Collaboration Brew #1 (Last Best Collaboration)
Big Rock Brewery

A very well done, juicy, tropical pale ale. Amazing, silky mouthfeel. Big Rocks really been steeping up their game lately, and this collab pale ale definitely proves how much.

1L howler fill-up from the Liquor Depot in Capilano - sure beats driving to Calgary, even if the experience at LD still sucks balls, service-knowledge-wise, i.e. this is denoted as a 'Mystery' brew style there.

This beer pours a hazy, pale golden yellow colour, with a fistful of puffy, loosely foamy, and well bubbly dirty white head, which leaves some decent layered and webbed lace around the glass as it evenly sinks away.

It smells of grainy, crackery pale malt, sharp mandarin orange and white grapefruit pith, a tame flinty chalkiness, further indistinct tropical fruit notes, salt and pepper dust from the tabletop mill, a weak pine resin acerbity, and a certain lack of that Big Rock house yeast character. The taste is bready, crackery pale malt, a now sort of neutered domestic citrus fruitiness, one more notable by the attendant disappearance of those promising tropical esters, some weirdly late-arising overripe banana character (the yeast in a different form?), a fleeting hard water stoniness, and equally fading weedy, leafy, and piney hop bitters.

The carbonation is quite light and endearing in its all-around fluffy frothiness (I wrote 'fluffer' first, and took more than a hot second to reconsider), the body a sturdy, if unassuming medium weight, and generally smooth, the hops taking five and having a well-earned (non-detectable) smoke, or the like. It finishes well off-dry, the doughy, bready, and now banana-inflected malt seeing off the hops into that good night.

Overall, not a bad brew, the whole 'don't explicitly state what kind of beer this is' thing now patently obvious - so, sorry Liquor Depot, you have one fewer deficiency in my eyes. The hops are supposedly the star of this road show, but my rendition plays more to the malt and yeast fans out there - and I know what y'all are thinking - ew, Big Rock yeast? I assure you that this is an entirely different beast, albeit still somewhat off, in the same hamstrung brewing locale (or maybe even provincial) manner.

 

 

 

Lots of buzz on Twitter, etc. about this new collaboration beer. Stopped at Big Rock retail store to pick up a can. 473 ml can, white label (as pictured) with the idea being to try it and make your own decision (rather than rely on what the brewers, or label info tells you.
Beer pours cloudy, gold orange color. Thin off white head, foam lasts nicely leaving a web of lace.
Smell has lots of fruity, citrus hops. Grapefruit, and tropical fruit.
Taste has all the same flavors as smells. Grapefruit dominates, some herbal hops towards the end. Decent balance of malt, so it isn't a super bitter IPA.
Medium body, solid mouth feel without being to oily. Finishes clean, dry. Light carbonation keeps it smooth, not prickly.
I would agree, its halfway between a Pale Ale and an IPA.
I was pleasantly surprised, and would have it again (might have to try and seek out a draft version).
As this is called Collaboration #1, I can't wait for #2, #3.....

Here's a cool premise: a collaboration between Calgary's biggest and oldest brewery (Big Rock) and one of its smallest and newest (Last Best), with the catch that the can contains no information beside the ABV and the breweries involved. Everything else you've got to figure out on your own.

Beer pours from the can a very dense, almost opaque cloudy orange, capped by a few fingers of thick, persistent head that leaves a lot of lacing. Smell is very citrus forward, with a lot of grapefruit and bitter orange, complemented by some pale malt. Slight pine, slight resin. Lightly caramelized sugars? A bit of pepper and cracker. No sign of Big Rock's signature yeast, which is usually noticeable in everything they make--I'm guessing Last Best took the lead here.

Taste follows the smell: a lot of grapefruit and citrus hoppiness, slightly herbal, floral. A touch of pale malt balances. As it warms, you get a bit more of the balancing malt, without the hops ever really relinquishing control. Finishes dry, but not overtly so--it calls you to another sip, rather than merely leaving your throat parched. Carbonation is nice and light, and the body is nice.

Most commentary has pegged this "unidentified" beer as being somewhere on the spectrum between an American Pale Ale and an India Pale Ale, and I'd tend to agree with that assessment: to my taste, it certainly leans toward the latter (though I also wouldn't be surprised to discover there's a bit of wheat in the mashbill, either). More importantly, regardless of its style, it really works. This is a pretty superb beer that would be a welcome addition to either brewery's full-time line-up. Definitely worth a try.