325. New Belgium Mighty Arrow Pale Ale

This beer gets bonus points from Elli both because it is named after a dog (see below) and it features a dog on the label. One of Elli’s most cherished beliefs is that any album with a dog on the back cover is always good. In making this claim, she is willing and able to cite albums and cover art, rating albums in relation to the dogs adorning the back covers. But I digress; this is our gazzillionth beer from New Belgium; our list includes Ranger, Le Fleur, Misseur?, Transatlantique Kriek, Biere de Mars, Fat Tire, 1554 Enlightened Black Ale and La Folie. In the word of my man MF Doom, New Belgium is in effect like alternate side of the street parking rules.

Mighty Arrow pours a crystal clear golden copper with a creamy white head and a hoppy nose made up of predominantly floral, citrus, and spicy hop aromas. Starting bready with some malt sweetness, Mighty Arrow moves into low levels of hop bitterness in middle along with citrus hop flavor and more sweetness (without the earlier breadiness this time), finishing with a stronger lingering bitterness than in the middle and some spicy hop flavors. Mighty Aroma has a medium body with carbonation that starts soft but then finishes bright and crisp on the palate; it picks up in the second third of the beer, and continues on into the finish. A very well-balanced and clean pale ale, one that would be a nice introduction to beginning pale ale drinkers, but also offers significant rewards for those with a more developed and nuanced palate.

From the bottle: “Mighty Arrow Pale Ale provides lots of pleasurable sniffs from Cascade, Amarillo, and Golding hops with fetching honey malt base. This is our brewed tribute to Arrow, Kim’s Aussie/border collie mix who ran (literally) New Belgium for 12 years. When she wasn’t patrolling the brewery grounds, she was famous for her office visits. She never met a tummy rub she didn’t like. Atta girl Arrow.”

Seasonal availability: February, March, and April. So this one is only slightly late...

ABV: 6.0%

IBU: 35

And in keeping with our tradition of having contests that no even bothers to acknowledge, we’re offering a “Super-Secret”™ prize package to the first person who can correctly identify both albums pictured here. So give it shot, or a go, or something like that.

(5/21/2010)