Here I am on the penultimate day of the year. Tomorrow night I’ll likely be watching movies with the kids at home. Raise a glass to me wherever you are, if you like. But tonight I’m pulling another beer from my cellar, realizing that I’m saving way too many of them for “a special occasion.” Well, a special occasion is whenever I pop the cap.
New Holland Brewing of Holland, Michigan has been revisiting its Dragon’s Milk, originally launched in 2001. It now has several variants hitting taps around the area this season, and its own web site boasts that it’s the country’s #1 selling BBA Imperial Stout. So it seems a good time to pop my bomber bottle from 2005.
The bottle I have lists 9% abv, and Ratebeer originally listed it as an English Strong Ale. It seems to have been reformulated to an 11% Imperial Stout some years ago stout. What style is this bottle? I won’t know until I pour it.
And the nose I get is definitely a strong English ale, maybe even a barley wine. So this had definitely been re-branded. My pour kicked up a big tan head. And that head stays pretty stiff, even if I let it peek over the rim of the glass. The smell has notes of cherry and plum, and is completely lacking the oxidation that comes with some old beers. I got lucky here, or else my cellar is better than I thought.
The fruity ale character remains to the front, until a thread of bourbon manages to slip in at the middle. A bit of rough oak wood is present as well. There’s also a note of tartness, which is more likely from the malt and aging, unless there was some lactobacillus in the barrels they used. It’s clearly alcoholic, but the tartness overcomes the alcohol heat. It’s a bright, big beer with a dry finish. It leads me to suggest that if you have a cellared English ale or barleywine laying around, it might offer an champagne like brut character for New Year’s Eve.
One of my favorites!