brown Lager (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 5.0%

Orange, brown colour in a glass. Honeyed brown bread aroma, faintly like vanilla. It tastes "blonder" than it looks: sweet, bread tones, something a little like tomato sauce. A mildly bitter touch in the finish. A nice honey flavoured beer its important to keep in mind that it's a brown lager, not a brown ale, so it's more honey than malt.