Double Bastard Ale

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

22 oz bottle of the 2009 batch poured into a snifter. Hazy deep amber with a sticky off white head that leaves lots of lacing. The aroma is lots of PacNW hops, pine resin, citrus and floral and lots of caramel malt. The flavor is sweet caramel malt with lots of bitterness that comes in slow and finishes strong. Medium to full body with average carbonation and a thick syrupy mouth feel. Finally got around to rating this epic beer, totally extreme and totally Stone.

Nice pine and citrus aroma from a cloudy brown pour with a good off white head. Flavor is well balanced with the malt sweetness complimented by the hop bitterness. Finish is very dry and clean. Got to have more.

Aromas of toffee, fruit, dough. Thick and chewy, this brew is huge. Alcohol is hidden by giant malts, toffee, caramel, white raisons, all sorts of good stuff. Overall, a little too much ass-whooping for me...

Pours a medium to dark golden brown color. Three-finger head of light tan foam. Great retention and sticky, clumpy lacing. Not a whole lot in the smell department. Light hints of sweet malts and some floral and citrus hops notes. Light caramel presence, but mostly hops. Hey, what do you know? A beer from Stone that’s actually getting close to being balanced. The hops still dominate, as usual, but it’s closer. This has an underlying sweet malty profile that, for once, is actually putting up a good effort to get noticed. Mild caramel and sweet malt taste. Pine and grapefruit notes. Slight bitterness. Not nearly as harsh as Arrogant Bastard. Smooth and basically creamy. Just a slight touch of sharpness. Nice lower medium level of carbonation. I have to say that, being from Stone (who I actually like, despite how it may sound), this is a pretty darn drinkable beer. I find most of their brews to be way out of balance, but this one goes down pretty smooth. At this point in time, this would be my ’go-to’ beer from Stone.

on tap @ Jakes Bar and Bistro steilacoom, yeah this beer is massive, so massive that I think it deserves a little time out in the cellar@! at least it’s telling you the truth, not watering it down for ya... recently did a vertical of 06-07 at a Stone Beer Dinner at Jake’s and the 06 was my favorite because it had finally mellowed down so you could taste each flavor... 09 is still too young for me! 07 was pretty damn good too!!

2009 Bomber. Beautiful rich, dark red pour. Minimal head allows for full appreciation of the sharply pungent pine and pink grapefruit cirtus hops that pervade the nose. Wow, what a beer. Flavor is strongly of pine and carmal-combined-with-citrus. There is a pleasant smoky quality in the later palate that balances out the impossibe-to-hide booze. Beautiful

2009 bomber, drank fresh. Pours a murky dark amber with a thin off-white head that lightly laces the glass. Nose of hops (tropical fruits, citrus, some pine), toffee and caramel malts, some brown sugar. Flavor is mildly sweet with strong resiny hop bitterness, some hints of tropical fruits, a bit of grapefruit and pine on the finish, some toffee. The hop bitterness helps cut the malty sweetness, medium carbonation.