Big Rock Brewery / Last Best Brewing and Distilling Collaboration #1 American IPA at 5.9% ABV (C$2.85 at Willow Park Wine & Spirits, 473 ml, packaging date 29-Jun-2015)
Appearance: cloudy pale amber with two fingers of rocky white head, good retention and patchy lacing. (3/5) Aroma: citrus, pine, pale/caramel malt, mild tropical fruit, some grassy. (8/10) Taste: moderate sweet, moderately strong bitter. (8/10) Palate: medium body, moderate carbonation, short duration moderately bitter finish. (4/5)
Well, I’d like to know what’s in this, but it doesn’t exist at any of the usual reference locations, and Big Rock’s web site is just doing their “we want the beer to speak for itself” plain white page approach. I’m guessing it’s hopped with something like Mosaic, at around 75 IBU, but in any case, it’s surprisingly good. And I don’t mean any disrespect to Big Rock by that – I’ve been drinking their products for a long time, and appreciate them for what they are. (And what they are, is a nearly macro-sized brewery that doesn’t really do “craft,” as much as “local.”) Much of their limited release experimental stuff has been less than overwhelming – I’ve done detailed reviews of more than a dozen, and only two have been better than 7/10, and they’ve been recent ones: Abandoned Abbey (8/10) and Coloborador (7.5/10). So, Big Rock’s recent trend of collaboration and experimentation seems to be gaining strength. Keep it up! (And it probably doesn’t hurt that I got this A/IPA extremely fresh – it’s only four days since it was canned.) (16/20)
8/10 #ryansbooze ryansbooze.com
