Arrogant Bastard Ale review

Arrogant Bastard Ale
Stone Brewery
7.2% Alcohol
Classified Hops and IBU rating
Under $5 for 22 oz bottle.

Stone Brewery is the craft beer's most darling of breweries in the United States.  They get virtual no "bad" ratings from anyone that likes their style of beer, taking top honors in a lot of websites like Beer Advocate.  The podcasts I listen to highly praise them as well.  Their flagship beer is Arrogant Bastard Ale, and though I set out to get Levitation Ale, I ended up with this; their epitome of their brewery.

The story goes that Stone decided to throw caution to the wind and make this beer as hoppy as they liked it themselves.  They released it and found that the nation went crazy over it.  There is a lot made about the hoppy character of this beer, and many consider it the start of the new hop craze in the United States.  As you can see in the picture above, it is a dark red ale, and its head(of which I reduce the amount of through my pouring methods) is thick, creamy and reminds me of a good Guinness pour.  I have to say that this is the first red ale I'd classify as "ruby" red.  Its red is spectacular, and the reflection of the light through the bottom of my mug is that of cherry Kool Aid.  I was told to think "strawberry wine" in color, but I was not prepared for the richness of the red, its quite impressive.

Surprisingly, with all the hype around how strong and full of flavor this beer is, it has to be one of the the least remarkable on smell.  The lack of smell made me doubt the beer content.  I thought "oh no, it really is just all about the hops, so many people only want to rate it high so they can seem to be on the bandwagon".  There isn't even a strong hoppy smell.  Trying harder, I do get fruit, but that disappears quickly.  I know Alcohol and hops can quickly wipe away smells, and so I suspect that is going on here as well.  Still, very surprising.

The taste of this beer astounded me and may have won me over.  There is a floral hop character there, but there is sweet, perfectly caramizled malt in there that stands right up with the hops and says "fuck you for doubting me" just like the gargoyle on the bottle.  So much of this beer is focused on the hop character that people do not talk about how much of an incredible ale it is to have the other flavors stand toe to toe with that hop.  The finish... turns super bitter, like you'd expect.  I did expect it, but my palate does turn the bitter into a salt flavor because its not developed the taste for hops so much yet.  The bitter lingers, do not wait for it to leave if you do not like it, keep something by to snack on after sips.  Lots of people talk of pine flavor, but I can't even taste that because I don't have a taste for hops.

Taste progression:  I get early notes of floral, the kind of floral I look for in a good refreshing beer.  After that, it changed to amber ale bliss for a few seconds.  The bread taste I like is there, but there is not a strong nutty flavor.  From the bread it turns into caramelized sugar with some nutmeg, though any sweetness is quickly overwhelmed by the coming back of the hops.  The hops return strong, and then a turn to bitter that lasts the rest of the drink and half a minute after.

Until I find another amber ale with the same flavor but less hops, I may have to buy this and eat a sandwich while drinking it to tame the bitter, because however bitter it is, the taste of the malts, breads, caramel, are worth it.  The flavor is so great that it perfectly masks its alcohol content.  This is one of the strongest beers I have had when it comes to alcohol and yet I did not take a note of it in the least.  There's no alcohol astringency, there's no burn in my tummy.  Whatever they do to make the flavor of this beer, they do it perfectly.  The hops and bitter can't be overlooked, if you don't like hops you probably won't like this beer.  But the unsung hero of the ale portion of flavor is just as incredible I'd consider using this to work my way to a more hoppy palate if it meant having this great quality amber ale.

(the cap is nothing remarkable, but enjoying a nice cap is sort of a personal preference of mine)

I am not a hop head.  I am a nut brown and amber drinker, styles noted for their lack of bitter.  If you can brave the bitter, you might find one of the best beers in the nation.   For the record, this is guessed to be in the 80-100 IBU(bitterness rating), and the most bitter beer I tend to drink and enjoy fully is rated at 22 and budweiser is about 10.