Profiled by Ken Carman
The first beer by Stone I had was obviously extract, and when something’s obviously extract that’s never good. But the Stone beer has improved over the years. I like Arrogant Bastard it’s a bit one dimensional for an over the top (at the time) IPA, but great… for that.
I have not been happy with many of the various alternate versions, Oak is OK, I like it. Double is a bastardization of the original. Just call it a barleywine, please. Once you pop the abv that high it tends to take away from the extreme hop focus.
Lukcy is redish, just a bit of haze to the clarity, but this bottle had been in the freezer. Probably a bit of chill haze. The 1/4 inch head faded fast, but second pour it held for a while. Plenty of carbonation in the mouthfeel. Carameliztion obvious with a bit of slick.
The hops are all bitter. High alpha focus? The body is background, but enough for the hop focus. The main problem is, again, the hop is all bitter. Hops can add multiple dimensions to beer. There’s none of that here. Just bitter.
The problem here is that beer has gone beyond just another variation on Bastard. And I’m not sure how Lukcy is needed; why it deserves to be sold as a different beer. or is this just repackaging? According to the pre-press it’s a combo of Oak, Double and Arrogant. Not enough of a “combo” to make it that distinct.
Remix, please.