Bow Valley Lager

Brewed by Big Rock Brewery
Style: Pale Lager
Calgary, Canada

Serve in Dimpled mug, English pint, Lager glass, Shaker

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Hazy yellow colour. Slight uric aroma with creamed corn background. Very light palate, almost the marshmallowy sweetness of a weizen. Has some light corn and sugar notes, like the crust of a pastel de choclo. Finishes almost candyish. Surpringsly drinkable, considering.

Not sure which is more disagreeable...the can which is a direct ripoff of the Bowen Island cans (hey, Big Rock, you sold the brand and now you rip them off, wtf?) or the fact that they invent a brewery (Pine Creek?) rather than just admitting that this is a Big Rock beer. In fact, I’m probably more annoyed that our government lets them get away with it, that our government lets them flat-out lie to the public, than the fact that Big Rock does it.

A pale yellow lager with a thin white head. Pissy aroma with corn adjunct and light sulfur. In mouth, a chalky malt with faint hopping, mineral, a bit oily. Can. Bought in a non descript liquor store on Jasper Ave in Edmonton, for 2.50$....rip-off.

Very sweet aroma is all creamed corn with some soapy floral character. Very clear golden body beneath a very shy, large bubbled, fully diminishing head. Metallic notes offset the sweet creamed corn in the unpleasant flavour. Very light and gassy with thin, watery body and very strong carbonation that unpleasantly pricks the tongue which is more or less thankfully short-lived. If you’re going to make a beer to compete with the macros, make a good beer to compete with them. This just gives small breweries a bad name. Tulip glass. Fridge temperature. Can (Oct-06). Thanks, Oakes!

Bought a single can for $0.75 from the shopping cart in Willow Park. The best of the three cheapies (the others were AB Genuine Draft and Alta Light), all made by Big Rock even though this can says different (I agree with Oakes’ rant, see below). Clear golden yellow, fresh grainy aroma with a clean palate that is on the sweeter end. Not bad at all, and miles ahead of the Alberta Genuine Draft in my opinion, but still in the end a low-end, cheap, can-only generic pale lager.

(Can) Courtesy of Oakes. All I can really say is this is one of the shittiest beers I have tasted in a long, long, long time. It’s nose wasn’t too bad - kinda an watery corn oil but the flavour was soapy, corny and crap. Words don’t describe the disappointment. Isn’t the brewer a panelist on BeerBasics? Does he qualify as a beer judge if his tastebuds are so badly damaged that he cannot taste how bad this is??

355ml can. Pale straw colour, vanishing white head. Weak aroma, slight grain note. Grainy malt flavour, a trace of grassy hops in the finish, a little metallic. Lots of carbonation and a thin body.

This beer is the favorite of pathetic old alchies wiith jobs in my town. Pours piss yellow.Aroma is horrible. stinks like the smell of whiskey coming out of your pours after a morning of hard drinking. The flavour is very light and very cheap. almost like a slightly yeasty tasting glass of water. not offensive, this beer is drinkable but it’s just plain terrible.

Horrible beer. Absolutely no reason why I will ever consume this again. Pour is pale yellow and foamy white head. Tastes like someone peed in my mouth and mixed it with beer. Overall, pretty gross.

Single can purchased from Paradise Liqour in Edmonton, AB on 07/22/2011. Colour: Pale yellow, no head. Nose: Smells like malt liqour, abundant gingerale, rotting egg. Taste: Medium sweet, medium-light bitter, light sour. Again gingerale but flat and stale. Quickly fades to bitter cardboard. Absolutely attrocious. Embarrased that Big Rock would make such crap - but now understand why they have the affiliate brewery name "Pike Creek" attached to the can...

Pours a light yellow, a lighter yellow than most pale lagers. Has a weird almost translucent white head. Sour nose with cream corn and grass. Tastes like that taste about an hour after you’ve thrown up. Gross!!! Sour, corny and just aweful! Man that’s gross. Avoid ths one it is bad.