New Holland Oak Aged Mad Hatter IPA

Brewed by New Holland Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Holland, Michigan USA

Pours a clear copper with white head and nice lacing. Aroma is oak, citrus, and vanilla. Taste is citrus and pine on the front, followed by a oak and vanilla on the finish. The oak was a little overwhelming at times. Its a pretty complex and interesting beer, but just not my style. Overall not bad though.

Draft at Sheffield’s. This was destroyed. They took a decent enough IPA, put it in a bourbon barrel tehn filtered it. Came out clear gold witha fluffy white head that dissipates. Nose is instantly honey laced with vanilla. Sweet. No hops are detectable. On taste, it is thin and soulless, filtered and overly oaky. This is not good.

On tap at the Hop Cat. Orangish pour with an off white head. Very oakey aroma. I went to the bar with my girlfriend and her sister, and they all wanted to smell the big oakiness of this brew. It tastes pretty good. It’s got an oaky flavor with some dry hops. I dig it. This is what you want in an Oak aged IPA. This is like walking around and finding a couple quarters on the street. You don’t wonder how two quarters got there, you pick them up and move on.

On tap at the Flying Saucer in KC. Pours a clear, orange-amber body with a finger-width, creamy beige, frothy head that dissipates slowly and leaves a nice, sticky lacing. Aroma is big on the oak as well as lots of fresh, earthy citrus hops. A light vanilla bourbon from the oak as well as a light caramel sweetness. Flavor is similar. Lots of oak and wood, but lots of earthy hops with a medium to heavy bitterness and just a touch of tartness. Big citrus flavors with more of that vanilla bourbon, a medium sweet caramel balancing this out, and just a light resin in a dry, woody finish. Medium bodied with a nice, slick, barrel-aged feel to it. Long aftertaste of oaky, earthy citrus. Overall, a really nice beer. Lots of oak and wood flavors, but lots of hops as well. They blend well together and made this quite enjoyable. Good one.

Pours orange amber with slight haze small head. Aroma is hops, lots of wood/oak, and bourbon. Flavor is heavy oak and bourbon surrounded by bitter hops. Very interesting beer, would have been much better if they had use the imperial mad hatter instead.

draft. aged in woodford reserve barrels. It’s ok. Sorta cloudy amberish w/ white head. Nose is all boozy bourbon, to me. Taste is up front bourbon w/ some decent hops in there. Might have been better w/ a diff. beer, if even the Imp. Hatter. Enjoyable, more hops/booze.

Lightly hazed, amber color with a smaller light beige head. Grapefruit aromas are gradually overtaken by some vanilla and oak, but the process is neither abrupt nor subtle, it just seems to happen over the course of drinking. At first I thought I was drinking an average to above average IPA, I then start to notice the vanilla and bourbon. A nice transition. Nothing ever seems to be out of place. I am gradually lulled into the bourbon, I am not hit over the head with it.