April 20 is a popular day for fans of a certain type of greenery, but there will be another reason to look forward to this date for cross-drinking beer fans who dabble in the spirit world. Iowa-based Foundry Distilling Co. has selected “Four-Twenty” to debut a new oak-aged product crafted in collaboration with Escondido’s Arrogant Consortia*—Arrogant Bastard Whiskey.
That spirit will mostly be distributed within Southern California, with very limited availability in Iowa and Europe. Adorned with black-and-charcoal labels featuring red foil lettering, Arrogant Consortia’s iconic gargoyle mascot and the tagline, “you’re not worthy”, it’s on-brand enough to look as though it came off a North San Diego County assembly line, but it was born in Des Moines and distilled using Arrogant Bastard Ale.
When asked how Arrogant Consortia came to partner with Foundry on this venture, the former’s co-founder Greg Koch takes on the identity of the bombastic base beverage itself.
“They came to us with their bravely bold behest. They have created a Brewer-Distiller Alliance in which they make whiskey by distilling the essence of some of their favorite beers, and they had the temerity to insist that Arrogant Bastard Ale participate,” says Koch. “The Arrogant Consortia isn’t a big participator, and when others are clamoring to get their participation trophies, we’re off on our own, expanding our consciousness with Joyce, Quinn or Silverstein. However, this entreaty to distill our liquid arrogance was above the fray, and it was agreed.”
“The whiskey industry has gotten distracted with Prohibition Era stories and imagined attributes of barrel finishes. While we love a good story, our principle focus is on what’s in the bottle and making it great,” says Foundry owner Scott Bush. “We are working with some of the best breweries in the industry to create a collection of the most unique and interesting whiskies in the world. Arrogant Bastard Ale was at the top of our list because that is where He belongs.”
Koch says the boutique hard-alcohol resulting from this union will “appear as an ethereal apparition that will escape the grasp of all but the most attentive.” For those attempting to grasp the beverage in terms of the physical world, Foundry Distilling ages its beery base in 30-gallon oak barrels for a total of 26 months. The result is a 97-proof (48.5% alcohol-by-volume), amber-hued whiskey aimed to convey Arrogant Bastard Ale’s trademark aggressive flavors in a smoothed-out spirit format.
“We search for such an emotion and find that it fails to envelop the righteous inevitability that can be found in a glass of the whiskey. The entropy of the universe is simply unfolding as per design, and the emotion surrounding that which was, is and will be, could be considered as a gratification of the inevitable,” says Koch. “The Arrogant Consortia has always known that the Arrogant Bastard Ale would play many roles in its lifetime. It’s still as bold and unexpecting as ever, and now it’s showing its sophisticated side, too.”
* Arrogant Consortia was established in 2015 by parent company Stone Brewing as a collection of its Arrogant Bastard Brewing Co. family of beers.