Friday, December 12, 2014

Stone Brewing Co. - "Lijkcy Basartd" American strong ale

Check out what I found at Whole Foods! It's a dry-hopped, special-release blend of Stone's popular Arrogant Bastard, Double Bastard and Oak Arrogant Bastard beers, weighing in at 8.5% ABV.


The whole label is riddled with intentional typos - the letters are transposed using the phenomenon of "transposed letter effects in prefixed words" - essentially, the human mind sees familiar words as a whole, and so even though some of the letters are jumbled, you can still read the words easily.

This beer is meant to be fresh - it has a use-by date on the bottle of January 1st, 2015. Reminds me of that other Stone brew, the Drink by 7/4/14, that I had in July. Some beers, as noted previously, are made with certain ingredients that are best enjoyed fresh. This is one of them, so let's get drinkin'!


Pours nicely, holds a deep caramel color that lights up nicely when candled. The beer has no head whatsoever, and throws a bright and tasty hop aroma.


There's a little bit of lacing on the glass after the pour. It has a strong, slightly-sour hop flavors with a nice strong malt and alcohol flavors. The dry bitterness from hops is subtle but definitely appreciable, and the finish is of muted caramel which is rather nice.

It's hard to critique a beer that's a combination of other beers that I haven't tried all along - I'm sure this beer has some special significance for those who are ardent fans of the series. I think this is my first experience with the Bastard series in recent memory - I had the Oak-Aged Arrogant Bastard years ago and don't recall really caring for it that much. But I'm definitely interested in seeking it out again, as well as other entries in this line (Arrogant Bastard, Double Bastard, Oaked Arrogant Bastard, etc.) I also had this on draft at Plan B burger bar on Pennsylvania Avenue (Plan B being also originally from my hometown in Connecticut) and it tastes great on draft, as well. I think they've probably finished their run of this beer so if you see it, grab it! It's got a short shelf-life for sure and having this has definitely re-energized my interest in this line of beer.



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