Bow & Arrow is a pretty new brewery, located on 6th and McKnight just south of I-40. From the outside, the building looks very large and established, a very impressive sight. Not so impressive is the parking and the patio area. Once inside, the massive German-style beer hall is very clean and simply designed with long community tables and bench seating. The brewery appears to be very large as well with many silver tanks visible through large windows. There is unfortunately no seating at the bar, but plenty of seats to be found at the large tables. Anytime we visit a new brewery, we order the flight; the flight is a 4oz taste test of each of the beers on tap usually served on some sort of platter (pictured below). The beers on tap at Bow & Arrow included:
Tumbling Waters American Wheat
Sun Dagger Belgian Saison
Flint & Grit English Mild Hybrid
Crossed Arrows Scotch Ale
Hoka Hey India Pale Ale (IPA)
(Seasonal) Storm & Hearth Stout
Typically flights are served and tested in lightest color to darkest color beers. This is because the flavors in the lighter beers are usually more mild, while the darker beers tend to have more of a bold flavor. So let's get started:
The American Wheat was not much to blog home about, the flavor was lacking and tasted a little on the watery side. Wheats are usually the go-to beer if you're just starting out in the craft brews, but at this particular brewery you might be better suited with the Belgian Saison.
The Belgian Saison seemed to be popular with the other patrons at our table and was a very drinkable, wheat beer. The saison or farmhouse style of beer usually has a sour flavor while the Belgian style beers usually taste pretty sweet. The combination of those flavors in this beer compliment each other nicely and tone down the boldness of each for a very drinkable beer.
The English Mild Hybrid is a very malty flavored beer and true to style, meaning it has a sweet almost bread-like taste. The caramel color indicates a bolder flavor from the malts, but not bitter like the hoppy IPAs. This beer is a very good step up in the pallet level if you're comfortable moving up from wheat beers but aren't quite ready for those dark stouts and porters.
The Scotch Ale was not really anything special, it was a good beer and a good scotch ale, but just not very exciting in its flavor. Noticeably higher in alcohol content, the flavor of the beer was slightly smokey but overall tame.
The India Pale Ale, more commonly known as IPA, was downright delicious. As an American-style brewery, Bow & Arrow has nailed the styles of their other beers thus far, however, this IPA just isn't hoppy enough to be considered an American-style IPA...and we're totally okay with that! The flavor was a very mild hop flavor with a bold citrus taste, by far one of the most drinkable IPAs in the city. For you hop-heads out there, this probably isn't the IPA you're looking for, but for the rest of us who like to have taste buds at the end of the night, this is perfect.
The Seasonal Stout was also very good, the vanilla flavor was noticeable but not overbearing and overall a very well brewed stout. Stouts are typically very dark in color and usually taste like coffee, chocolate, or have an almost steak-like flavor to them. This particular stout was slightly coffee with a good vanilla sweetness.
Megan's overall opinion: I like this venue, the space and design are very classy and the beer was very good. My favorite beer on tap was the IPA because it had a very unique citrus flavor and was not overbearingly hoppy. It would have been nice to have some sort of band playing on a Friday night, but it seemed plenty busy and the food truck was delicious. I would definitely go back and can't wait to test out some more seasonals as they debut them!
Randy's overall opinion: One of the better of the new breweries around. Digging the place and the beers. Parking and patio need some help though. I'm not an IPA guy but this is one place I would order that over and over. I'm a sucka for vanilla beers so props for that one.
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