Arrogant Bastard Ale !!!

Hey Everyone, hope your all having a great weekend so far, today's post is an exceptional beer, one that I wish I could get my hands on more of, Today's Beer is from the Stone Brewing Company. Hope you all enjoy :) !!!

Beer Name:
Arrogant Bastard Ale

Brewery:
Stone Brewing Company

Brewed and Bottled:
1999 Citracado Parkway
Escondido,
California,
CA 92029

Alcoholic Percentage:

7.2% Vol

Measure:

650ml

Taste:

Deep, Rich, Smooth, Strong Hops, Slight Bitterness

Colour:

Light Brown / Slight Red Tint

Odour:

Slight Hops, Slight Malt, A Little Sweetness

General Thoughts:

Arrogant Bastard Ale is a fantastic beer, one of the best beers that I have ever had the pleasure of drinking. This beer is deep, full of flavour and really moreish. This beer has a strong hops flavour, mixed with a great level of malt flavour and a slight sweetness. There is a bitterness to this beer from the hop content of the beer, however this is a pleasant bitterness and one your glad is there to balance out the little sweetness to the beer. Arrogant Bastard Ale is a strong beer coming in at 7.2% ABV, you would expect a beer of this strength to not only taste really strong in alcohol but also to be overpowering. Due to some exceptional brewing this isn't the case at all with this beer, this beer doesn't seem overly alcoholic at all and is so well balanced and deep in flavour you won't find it overpowering either. This for me is a beer that I wish I could get more easily and would drink more often if I could, unfortunately it isn't easy to get which will make it all the better and more special when I can get my hands on it. The other plus point to this beer is that it comes in a big bottle so you get much more for your money, making this a win win situation. On the whole Arrogant Bastard Ale is one of the best beers I have ever tasted and really have to commend the Stone Brewing Company for making an exceptional beer. Deep, Rich, Full flavoured beer, perfectly balanced, with that moreish quality making you want to return time after time. All in All an exceptional beer, Thank you Stone Brewing Company !!!  

Price:

€3.00 - €4.00 (Based on Average)

Shane

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Las Vegas: Nic's Stag Do - A Trip of a Lifetime !!!!

Hey Everyone, We are back, its a been a hectic last couple of months, but within the time away I went on a trip, A trip that can be summed up in one word "EPIC". 

This was no ordinary trip away, this was a trip with  6 of my closest friends, to somewhere that needs no introduction as it just speaks for itself, LAS VEGAS. 
This was a trip to celebrate the future marriage of one of my best friends Nic, (subsequently the marriage has now happened). Nic decided that we should celebrate his upcoming wedding in real style and head over to the USA, to Viva Las Vegas to have a Stag Do (bachelor party) that he would never forget. This being a Stag Do mean't that there was plenty of beer drinking done which I will come to shortly. 

Las Vegas is such an overwhelming place, there is so much to do and so many places to go, also if you enjoy a drink and a little flutter in the casino, this place is like heaven.
I wanted to do this post to firstly talk about some of the great beer that we had while away in Las Vegas, but also as a thank you to Nic and the rest of the guys for a fantastic week and a week that I feel has brought us all a little closer together, and not only that but also brought about some real close friendships.

So here they all are, from left to right we have, Matt, Chris, Nic (the Groom), Phil, Dan and then Will at the back behind Nic.

It is safe to say that Las Vegas really didn't know what they were letting themselves in for when we arrived, we knew we were going to have a great time before we got there, but it exceeded my expectations on so many levels.


We did everything you can think of while in Vegas, I won't go into all the details as you know what they say, "What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas", but i will talk about a couple of the many things we got up to while we were there. We took full advantage of the casinos and all the slots they had to offer, some of us winning big on these, others just about breaking even. 

We also went an visited the Grand Canyon, this is somewhere that if you haven't been to, you must go. There is only one way to really appreciate the awesome sight and that is by helicopter. This was a real highlight for us all and the first time that I had ever been in a helicopter, the views and sights that you get to see are just breath taking and something I am really glad to say that I have now seen.

But apart from all the gambling and sight seeing, there was plenty of drinking. We experienced a whole range of great American beers while we were in Las Vegas. For a lot of the boys this was the first time that they had experienced Samuel Adams, they all really enjoyed it and a few drank this for the majority of the holiday. We also got to experience the Stone Brewery's IPA, this was a fantastic beer and one that I would highly recommend. This beer has a strong hops flavour, giving it a bitter after taste. This bitterness makes you want to go back for more and more, let alone the smoothness that this beer brings. This beer has an overall full balanced flavour with a hint of sweetness to bring the whole thing together.

We also go to try a couple of beers that are made specifically for the bar, at Twin Peaks on the Las Vegas Strip. These were their Dirty Blonde beer and Naughty Brunette Beer. The dirty blonde was a wheat beer made with a slight lemon note to it, this beer was smooth and light, giving it a real refreshing quality. The Naughty Brunette (this was my favourite), is a Maple Nut Brown Ale, this was a dark brown beer with rich malty flavours, this beer had a slight bitterness coming from the hops but was well rounded from the slight sweetness. The best thing about Twin Peaks beer is that it is all chilled and served at around 0 degress, this means that it is extremely refreshing and also gives the glass a real frosted look. These were both fantastic beers that I would definitely recommend you trying, if you're ever in Las Vegas you must go down to twin peaks. There were many more beers tried while in Las Vegas but I will be doing reviews on these in the near future.

Las Vegas has so much to offer, but for me the best thing that Las Vegas did for us was show us a real good time. I had a really fantastic time with the best group of guys you could ask for. This trip reinforced some already great friendships, but also helped to start and create some other really great friendships. I hope that Nic had as much fun as I did, in fact I know he did, but on the whole I just want to thank all of the guys above for the best week ever, and not to mention thank you Las Vegas for giving it to us.

Here is a video that shows just some of the memories that we all shared on this trip. I would love to hear from all of you readers to share your experiences of Las Vegas, the times you had there, the beers you drank, but I would also like to hear from people that are now looking at going to Las Vegas. Please all leave your comments in the comments box below.

I hope you all enjoyed the post, a new beer review will be on its way very soon,

Shane

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