Not just bastardly...DOUBLE bastardly!

The first time I had Arrogant Bastard was at Murphy's in Prescott, AZ. In fact, I think this was my first experience with the rough riders at Stone Brewing. A few months ago, Stone released the Double Bastard and the Oaked Double Bastard. I got to try both and they definitely were bastardly beers. I had the Oaked Double Bastard on cask at Papago Brewing and the standard Double Bastard in a bomber from BevMo.

The opaque, dark brown beer had a beautiful foamy light tan head. The alcohol scent was pretty potent, along with the strong malt. The Oaked Double Bastard was a silkier, richer beer, but the sourness was overpowering. The regular Double Bastard was more enjoyable, as it just wasn't soooo robust. Both versions featured a lot of woody flavors, with bourbon and oak. Lots of strong flavors, which leaned more on the oak side with the Oaked DB; the regular DB leaning more to molasses and a little hops. The carbonation of the regular DB was low, with the Oaked DB being much more smooth thanks to the hand pumped nature of the casked beer. The beer was a unique experience, but if I were to pick it up again, I'd go with the standard DB rather than the oaked one.

Appearance - 4.5/5.0 - blackhole of light, no light comes through, dark brown, beautiful foamy light tan head
Smell - 3.0/5.0 - malty, alcohol, oak, alcohol and alcohol.
Taste - Oaked Double Bastard = 3.5/5.0 - sour malt, alcohol, aftertaste is subdued but sour; Double Bastard = 4.0/5.0 - sourness is less potent, flavor is more enjoyable and less robusto.
Feel - 4.0/5.0 - Oaked Double Bastard had hand pumped smoothness, both had flavor that sticks around with the aftertaste
Drinkability - 2.5/5.0 - not what I expected, wanted a bit more; especially out of the Oaked Double Bastard