Beer Review: Stone Brewing Double Bastard Ale (2008)

After an evening of crappy beer, there are bunch of breweries, I know that will, at the very least, give me a satisfying beer.  Stone brewing is one of them, but I also wanted a beer with some balls tonight. So, with double in the name and a 10.5% abv, the Stone Double Bastard Ale was my choice.

Stone Double Bastard

Pour:

The beer seems to like a good hard pour, start with almost no head, but right at the end of the pour it built into a big billowy thick head.

Appearance:

Dark auburn color with ruby hues you could see as you held it to the light.  Think cream colored head, fairly good lacing.

Aroma:

Wow, intense.  Alcohol, toasted maltiness (is that a word???), plumb,  and dark sugar.  Complex and very appealing.

Taste:

This arrogant beer starts of rich, thick, and molassesy sweet, then hits you with some heat so you know the alcohol is there, then finishes with a grapefruit – hop bitterness. Delicious.

Drinkability:

An excellent beer.  Glad I still have 2 more bottles!  With the intense aroma, flavors, and high abv (10.5%) it is extremely well balanced so that you can drink it and experience the flavors, one doesn’t really dominant another they just blend together.

Food Pairing:

This is a tough one, excellent beer, would pair it up with something that goes with the sweet in the beer, like creme brulee.

Tasting method:22oz Bottle

My rating: 9.4