Crime and Punishment — Why Read the Book When You Can Drink the Beers?

For those of you who weren’t assigned Crime and Punishment for their high school summer reading, here’s quick recap: a rather irksome pawnbroker is murdered by Rodion Raskolnikov, a man who spends the next 500 pages mentally torturing himself over his crime. Thus, inflicting self-punishment. (Dostoyevsky, we see what you did there.)

What Stone Brewing Co.’s latest brew has to do with a book about morality and salvation, we’re a bit fuzzy on but definitely not mad at. Crime is Lucky Bastard — a blend of Arrogant Bastard Ale, Double Bastard Ale, and Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale — brewed with chile peppers in bourbon barrels. Apparently, this blasphemous move of combining Lucky Bastard Ale with buckets of peppers was enough reason for Stone to proclaim this a “criminal act.” Aha!

In a similar fashion, (self) Punishment swaps Lucky Bastard for Double Bastard Ale, ringing it in at 12 percent ABV. Keep in mind, this hellish duo infuses jalapeño, Fatali, Caribbean Red Hot, habanero, Black Naga, Super, Moruga Scorpion, 7 Pot, Aji Amarillo, Scorpion, Giant White Habanero,  Douglah peppers, and yes, Ghost peppers.

We’re going to safely assume that both beers taste like liquid fire.