Arrogant Bastard Clone - Tasting Notes

Arrogant Bastard is a very aggressively hopped brown which was one of my earlier introductions to Craft Ale.  I brewed up this attempted clone of the beer using a recipe from Homebrewtalk written back in 2014.

This recipe calls for a hefty dose of bittering hops (although I went with a little less than what was specified) and a fairly healthy dose of late boil hops.  No dry hops used in this batch.  It utilizes Chinook hops for this only.

It has made a delicious beer which, based purely on memory, seems very close to the balance of Arrogant Bastard - very bitter with nice hop flavor and a bit of interesting malt character.  For the sake of science I will also do a side by side testing with the real thing

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Herbal and grassy hops are prominent.  A bit of caramel and toasted malt character comes through in the background
• Appearance:
• Light brown and pretty clear.  Pours with a thin layer of foam that quickly fades to nothing
• Flavor:
• Up front I get a bit of sweetness along slightly toasty malt.  In the middle a nice little punch of hop flavor (herbal and grassy here as well).  The finish is quite bitter.  The bitterness lingers for several seconds.  A fair amount of sweet malt also caries through into the finish which is pleasant but the beer is decidedly balanced towards bitterness.
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium bodied with a slight sweetness.  Drinks very smoothly.  It's a pretty big beer (which is apparent after a couple) but no noticeable alcohol warming
• Overall:
• A very tasty beer.  The hops are star of the show here and it is aggressively bitter (although I suspect not as agressive as the real thing).  Chinook is a nicely flavor hop to my palate - this batch is a like very intensely flavored Fuggle which is nice.  The malt character is interesting enough to cut through the bitterness and provide some semblance of balance.  The hopping really calls on you to take another sip.

Side by Side Tasting Notes:

    Performed with a batched canned on 6/9/20

• Aroma:
• The hop aroma of the real Arrogant Bastard is quite a bit stronger than my beer.  It has pine-like and slightly marijuana-like aroma where mine is more grassy and herbal
• Appearance:
• Arrogant bastard is maybe a couple shades lighter than mine but I think the color is about right.  It pours with much more agressive carbonation level and leaves lacing on the glass
• Flavor:
• As with the aroma, the hop flavor for the real Arrogant Bastard is quite a bit more prominent than mine - same pine and marijuana from the aroma.  Hops completely dominate the malt here - can't really pick out any malt flavor.  It is slightly more bitter in the finish and even less balanced
• Mouthfeel:
• The real Arrogant is very slightly lighter bodied than mine and is a bit drier
• Overall:
• They are a lot different.  Stone doesn't list the hops used in the beer (their flagship) which very well could give them license to have changed the hops over time to adjust to changing palates.  I strongly suspect they aren't using Chinook hops in this beer at this point (although it may be that they're using a more potent Chinook harvest than I am).  This probably shouldn't be a surprise as I brewed a clone that's over 6 years old at this point.  As for the malt, the color is very close - can't speak much to flavor though.  Stone's Arrogant Bastard is a really nice beer.  I think mine is also nice but it's definitely not a clone here in July 2020.