Mighty Arrow

Seasonal beers can really showcase a breweries talents. In order to capture the essence of a single season and put it into a beer, a brewery must have high attention to detail. A good seasonal needs to enhance the various nuances of a specific time of year and highlight some of the accociated activities. Winter needs something robust and spicy to warm you up and cut through the rich holiday food. Summer needs a crisp, quenching brew that douses the heat and is light enough to keep you reasonably sober through 9 innings. Fall needs an earthen malty beer or a quirky fruit/vegetable beer that honors the harvest and embraces the slowly dropping temperatures. Spring needs a lively, flavorful beer that begs you to get outside, dust off that grill, and toss the Frisbee around. One of the best breweries to offer seasonals is New Belgium. Their best offering is their spring seasonal, Mighty Arrow. It has me looking forward to March each and every year.

This beer is the tribute to Arrow. New Belgium's founder's Border Collie mix that ran around the brewery  brightening everyones day. The last line on the bottle says "She never met a tummy rub she didn't like. Atta girl Arrow." With that, I didn't even need to open the bottle to know I was going to like it. It's an American Pale Ale that just like Arrow, will have you smiling all spring long.

A beautiful thick fluffy head bubbles to brim of your glass with even a modest pour. Nice bright hop aroma with a light malt in the background. Not IPA hop. Just a mellow hop forward pale ale. The flavor follows the nose. Amazing green herbal citrus hop with nice grainy malt balancing it out. This is like the inverse of Fat Tire. The Toasty malt takes a back seat to the hops. Outstandingly crisp and clean for an ale with 6%ABV. While the hops may be the flavor focus, it has a surprising amount of malt for such a light bodied beer. The finish is dry with nice hop bitter right at the end. If this beer doesn't inspire you to fire up that grill for some burgers and break out your ball cap, nothing will.

I giver her 42 wet noses out of 40. This is your picnic beer. Burgers, sandwiches, or even a good grilled flank of bold fish like salmon would be awesome. This is best served outside with your best friends. A relaxing spring evening outside patting your pups on the noggin is what this beer is all about. Atta girl indeed.

cheers
(woof)