Black Lab Bar

Stone “Arrogant Bastard Ale”

Matt — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 19:52:02 +0000

Pretty excited about this one – Stone makes some solid beers and the Arrogant Bastard is certainly one of them (with a rare “94″ rating on BA and a 99 on RateBeer.com – enough to land them at #19 for all American Strong Ales). With a logo (pictured at left) and tagline, “You’re Not Worthy” it has to be a badass beer and after Diller bought me the tap handle (Arrogant Bastard? Hidden message in there, perhaps) I knew it had to grace the Black Lab Bar, even if it’s not a New England brewer (they’re from CA).

What Stone says;

This is an aggressive ale. You probably won’t like it. It is quite doubtful that you have the taste or sophistication to be able to appreciate an ale of this quality and depth. We would suggest that you stick to safer and more familiar territory–maybe something with a multi-million dollar ad campaign aimed at convincing you it’s made in a little brewery, or one that implies that their tasteless fizzy yellow beverage will give you more sex appeal. Perhaps you think multi-million dollar ad campaigns make things taste better. Perhaps you’re mouthing your words as you read this.

At Stone Brewing, we believe that pandering to the lowest common denominator represents the height of tyranny – a virtual form of keeping the consumer barefoot and stupid. Brought forth upon an unsuspecting public in 1997, Arrogant Bastard Ale openly challenged the tyrannical overlords who were brazenly attempting to keep Americans chained in the shackles of poor taste. As the progenitor of its style, Arrogant Bastard Ale has reveled in its unprecedented and uncompromising celebration of intensity. There have been many nods to Arrogant Bastard Ale…even outright attempts to copy it… but only one can ever embody the true nature of liquid Arrogance!

Stats: 7.2% ABV

Style: American Strong Ale

First released: 1997

Tapped 2/25/12

Crispin “Original” Cider

Matt — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:50:33 +0000

Just in time for the Patriots to win the Superbowl, we’re tapping a log of Crispin “Original” hard cider.

Crispin describes it as, “Crisp over ice. A classically styled, but untraditional hard apple cider. Fruit forward, with a fresh, crunchy appley nose and a deliciously creamy, refreshingly crisp mouth feel.”

Surprisingly, this beer was only rated in the 37th percentile for the category on RateBeer but I’ve found the bottles I’ve had to be much nicer – certainly one of the top 5-10 ciders. Either way, pared with Smuttynose Old Brown Dog, it should be a nice pair of beverages!

Tapped 2/5/12.

Smuttynose “Old Brown Dog” #5

Matt — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 01:43:31 +0000

That’s right – it’s keg #5 of the OBD. It’s one of the most popular beers so it’s become something of an annual winter tradition.

Defrost

Matt — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:17:53 +0000

Just a quick defrost between kegs!

Berkshire “Saint of Circumstance IPA”

Matt — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 22:28:17 +0000

Apparently there was a business error at BBC that lead to a shortage of hops. While trying to brew some Lost Sailor IPA they came up short with what they needed and ended up with a slightly lighter IPA. Rather than sell it labeled as Lost Sailer IPA and risk people thinking they had changed the recipe they rebranded the light IPA as the “Saint of Circumstance IPA”. It has a “B+” rating online.

ABV of 5.7%.
Tapped: 9/1/11 (for our Fantasy Football draft night)

9/2 Update: We poured a lot from the keg – maybe about 5-6 pitchers in 90 minutes or so – and it poured terrible. Sometimes the first beer to pour has a large head but this was consistently a thick foam that would monopolize about 90%+ of the pour, as pictured below. We ended up having to pour into a pitcher just to let it sit for a while in able to pour into our beers. Tim has already offered to replace the keg but at this point (more than half-way through it) I might just finish it and be weary to buy “new” brews from BBC (who is already slowly falling out of favor with me).