Stone Arrogant Bastard IPA

Arrogant, maybe ... Tasty, yes

Stone Arrogant Bastard is another great hoppy ale in Stone's hop-forward line of Pale Ales, IPA, and Double IPAs. Arrogant bastard is mostly your standard treatment of a less-than-amber but more-than-pale IPA that has just a little bit more 'oomph' in the malt and hops department. The malt profile of Arrogant Bastard, while not overwhelming, definitely has a good backbone of caramel, rich, and somewhat raisin-bread type toasty flavors. Certainly more richness than your standard IPA.

This great malt body is balanced with a very aggressive-tasting hop treatment using the Chinook hop. The chinook variety gives Arrogant Bastard that nice West-coast citrusy bitterness, but also contains a more rich, herbal, and maybe even a bit of a 'rough' pungent element.

The Beer

A malt base of 2 Row Pale malt (US variety, if you have it) is paired with a good amount of Aromatic malt to provide a nice richness. I chose Aromatic over Crystal/Caramel malts as I wanted to make sure this wasn't too rich, sweet, and tough to drink. Some CaraMunich adds color and more depth, and a little Special B rounds out the toffee/raisin type elements as well as giving this grain bill a bit of sweetness.

Hop treatment is all Chinook with a bunch at the beginning to get that base bitterness, then some at 20 for a little backbone plus taste/aroma. Instead of dry-hopping, I opted for 1.5 oz of Chinook at the end of the boil for aroma. I am sure some dry hopping wouldn't hurt if you have the extra hops on hand.

Yeast is a nice-clean American strain like WLP001 / Wyeast 1056 / US-05. This a big beer, so yeast management is especially important if you do not want it turning out way too sweet.
If you use liquid yeast, be sure to take the time to do the recommended starter amounts (Starter: 1130 ml shaken or 1000 ml on a stirplate.) If you choose to use the dry S-05 variety, I'd go with a pack and a half of properly rehydrated yeast. In both cases, you'll want to be sure to aerate your wort to provide a favorable environment for yeast reproduction.