DuffMan (2721), the land of bitumen, beef & beer, Alberta, Canada Apr 19, 2008 Cloudy orange beer with a tight orange-cream head. Massive sweet cookie malt and resinous hop aroma. Huge hop attack bolstered by thick chewy matls, something vaguely spicy in there, gargantuan flavour and heavy mouthfeel. Intense but not overbearing, big alcohol is almost undetectable. A gorgeous beer! fg8080 (37), San Diego, California, USA Apr 19, 2008 Bottle. Pours a dark brown with a thick creamy, foamy light brown/beige head. Aromas of hops and flavors of sweet dark fruit, alot of hops with a nice lingering finish.... One of the best ive ever had. blipp (1631), Newark, New Jersey, USA Apr 16, 2008 Bottle. Pours ruby brown with a beige head. The first sniff was all hops, which quickly gave way to caramel, brown sugar, and fruit (berry, plum). Medium/full body. Flavor starts with sweet malt, caramel, just a hint of chocolate, and plum. Then a slight roasted flavor emerges, followed by floral and piny hops. The finish is long , dry, and pleasantly bitter. Very good. Goodgrief (1144), Middletown, Delaware, USA Apr 12, 2008 Beer pours dark caramel brown with solid two fingered head and immense lacing. Strong aroma of piney hops. Flavor was lots of piney hops with super loads of caramel and some fruitiness (apples?). A pretty high level of bitterness, reminiscent of the regular AB, but with a much higher sweetness level as well. Pretty well balanced. A HUGE beer of immense proportions. ironchefscott (341), portland, Oregon, USA Apr 8, 2008 This beer just has way too much malt sweetness and not enough hops to balance it.....super cloyingly sweet....this is gross...I can’t belive it got a 99%.....but hey I can’t like everything right? jeremyd365 (109), Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA Apr 8, 2008 Poured a very dark with light head. It smelled very strongly of hops. It felt slightly bitter with minimal bubbles in his mouth and tasted very hoppy yet smooth. It wasn’t quite as amazingly smooth as the regular Arrogant Bastard, but it was close. Still remained pretty drinkable despite how heavy and high in alcohol it was. Good, but still liked the original Bastard the best. JohnQPublic (387), Brooklyn, New York, USA Mar 31, 2008 Bottle. Pours coppery orange, with a very thin, lacy off-white head. Aroma is sweet caramel, citrus and pine hops, hint of alcohol. Flavor is more big malt and caramel up front, followed by a big pine and resin hoppiness, with a very sweet back end before a fairly high bitterness, lasting hops finish. Mouthfeel is very big, a bit sticky, moderate carbonation, not too thick. Chewy, as the previous reviewer noted. Good beer, very interesting balance. illidurit (851), Santa Cruz, California, USA Mar 31, 2008 Dark reddish brown color in my snifter. Head is tan and thick, with a full 2 fingers of height. The lacing is enormous.
Aroma is hugely hoppy with tons of west-coast citrus and pine, but there’s also a big caramel sweetness.
Flavor follows the nose pretty closely, as malty sweetness fills your mouth, nearly inducing chewing. Hops then rip through the palate with a massive dose of oily grapefruit rind. Alcohol is quite apparent but not in a yucky way. It’s more peppery and sweet.
Mouthfeel is thick and well-carbonated. The booziness gets to be intrusive with some warmth and the drinkability takes a dip for this. Killer beer overall though.
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