New Holland Blue Sunday

Formerly brewed at New Holland Brewing Company
Style: Sour Ale
Holland, Michigan USA

Bottle at BCTC 2009: Muddy orange brown with a light tan dense head. Lots of buttery oak, toasted woody notes, some vanilla (subtle bourbon?), marshmallow and tart-ish currant. Lots of buttery oak in the flavor. Some underlying currant with lots of buttery oak giving some vanilla subtlety. A bit much oak, even for my taste, without enough acidity, but still a nice oak aged ale.

BCTC. Pours a ruby brown with a touch of haze and a thin white head. Oak, vanilla, and toast on the nose. Spicy and zesty with a touch of sweetness. Finishes oaky and very dry.

750 ml bottle from the brewery (Holland, MI). Pours a well carbonated pour, big beige head that stays fairly big, dissipating quickly to a decent layer, hazy dark amber body ridden heavily with carbonation. Aromas throw some decent sourness, tart cherries, dust, pretty funk, a touch of vanilla and oak, faint anise on the backend along with a touch of brown sugar. Initial is not as blantantly sour as anticipated, but tart and good enough, throwing some good acidity and lacto up front, vanilla, oak, wet wood, with good tannin driven bitterness, carbonation good, sweetness comes in a bit with of anise and caramel, no real fruit influence, maybe some light sour cherry and regular raisin and cinnamon in minute amounts. Sourness grows a bit further in, oak comes through good, tannins from the barrel are very nice. This beer is solid, complex. However, it is a bit muttled in itself, offering many flavors but none of them done exceptionally well. A pretty good interesting beer, to say the least.

July 2008: New Holland Blue Sunday Sour Ale isn’t that sour, but is interesting nonetheless. It is dark brown in color with a big,puffy beige-colored head that leaves prolific lacing marks on the glass. The aroma is a combintion of bleu cheese, sugary licorice, char, and some undertiminable cherry/berry/currant. My first reaction to the flavor is WHAT THE?! Once over the initial shock, the flavor has a harsh berry in the front like lingon berry and then some chocolate/char notes. It is cherry-ish with black currant in the middle and in the aftertaste. This beer has a medium-light body and is very carbonated. It is also quite alcoholic and the tartness grows more and more. It is starting to grow on me...

1 pint, 9.3 fluid ounce corked and caged bottle shared by Tmoney99. Thanks Tom! Rating #42 for this beer.

I had to take a double take upon looking at the overall.. What’s wrong with you people! This beer is phenomenal. It opens with a bouquet reminiscent of a fine chardonnay, the flavor follows suit with lots of grape and subtle raisin and licorice notes. I picked up this 750, and was informed that what was on display was all they had left. Amazing brew from a proven brewery. I’m definitely a customer for life.

2007 750mL Bottle. Aroma shadows a bit of bourbon, some boozy brandy-soaked fruitcake and a bit of vanilla and vinegar. Pours a rather clear ruddy, with a tall, tall foamy head in pillowy, gushing khaki. Flavor is a bit brash and confused. A lot going on, but not much making sense. Oak, vanilla, malt sugars, plain lactic acid, generic beer alcohols, a nip of yeast, some old weird barleywine characters, and a finishing splash of old dusty hops. There’s some weird deep caramels that fight with the acidity a bit. It’s also strangely numbing my tongue. I’m truly not sure what to think of this beer. It’s actually rather clean and plainly acidic, but the dusty old cheese hops and the generally unorganized cacophony of this beer leave me a little flat. Thanks for another great rare Michigan beer, Sean!

2009 bottle shared by Jacob on a brewery tour. Nice iced tea colored pour with a loose off-white head. There’s lots of sour berries backed by sweet but not cloying caramel. Medium body with lots of carbonation. I really liked the added sweetness to balance the sour notes in this beer.

Bottle Pours out a amber topped with a bubble sand head. Aroma was of sweet blueberries and raspberries aswell. A nice little cherry and some oak. Tast was of fruit tons of berries on this one. A nice fruit roll up tast even. Thanks Toby for this one.