It’s been an incredibly crazy couple of weeks and there’s not much sign of things letting up. I’ve been trying to catch up on my reviews, but I figure there’s no better time to break into the Stone brewing beers my friend from San Diego sent me than a nice Friday evening. The kids are having a slumber party with their cousins and I’m ready to finally try the Arrogant Bastard I’ve heard so much about.
The bottle says, “This is an aggressive beer. You probably won’t like it. It is quite doubtful that you will have the taste or sophistication to be able to appreciate an ale of this quality and depth. We would suggest that you stick to safer and more familiar territory – maybe something with a multi-million dollar ad campaign aimed at convincing you it’s made in a little brewery, or one that implies that they’re tasteless fizzy yellow beer will give you more sex appeal. Perhaps you think multimillion dollar ad campaigns make a beer taste better. Perhaps you’re mouthing your words as you read this.” Additionally it defines arrogance as “The act or quality of being arrogant; haughty; undue assumption; overbearing conceit.” It also says it is 7.2% ABV.
When I poured it, it had a nice creamy tan head, and the color was a deep, dark brown color. The aroma was a toasty maltiness, with some sweet toffee, raisiny, caramelly smells also noticeable.
It had a very creamy mouthfeel, and a solid medium body. The full malty flavor, gave way to a bit of a grassy hop bitterness in the finish. The aftertaste was one of the most complex I have tasted in quite some time – sometimes tasting sweet like caramel and toffee, and other times tasting raisiny with a toasty barley flavor.
If I had to pair this with a food, although it was so great by itself, I’d put it with some good St. Louis style BBQ pork ribs. I know it’s not a term, but I considered it to be a “session barleywine” – all the flavor of a barleywine with only 7.2% ABV. Overall, it was a great beer, and it had a great malty complexity. My friend from New York tells me I need to try their oak aged Arrogant Bastard, but I’d settle for being able to find a regular Arrogant Bastard around here. Many thanks to my San Diego friend for sending this one, a very good treat!
June 30, 2010
I’m glad you liked it.