Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale

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

Bottle, 6.7%. Beautiful deep ruby pour capped with creamy beige. Nose immediately grapefruit citrus,Turkish Delight hopcone tackiness, jellied red fruits melding into creamy oak, vanilla ,fudgy malt sweetness, nutty hints. But it’s mostly about that sweaty, resiny alpha goodness. Any UK beer sniffing like this would be considered seriously hopped up. Oak building as it warms. Velvety caramel m/f, grapefruit and mandarin upfront receding as the oaky Bourbon tones creep in. Back come the hops for a bitter, bitter grapefruit linger with a crumb of nutty malt. The oak is really well integrated , cushioning the sledgehammer citrus attack beautifully. Delicious surprising beer unlike anything I’ve really tasted before, nearest parallel Shep Neame Winter Hop. But it’s different league to that. Bring on the pint bottle of Double Bastard.....

12oz. Bottle: Biter aroma. Aroma of hops, pine, alcohol, grapefruit, and resin. Poured medium brown/ruby in color with a large, rocky, foamy, tan head that lasted throughout. Clear. Lightly sparkling. Flavor is medium bitter. Tastes of hops, resin, pine, a and hint of chocolate malt. Medium body. Average texture. Average carbonation. Hoppy, slightly dry finish. I do not taste any oak.

Reddish copper, thin tan head. Aroma had smoke, caramel, vanilla, whiskey, and prune. All of these elements were in the taste, as well. Familiar Arrogant Bastard hop profile, too - pine and earthy resin. Nicely understated Oak flavor that differentiates from the regular AB. Nicely done.

A big sample (like, more than a pint full) from TChrome’s 3L bottle. It pours beautifully, a rich, red-brown color with a spectacular lacing, cascading, billowing head. The palate is smooth like a thin oil. With warmth and an aggressive swirl there was a nice freshness to the aroma, with a subdued hop citrus, winter fragrances, fruit, and caramel. The flavor is very mellow--like some IPAs but really restrained. I thought this was too its credit. Great malt balance, it all comes off as a very drinkable session beer. Which is perhaps the irony, because when you put this much effort and hype into a beer you sort of expect that you’re going to see new dimensions from the realm of beer. Instead, the reactions around our table inverted the normal pattern of love for Stone: the big hop-heads were disappointed because it doesn’t "slap you around" (to quote their words) while those who aren’t so enamored by the "massive hop" fetish (myself included) were really pleasantly surprised.

Holy shit! This was awesome! I had this on tap at the Horse Brass. This blew my mind. I love arrogant bastard, but then take everything great about it and then throw in intense smoky flavors of oak and vanilla, mellowing out the beer completely into an almost NW style barleywine, great stuff!

12 oz bottle; Nose of citrus hops and oak; dark rusty color with a thick, long-lasting, glass-lacing beige head; flavor is citrusy hopiness with small oak accents in it’s medium body, that fade into a bitter hop finish.

Thanks to Joeec5 for schleping this huge bottle to the NYRBG - I don’t quite know what it is about this beer that is different from regular ABA - what I can say is that it is far drier, and the wood has really mellowed the sweetness, but other than that, it’s pretty much the same - not that that’s bad, because ABA is freakin’ awesome - so, hence, this beer is freakin’ awesome, too!

The aroma is very sweet and thick with caramel and toffee. The appearance is cloudy red amber with a nice head. The flavor is like the aroma and bitter with grassy hops. The palate is smooth. Overall I like it a lot.