New Belgium Mighty Arrow

Brewed by New Belgium Brewing Company
Style: American Pale Ale
Fort Collins, Colorado USA

Bottle. Probably the hoppiest and one of the best New Belgium offerings, I was pleasantly surprised. Pours with a copper color and a medium head. Nice aromas of hops, grapefruit and resins. Flavors of citrus, pine balanced with some nice caramel notes. Very nice.

Draught. Poured a medium golden color with a decent size fluffy white head. nice hoppy aroma. Flavor wasn’t as strong as the aroma led on too. Seemed a bit watery. not bad, but not at the top of my list.

Bottle. Poured a clear light orange color. The head was creamy and off white with good retention and lacing. Attractive aroma dominated by flower blossom accented by hints of pine, citrus, and clove. Light bodied and delicately sweet. I tasted sweaty hops subdued pear. There were also hints of toasted bread and coffee cake. Pretty decent.

Now this is a pale ale I can see being stocked in my ’fridge a LOT. A really nice beer at a really nice price. Sierra who? Aroma has the classic catty Amarillo character I really love. Pine resin, caramel malts, and toasted grains. MMMMmmmm. Flavor is moderately bitter, citrus zest, earthy hops, slightly spicy with a nice malty backbone. Quite refreshing to have a quality pale ale like this. Sometimes I forget about how great a pale ale can be.

sometimes i gripe that an APA is ’too balanced’, but i think what bothers me about those beers is not so much that there is too much of a malt profile, its that the malt profile is offensive in its character. this is NOT one of those beers. aroma greets you with floral hops. flavor is striking sizzle of pleasant bitterness but then followed by very un-offensive malt character: pure bready biscuits, no sticky, thick gum as is found in shoddy amber ales and too often in pales. this is exactly what the style is all about, and with this ideal ABV this is perfectly sessionable without being too weak. well done!

bottle at the rose. beautiful cloud white head on a golden body. med. mouthfeel, clean a dry bitter but yet balanced ale. Not bad

Pours clear amber, with a thin white head, good lacing. Fragrant floral hop aroma, grapefruit and pine, with some caramel in the distance. Medium-light body, slightly dry. Some caramel and cereal grain flavors, but mostly more delicate floral hop flavors, citrus, grass, and some earthy notes too. With all of the nice hop characteristics, you would expect it to be bitter, but there’s only a tiny bit in the aftertaste. Well balanced and drinkable.

Best By July 2009; Sampled March 2009
A solid pour yields a three finger thick, lightly tanned head that has some staying power as well as leaving some nice lacing patterns on the sides of my glass. The beer is a clear, light copper hue that shows a brilliantly clear, deep gold, copper hued color when held up to the light. The aroma smells of citrus hops, a backdrop of caramelized grain and some toasty pale malt aromatics. The hops make me think of bright fruit notes of apricot, ripe tangelo, lychee and other tropical fruit notes as well as candied citrus peel. The aroma is quite vibrant and alive, and is really quite nice.

My tongue is greeted by a biting hop bitterness that continues on into a long finish, though the bitterness is pretty well balanced for a Pale Ale. As the beer flows across my tongue bright fruit notes of lychee, tangelo zest and peach also tend to linger on the tongue, but they are cut by an herbal, almost menthol like hop flavor as well. The malt plays a secondary role here, but provides a hop boosting like sweetness, a nice texture and body to carry the hops, as well as some cracker like grain to help dry out the finish. This is light and refreshing, yet with enough body to carry the hops.

The first time I had this I remember the aroma being really nice but the flavor not really delivering, this was caused by me serving the beer too cold (which really killed the fruity hop flavors). This time I served it at a more appropriate temperature and I have been rewarded with a really tasty brew. This is my kind of pale ale (though I would likely enjoy this more if it was boosted all around into IPA territory) and is in fact a great representation of the style.