Rhine Stone Cowboy

The back of the 330mL bottle of Big Rock Brewery's Rhine Stone Cowboy does a better job of describing its label than I ever could, so I'll repeat it here: "A lederhosen wearing, bedazzled 'pardner', strolling along the Rhine ... oh and there's a rooster too." Strange and oddly specific, but that's what you get from this Calgarian kölsch-style ale. 

At 4.6%, it's just a tad below standard, but RSC makes up for that with an assertive nose that blends hearty grains with brown sugar sweetness. Though the nose is burly, the flavour is a little less muscly. It's driven primarily by sweet corn and grain, with a waft of bitterness at the end. The beer poured golden and slightly cloudy. In fact, there was a wisp of yeasty sediment, though that might have been the result of my having left the beer in my fridge for an uncommonly long time.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.