Arrogant Bastard Ale

Brewed by Stone Brewing Co.
Style: American Strong Ale
Escondido, California USA

Pours a deep, dark red, medium beige head. Aroma is big, caramel, dark fruits, berries, citrus, hops. Taste is nicely balanced between the caramely roasted malts and hops, with fruits and a hint of liqourice inbetween. Refreshing, yet full and round.

It’s that kick you in the mouth beer that makes you say "thank you sir, may i have another?". An intense beer with intense malty and hoppy flavors. You either love it or hate it, and if you’re the latter then you probably dont like beer.

Had this one after I have tried the oaked and the "double" version wich I both love. This was a bit of a let down though, started out too sweet and sticky and ended on a really harsh note. Still not a bad brew just came of as a bit too unbalanced for my liking.

Bottled 650ml. Courtesy of badlizard. Appearance: It pours a beautiful deep ruby beer with a creamy beige head. Good lacework. Aroma: A lot of celery and raisin showing up. Malt accented with wonderful hops struggling through. Flavor and palate: Huge amounts of raisins appearing. The malt is too appearant to my liking. Licorice in the finish which is rather dry. Overall impression: Not my kind of beer. Thanks a lot badlizard!

22oz bottle. Pours a polished red-brown body with a thin, beige to tan head that leaves a good amount of delicate swirling on the surface and runny lacing on the glass. The aroma is initially a wave of of earthy and spicy citrus hops before it opens up and concedes to sweet, berry malts. Lots of caramel. The malts are abundant, but never smell thick or syrupy. A touch of toasted toffee. Very nice. A light booze note reminiscent of most strong ales, but definitely hidden with the berries. Much more of a sweet aroma than anything else. The flavor is no where near as sweet as I thought it would be after experiencing the aroma. Starts off with a distinct, moderate earthy hop taste that never goes away. Lots of soft malts as well initially. The berries and caramels come through more in the middle and the hop flavor starts becoming very bitter and earthy. It conitinues to grow and becomes even more bitter in the finish and even more yet during the lingering aftertaste. The intense earthy hops kind of give it a "dirty" taste...not that thats a bad thing. A nice citrus, sour grapefruit comes through as well. The caramels are both sweet and toasty. A balanced combination of the two. Not boozy at all, but has that "strong ale" taste to it in the end...but maybe thats just the intense hop bitterness that doesn’t seem to go away. Palate is medium bodied, extremely creamy and clean for such a bitter beer, and a bitter duration unlike anything I’ve ever come across. Overall, an intensely hopped beer. I mentioned it tasting dirty earlier and with a name like Arrogant Bastard, I think they picked a damn perfect name for this cavalier. Pretty cool version of a strong ale for sure. I liked it a lot, but it just didn’t rub me as much as some of the other highly hyped beers I’ve tried lately. Despite that, it was delicious.

Poured from big bottle. Overflow alert - almost drowned taking a whiff! I do smell malt and spice. Solid mahogany, rough tan head persists. Just full of malt flavor, sort of half toasted and half sweet. Hops in back. Spice nut, and banana noticed too. All that and ridiculously drinkable too. Slightly heady, but that helps in this case. Excellent.

Pours a deep ruby with a nice tan head... Aroma is mildly hoppy slightly citrusy with a sweet malt backing... Flavor of medium dark somewhat sweet malts with underlying citrus notes... Bitter, but not in a lingering way... Medium bodied..

bottle. Beautiful beige head over a nice brown body. Beautiful bitter hop aroma, a mix of floral and citrus hops. The taste had nice hop profile up front, followed by pretzel tasting malts and finished with excellent hop bitterness.