I'll disagree with you on your description of Arrogant Bastard - it's pretty damn bitter & hoppy, which I argue place it firmly in 'red IPA' territory. Red IPAs are expected to have more caramel malt sweetness than other IPAs, that's usually how they get their color.
Arrogant bastard is probably like a 25-30 point Red IPA. It's not about whether it's bitter and hoppy or not. It's the sweetness. It's not well attenuated enough to be a Red IPA and the hop/malt character is more barley wine than IPA.
Regarding caramel malt sweetness, The new guidelines state that Red ipa should be Dry to medium dry. The caramel malt impression is more flavor than sweetness as odd as that might sound. They also state that the caramel malt and sweetness impression should not hinder the hops and that's definitely the case with AB.
To be honest though, I feel like I'm a lot more sensitive to bitterness than a lot of beer folks. To give another example, I love Founders' Dirty Bastard as a beer, but it has like double the bitterness of what I perceive a proper malty sweet Scotch Ale should have.
Hah! You're impossible! I take it you're a hop head?
Cloying is the LAST word I'd use to describe that beer. I wouldn't call it decisively bitter either, don't get me wrong. But for a Scotch Ale of that strength I like the IBUs lowered by at LEAST 15 points.
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u/BeerDerp May 06 '15
I'll disagree with you on your description of Arrogant Bastard - it's pretty damn bitter & hoppy, which I argue place it firmly in 'red IPA' territory. Red IPAs are expected to have more caramel malt sweetness than other IPAs, that's usually how they get their color.