Arrogant Bastards

Sorry to both of our readers about the serious lack of posts lately.  I plan on making up for that with a multiple post day covering the last week or so of beer drinking, beer kegging, beer brewing, beer tasting and everything else beer that we can possibly talk about.  Let's get the mofo started!

Last week Gus and I did a tasting with the three versions of Stone's Arrogant Bastard that were readily available.  We sampled the regular Bastard, which we had both had in the past, the Double Bastard and the Oaked Arrogant Bastard. 

If you're not familiar with Arrogant Bastard it is an American style strong ale.  And it is delicious!  Quite a few years ago one of Longview's finer drinking establishments (Porky's) decided to add Arrogant Bastard to their taps.  This is where I first became familiar with the Bastard.  I immensely enjoyed my first pint and have had them on numerous occasions since then.  When I think about Strong Ales and what they should be like Arrogant Bastard is one of the examples I think of. 

I hadn't tried the Oaked Bastard until that night and I honestly wasn't too impressed by it.  I felt that it was way too similar to the regular Bastard and I could hardly notice any Oak notes or flavors.  It really felt like I was just drinking more of the same Arrogant Bastard.  I've recently found myself enjoying the oaked beers more and more and this one was just a disappointment to me.

I also hadn't had the Double Bastard before and I enjoyed it immensely.  It was just what I expected it to be, a stronger version of Arrogant Bastard.  I was surprised that it wasn't too overpowering at roughly 10% ABV and it had a pretty smooth flavor for being so strong.  I will definitely be ordering another one of these in the near future.

One downside to the multiple Bastards was the sluggishness that I felt the next morning.  If you plan on doing a multiple Bastard tasting I would suggest doing it on a Friday night and drinking multiple waters before you go to sleep.