New Holland Dragons Milk

Brewed by New Holland Brewing Company
Style: Stout
Holland, Michigan USA

First bottle, a labeled 12ozer.:
A jaunty, creamy body offers as bounty a milky broth of raisins, dates and figs...Witty bitterness withholds the shy barrel and is aided by the competent carbonation...A delicate delegate of the barrel-aging symposium...3.6/5

Second bottle, the new silk-screened 22ozer:
The ridiculously frothy carbonation bothers the palate...The important fruitiness and light tartness of black grapes is lost within the effervescent tsunami, grasping at cocoa balls to survive...This batch is another world, one of memorable disappointment...2.4/5

Pours black with a tan dissipating head. Smells of sweet malt, coffee, caramel, some cherries and chocolate. Tastes of dark chocolate with lots of underlying bitterness and spices. Mouthfeel is buttery with a nice sweet lasting finish.

Bottle, 22oz. An almost clear, ruby brown beer with a minimal-sized beige head. A bit weak on the aroma maybe, with coffee, caramel, roasted malts, dried fruits and hints of alcohol. Slighlty oxidized flavor, roasted malts, coffee, caramel, dried fruits, chocolate and some alcohol. Oxidation in a good way. Warming and full-bodied. Roasted, chocolate flavored finish. A really nice one, bearing the oxidation well. 090619

I like what New Holland is doing over all, but I must admit that this brew was somewhat of a disappointment. The aroma is a very strong, very sweet mix of caramel and toffee, smelling much like a box of Cracker Jacks. It tasted better, still sweet, but mellowed out by the aging in a bourbon barrel. It finished on a sweet, alcoholic not. Disappointing, but not too bad. Or it could be my rating on this suffers because it was the last beer of a long night of testings with The League of Strange Beer Drinkers.

<font size=-4><a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/ViewUser.asp?UserID=1 RAYBOY01’s Fridge<font size=-1>

Deep dark brown color with a thick dense mocha colored head. Sweet fruity aroma. Hints of blueberries and bubblegum, weird, but i kind of like it. Bubblegum is there in the flavor as well. I don't mind it in Oberdorfer, but it really seem out of place here. Weak juicy fruit flavors with some hints of caramel malts. A whiskey linger and burn in the finish. This one seems to have the wrong yeast, or ferment temperature, or hops, maybe the malt, I give up. Just odd.

Dark brown/auburn color, off-white head, light lacing. Nose of rice vinegar, chocolate roast, cold used coffee grounds, lactose, some soy sauce. The flavor is tart with the oak tannins, some tobacco and fruit gluten flavors. Finishes tangy, salty, sweet, roasted. Very unique in an old peculiar way. Thanks Ken!

Got lucky and found a bottle in Indiana. Dark red amber with medium head. Aroma and flavor very complex with a malty sweet cherry, vanilla and grapefruit with a strong acidic finish. First of style and I will try more.

Pours deep obsidian (some ruby through light) with aroma of big barrel aged malt, oak, vanilla, bourbon, and chocolate. Nice manly aroma, like my ass after working in the yard all day (well, much better than that). Tastes very malty, with a firm barrel/oak aged element, plus vanilla, chocolate, dark fruit. Smooth finish, with some tartness. Not as full-bodied as other beers of this genre I’ve had, but complex and balanced. Did this one preceed Heresy? I think it may have.