Stone Lukcy Basartd Ale

Stone Lukcy Basartd AleNo, that is not a typo in the title—it’s much harder to misspell correctly! Stone Brewing offered up Lukcy Basartd Ale this past November as a one-time release, celebrating 13 years of Arrogant Bastard (a blend of Arrogant and Double Bastard, apparently). They decided to get clever on the packaging, scrambling up the letters in the way that are still readable: the first and last letters are in the right place, but the rest for each word are jumbled.

The result is mostly readable. But I don’t know what initiated the idea in the first place.

No matter. The beer inside is 8.5% alcohol by volume and hits the nail on the head when it comes to “Arrogant Bastard.”

Appearance: Thick, hazy beer-bottle brown with hints of red. Big and thick tan head, very rich-looking.

Smell: Big, malty, with sticky hop resins and boozy alcohol heat. Sweet barleywine maltiness.

Taste: As hoppy, sweet, and sticky as you’d expect for a Stone 13-anniversary Arrogant Bastard. Big and boozy, bitter and sticky and completely in-you-face. Malts are sweet and caramelly without a touch of harshness or astringency; hops are spicy, resiny, green without being bright—but complement the malts perfectly.

Mouthfeel: Medium-full-bodied and very sticky with pleasant lingering bitterness.

Overall: A Stone classic.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of A-. On RateBeer, it scores 3.84 out of 5 and is in their 99th percentile.

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