Ragno Araña
Spider Bite Beer Company

This beer was served from the tap at The Blind Tiger in New York, NY. It arrived in generic tulip glass glowing a rich golden tawny color. It produced a brief one finger head, leaving a light ring of white bubbles around the glass. There was a thick haze to the beer, but no sediment. Carbonation appeared average. The nose exploded with insane fruit character. Alongside this was wild floral hops, candy corn, bubblegum sugars, soapy hops, and light booze. The fruit was a menagerie of mango, pineapple, and browned bananas. Our first impression was that the flavoring was even and spicy throughout. Grains started things off, with light caramel, sugary sweetness, and big sour lactics. Citric hops quickly came in, adding more to both the sweetness and the sourness. The middle peaked with a bite of piney citric hops, coiny malts, and yeast. The finish was with more lemon bite, more caramel malts, sweet nectary hops, and apricot sugars. The aftertaste breathed of light lactics, buttery malts, light caramel sugars, and big fresh grassy hop bitterness. The body was medium, and the carbonation was medium. The beer was warming and spicy with each sip, while the feel prickled the tongue, and left a light slick coating around the mouth. Each sip afforded great slurp, froth, cream, and pop. This showed initial dryness, but the mouth was eventually left satiated and watering. The abv was getting up there, but the beer drank easily.

Overall, what we enjoyed most about this brew was the crazy fruit in the nose, and the serious hop flavoring throughout. There was a nice variety to the hops as well. Additionally, there was good look and coloring, making for a great all around beer for the style. The flavoring became a little bitter at times, and a bit hollow by the end, but again, it is great for those who like big hoppy beers.