Category Archives: American Strong Ale

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), American Strong Ale, Beer Reviews, Founders Brewing Company, USA

Founders Bottle Shop Series – Highball Drifter

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Brewery: Founders Brewing Company
Country: USA
ABV: 11%
Style: Strong Ale – American
Other Notes: Ale aged in bourbon barrels with orange peel and cherry. 25 IBUs

Brewer Description: (from bottle) There’s a new sheriff in town – meet Highball Drifter, a barrel-aged sipper inspired by our favorite bourbon-based cocktails. The second entry in our Bottle Shop series, Highball Drifter presents aromatics of caramel and vanilla, dried fruit and spice while hints of cherry and bitter orange peel whisk you away like a tumbling tumbleweed. Call us old fashioned, but we think you’re going to love it.

My rating: 3+
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.01
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.9

Intro: A 12 fl. oz. bottle, bottled on 6th July 2021, poured into a snifter glass.
Appearance: A rusty orange brown colour with a thin half finger beige head that dissipated fairly quickly while leaving nice lacing.
Aroma: Cocktails, orange bitters, dried orange peel, caramel, vanilla, with light candied cherry notes.
Taste: Lightly sweet, malty, candied dried fruit, orange bitters, orange peel, citrus zesty, candied cherry, oak, with notes of bourbon and vanilla.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: An enjoyable sipper that’s very cocktail like, as it’s name suggests; and also with an aroma that was really good.

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4 - Good (buy), American Strong Ale, Beer Reviews, The Bruery, USA

The Bruery Mélange No. 3

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Brewery: The Bruery
Country: USA
ABV: 16.3%
Style: American Strong Ale
Other Notes: Ale aged in bourbon barrels. Black Tuesday®, our Anniversary ale and our wheatwine-style ale intertwine in this time-tested exploration in the art of the blend.

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Our Mélange series is at the core of our experimentation with flavors that cannot be achieved outside of the art of the blend or by any one beer. This is one of our original mélanges at its very finest. Mélange No. 3 is a blend of three ales with the longest lineage in our bourbon barrel-aging program: Black Tuesday®, our Anniversary Series old ale and our wheatwine-style ale.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.28
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.1

Intro: A 750ml bottle, 2017 edition, bottled on 1st February 2017. Poured into a snifter glass.
Appearance: A cloudy brown colour with an orange tint and a one finger beige/khaki head that dissipates fairly quickly, while leaving some sparse spotty lacing.
Aroma: Sweet, caramel, toffee, molasses, bourbon, dark fruit, raisins, prunes, chocolate, oak, vanilla, with light coconut notes.
Taste: As you’d expect from the aroma, sweet, bourbon, caramel, toffee, molasses, chocolate, dark fruit, raisins, prunes, oak, vanilla, and a splash of coconut and orange.
Mouthfeel: Full to medium bodied with soft to moderate carbonation.
Overall: An enjoyable sipper, with great aromas, but perhaps a touch too sweet for my palate.

4 - Good (buy), American Strong Ale, Beer Reviews, Stone Brewing Co. (Arrogant Consortia), USA

Stone Arrogant Southern Charred

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– aka Arrogant Double Bastard Ale – Whiskey Barrel (ratebeer)

Brewery: Stone Brewing Co. (Arrogant Consortia)
Country: USA
ABV: 12.7%
Style: American Strong Ale
Other Notes: Double Bastard Ale aged in Bourbon Barrels. Small Batch Series

Brewer Description: (from bottle) When Double Bastard Ale spends months sequestered in Kentucky bourbon barrels, a most unique reverse-transmogrification takes place. A once-burly behemoth emerges as a stunningly graceful beast, with its bold, bullish roots lingering just under the surface. This Southernized paragon of liquid glory exudes sophistication, exalted character and uncompromising independence courtesy of American oak. Only the worthiest of imbibers are invited to experience a fleeting yet unforgettable encounter with this rare breed. This is what awaits for those with the eye, heart and inner fortitude to step up to Southern Charred.

Cellar notes – This oak bomb bursts on the palate with a well-rounded mixture of deep caramel, molasses, hops and char plus hints of brown sugar, with bourbony influence amplifying the beer’s maltiness. These interwoven flavours crescendo in an intense, lingering finish, yet for such a high-gravity beer, it is one helluva smooth operator. Quiet. Confident. Arrogant.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.13
My ratebeer.com rating: 4

Intro: A 500ml corked and caged bottle, 2015 vintage. Poured into a snifter glass.
Appearance: Poured a cold haze rusty orange brown colour but eventually settled to a clear copper colour with a very thin orangey beige head that disappeared quickly while leaving some spotty lacing.
Aroma: Sweet malts, bourbon, caramel, toffee, oak, ginger, candied grapefruit, and some light piney notes.
Taste: Sweet malts, bourbon, caramel, toffee, oak, light bitterness, grapefruit peel, piney, resinous, citrus pith, and maybe hints of raisins.
Mouthfeel: Full bodied with soft to moderate carbonation.
Overall: I loved the aroma and there was a good balance in the flavours between sweet and bitter that make it such a good sipper.

4 - Good (buy), American Strong Ale, Beer Reviews, Stone Brewing Co. (Arrogant Consortia), USA

Stone Arrogant Bastard’s Midnight Brunch

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Brewery: Stone Brewing Co. (Arrogant Consortia)
Country: USA
ABV: 12.7%
Style: American Strong Ale
Other Notes: Depth-charged Double Bastard Ale aged in Bourbon Barrels & Maple Syrup Barrels. Small Batch Series

Brewer Description: (from bottle) An unrestrained, coffee-fueled feast. Evening’s trying to forget the crushing mediocrity of one’s life are typically the main driver to late-night breakfast plates at unforgivingly overlit diners stacked with industrialized, frozen-dumped-in-a-fryer “food.” An interlude between sophomoric late-night antics, questionable decisions and inevitable morning regret. That’s not how I play it. For those who know how to grab life by the horns*, however, this bottle pairs even better with accomplishment, life lived out loud, and well-timed moves that often appear as luck to those not paying attention. A specifically designed midnight brunch feast with like-minded folks who not only have their wits about them but actually have wits, and an artfully prepared feast sets the more appropriate stage for this beer. The bottle is worth a special occasion. Create yours to accompany it.

Aged in Kentucky Bourbon Barrels & Northeast Ohio Maple Syrup Barrels.

*Touch mine, though, and I’ll provide you with the deepest possible understanding of the word “regret.”

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.19
My ratebeer.com rating: 4

Intro: A 500ml corked and caged bottle, 2016 vintage. Poured into a snifter glass.
Appearance: Poured a cold haze rusty orange brown colour but eventually settled to a clear copper colour with a thin orangey beige head that dissipated fairly quickly while leaving some spotty lacing.
Aroma: Coffee roast, oak, caramel, toffee, vanilla, bourbon, light booze, with hints of maple syrup.
Taste: Sweet malts, caramel, toffee, maple, bourbon, vanilla, oak, with bitter coffee notes on the finish.
Mouthfeel: Full bodied with soft carbonation.
Overall: It doesn’t seem like coffee was added, but the appearance of it in the aroma and flavours was great as it balanced the sweetness quite a bit. At times it felt overly sweet from the maple, but the complexity was there and it was still a good sipper.

4 - Good (buy), American Strong Ale, Beer Reviews, Stone Brewing Co. (Arrogant Consortia), USA

Stone Arrogant Double Bastard Ale

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Brewery: Stone Brewing Co. (Arrogant Consortia)
Country: USA
ABV: 11%
Style: American Strong Ale
Other Notes: IBU – classified. Hops – classified

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Warning: Double Bastard Ale is not to be wasted on the tentative or weak. Only the Worthy are invited, and then only at your own risk. If you have even a modicum of hesitation, DO NOT buy this bottle. Instead, leave it for a Worthy soul who has already matriculated to the sublime ecstasy of what those in the know refer to as “Liquid Arrogance.”

This is one lacerative muther of a beer. It is unequivocally certain that your feeble palate is grossly inadequate and thus undeserving of this liquid glory…and those around you would have little desire to listen to your resultant whimpering. Instead, you slackjawed and gaping gobemouche, slink away to that pedestrian product that lures agog the great unwashed with the shiny happy imagery of its silly broadcast propaganda. You know, the one that offers no challenge, yet works very, very hard to imbue the foolhardy with the absurd notion that they are exercising “independent” thought, or attempts to convey the perception it is in some way “authentic” or “original.” It’s that one that makes you feel safe and delectates you into basking in the warm, fuzzy and befuddled glow of your own nescience. Why so many allow themselves to be led by the nose lacks plausible explanation. Perhaps you have been so lulled by the siren song of ignorance that you don’t even notice your white-knuckle grip on it. You feel bold and unique, but alas are nothing but sheep, willingly being herded to and fro. If you think you are being piqued in this text, it is nothing when compared to the insults we are all asked to swallow streaming forth from our televisions and computers. Truth be told, you are being coddled into believing you are special or unique by ethically challenged “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” marketers who layer (upon layer) imagined attributes specifically engineered to lead you by the nose. Should you decide to abdicate your ability to make decisions for yourself, then you are perhaps deserving of the pabulum they serve. Double Bastard Ale calls out the garrulous caitiffs who perpetrate the aforementioned atrocities and demands retribution for their outrageously conniving, intentionally misleading, blatantly masturbatory and fallacious ad campaigns. We demand the unmitigated, transparent truth. We demand forthright honesty. We want justice! Call ‘em out and line ‘em up against the wall…NOW.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.07
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.9

Intro: A 22 fl. oz. bomber, bottled on 15th October 2015. Poured into a snifter glass.
Appearance: A cloudy murky rusty orange brown colour with a thin orangey beige head that disappeared quickly while leaving some nice spotty lacing.
Aroma: Sweet malt, citrusy orange peel, citrus pith, caramel, orange hard candy, bourbon and dark dried fruit like raisins.
Taste: Sweet malt, caramel, toffee, light bitterness, grapefruit peel, citrus pith, dried dark fruit, bourbon, piney hops and some light spice.
Mouthfeel: Full bodied with soft carbonation and a touch boozy.
Overall: A good balance between sweet, bitter and spice. While not overly boozy, it is a sipper, and a nice one at that.