New Holland and its flagship Dragon’s Milk bourbon barrel-aged stout is, and was, a beer that all the time felt a step or two behind its pseudo-mass market, craft contemporaries in Founders’ KBS and Goose Island’s Bourbon County. Regardless of a mid-2010s distribution take care of Pabst, KBS and Bourbon County gained the races in accessibility, visibility, accolades, and to be trustworthy, high quality. And because of their broad distro and elevated manufacturing, I can at present stroll right down to my native beer store, half-a-block away, and snag a 4-pack or bottle of every world class restricted launch for MSRP.
Although what’s misplaced in all of that chatter of mindshare is the significance of independence. Whereas Founders and Goose Island have bought to Mahou San Miguel and Anheuser-Busch, respectively, New Holland stays unbiased, now the most important craft brewery in Michigan. Goose Island’s sale and affect might have allowed brewmaster Brett Porter entry to Sazerac (and Founders’ elevated scrutiny of a probably poisonous firm tradition; whoops!), however New Holland’s independence has enabled the brewery, nonetheless led by co-founder Brett VanderKamp, to do precisely no matter within the hell it’s needed.
That freedom has allowed them to maintain their choices tight, experimenting with a couple of Dragon’s Milk variations that rival the stouts these aforementioned manufacturers are releasing, and, most significantly, putting in a phenomenal Prohibition-era pot nonetheless all the best way again in 2005. Lengthy earlier than the bourbon growth, long-er earlier than most each different brewery or beer-centric company began doing single barrel picks, sourcing, or onlining their very own stills, New Holland was experimenting in spirits with an eye fixed towards whiskey.
We’ve coated a few of New Holland’s early spirits choices right here, all of them starting from respectable to good, nonetheless their newer Dragon’s Milk Origin collection looks like a relaunch of kinds. It has a advertising and marketing marketing campaign behind it, a putting, scaled and frosted gradient bottle that appears like one thing the Khaleesi would perform of a fairly massive hearth, and a 5 12 months outdated age assertion. Oh, and the designation “small batch,” which in New Holland’s protection they do outline as batches of a most of 100 barrels.
So, promoting {dollars} and doubtful classification apart, what separates Origin from the remainder of the lineup? Taste. Not like their earlier releases, the Origin collection forgoes the beer barrel ageing hook. It permits that pot nonetheless and their high-malt mashbill to do the speaking, leading to a singular, grain-forward pour, a pour with a nostril of apricot-flavored Ovaltine and St. Bernardus Christmas Ale.
The entrance palate is (actually) all malted barley and (figuratively) some malted chocolate, candy however not cloying, evenly raisiny, evenly milky baking chocolate. The midpalate is the place it shines, because the apricot notes from the nostril bloom into contemporary, fuzzy peaches with a touch of cherry. It’s extremely fruity whereas nonetheless grounding itself in that malted barley – rye spice-dusted stone fruit perching atop a dense cocoa base. If there’s something to complain about, it’s that it’s a little bit skinny within the mouth for a pour that evokes such candy treats.
It sits in a liminal area between what extra grain-focused craft distillers are doing and, say, the present Kentucky malt du jour. However these factors of comparability are solely helpful in serving to to wrap one’s head round this whiskey. There aren’t any analogues, no opponents, no Bourbon County “Small Batch.” Whereas most likely not for everybody, it’s one thing everybody ought to no less than strive. Origin is totally singular — and if Michigan’s first distillery since Prohibition retains ageing, retains iterating, it’s certain to supply one thing legendary.
95 proof.
A- / $55 / dragonsmilk.com
Dragon’s Milk Origin Bourbon
$55
