Brew Review: New Belgium Mighty Arrow Pale Ale

New Belgium's Mighty Arrow Pale Ale stood no chance against the crappiness of my Droid's camera.

It is becoming a somewhat common theme for me to either review Texas beers or ones that I find on my travels. This one, I found out at a great wine, liquor, and beer store called BevMo. Last time I was in California, Squirrel took me to this place, and I have to admit that I felt like a kid in a candy store.  Seriously, this place is like an adult Toys R Us and reminded me of Specs in Texas, only with beer that I hadn’t seen back at home.  If you have a chance to make it to one of these stores, do it.

Anyways, back to the beer. The New Belgium Mighty Arrow is a pale ale and was named Kim’s (co-founder) dog.  It is made with Cascade, Amarillo and Golding Hops.  I have recently been on a pale ale kick because I really enjoy the little bit of sweetness that comes with the crispness.

Must say it does look pretty good off the pour – a gold color with just a hint of orange and obvious carbonation. It has more bubbles than most beers but not as much as the heavily carbonated brews. The head comes in as nice white/cream but a bit closer to the white side and about 2 cm thick and has lasting power. I haven’t taken a sip out of the beer yet and the head is still like the beer was just poured.

With a whiff, I get a little bit of the sweetness that I expect from a pale ale and the hint of citrus that reminds me that the beer should finish crisp.

The taste is not as sweet as I had expected, but that is not a bad thing at all. The balance of this beer is pretty fantastic. The beer is has a bready, malty finish which is thicker and sweeter than I expected. Those final tastes also help to emphasize the overall body of the beer — a full body with a creamy feel.

It’s a good tasting beer; not my favorite pale ale or one that I will go out of my way to get, but it is a different beer to try when available.

It’s good.

— shintern1909

P.S. Unless I hear a lot of requests otherwise, I will try to get back to area brews next week. It doesn’t really help DC beer drinkers to hear about beers they can’t get.

June 29, 2011 | Categories: Reviews | Tags: Available soon in DC?, Good, might arrow, New Belgium, not shiner, Pale Ale, Shintern | Leave a comment