Brew Brain Blog

“You’re Not Worthy”

Those are the words at the bottom front of the bottle. This may be true. 7.2% ABV. This I know must be true.

For my next beer review, I bring you Arrogant Bastard Ale from Stone Brewing Co., San Diego, California:

Click on the link to the beer and you’ll get a taste of the abuse yellow fizzy drinkers face on the back of the bottle. It starts, “Arrogant Bastard Ale: This is an aggressive beer. You probably won’t like it. It is quite doubtful that you have the taste or sophistication to be able to appreciate an ale of this quality and depth.” And on it goes. Pretty entertaining read.Anyway, a nice original bottle is great, so long as the beer inside is worth drinking. How did the Arrogant Bastard Ale do?

The beer pours a nice dark chestnut amber color with a beautiful thick and creamy light tan head that sticks around for quite some time. This really looks like a quality brew with a lot in it.The smells are of a rich, sweet malt, a bit toasty and nutty, along with some spicy, floral hops. Nice to find plenty of both on the nose. It doesn’t smell off center to one side or the other.

The taste is a little bit of hmmm and a whole bunch of WOW! This really is a big ol’ beer in every sense of the word. It is definitely a hoppy beer, but the hops lays in its own layer on top of a thick, rich, sweet caramel and biscuit malt flavor. Competing for time at the end is a bit of alcohol with a very pronounced grapefruit finish. The flavors are absolutely huge. This beer, indeed, is not for the feint of heart.

The beer has a nice full body. It is creamy and well-carbonated.

This is what craft brewing is all about - creating something different. Thank you, Stone Brewing, for a good, quality original brew. This one was fun. This is not a good choice for a quick beer with lunch before heading back to work, at least in a 22 oz bomber. However, if you have some time to sit back, relax and enjoy a well-brewed piece of art, I suggest you get you some. I may not be worthy, but I know where I can sneak more of these when I want them.

Enjoy whichever beer you are worthy of,

Brew Brain

EDIT: After clicking the Arrogant Bastard link above, make sure you click Do and Not on the do not accept side when choosing not to enter the site - just for fun of course. You may chuckle, or you may have a yellow fizzy in your hand.