Dragon's Milk delivers strong flavor
Mike Partel
Issue date: 10/9/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment
Today, we are traveling a great distance to the wonderful and exotic land of Holland … Michigan. Yes, grand old Holland, Mich. Er… Yes, well the brewers at New Holland Brewing Company have crafted this week's beer. The name, you may ask? Well, Jason Spaulding and Brett VanderKamp have decided to call it Dragon's Milk, a term for well-aged beer reserved for royalty.
New Holland Brewing Company was founded by the previously mentioned Jason and Brett. Home-brewing since college, the two met up soon after graduating from Hope College. They were quickly able to form a solid business plan and after two years, they had the investors ready to open shop. Even with the goal of producing a unique beer for their native state, the pair ended up producing a quality beverage known across much of the east coast, and wound up winning several awards along the way.
Simply put, Dragon's Milk is considered to be an Old Ale. In less than simple terms, it is an English Strong Ale and an Imperial Stout at the same time. To be called an Old Ale, a beer must be aged. It used to be a very common practice to let a certain portion of beer sit for many months and age in the casks before serving, producing a very refined character. The longer the beer sat, the more a pub would charge for it. They would sometimes even blend young (newer) beer with the old (aged) beer to get the exact profile they wanted. This particular beer has been aged in oak, giving it a distinct vanilla flavor. The descriptor of English Strong means that it is brewed in an English style or that it maintains a distinctly English profile-spicy and floral hops with an emphasis on malt. It also must be high strength and anything over about 6 percent tends to be considered on the strong end of the beer spectrum. Finally, the beer itself appears to be what I would refer to as an Imperial Stout-black as night, high in alcohol, roasty, coffee and chocolate overtones, and a balanced bitterness. All three styles generally have a minimalist approach to carbonation as cask ales obviously do not maintain the pressure normally found in other beer styles.
New Holland Brewing Company was founded by the previously mentioned Jason and Brett. Home-brewing since college, the two met up soon after graduating from Hope College. They were quickly able to form a solid business plan and after two years, they had the investors ready to open shop. Even with the goal of producing a unique beer for their native state, the pair ended up producing a quality beverage known across much of the east coast, and wound up winning several awards along the way.
Simply put, Dragon's Milk is considered to be an Old Ale. In less than simple terms, it is an English Strong Ale and an Imperial Stout at the same time. To be called an Old Ale, a beer must be aged. It used to be a very common practice to let a certain portion of beer sit for many months and age in the casks before serving, producing a very refined character. The longer the beer sat, the more a pub would charge for it. They would sometimes even blend young (newer) beer with the old (aged) beer to get the exact profile they wanted. This particular beer has been aged in oak, giving it a distinct vanilla flavor. The descriptor of English Strong means that it is brewed in an English style or that it maintains a distinctly English profile-spicy and floral hops with an emphasis on malt. It also must be high strength and anything over about 6 percent tends to be considered on the strong end of the beer spectrum. Finally, the beer itself appears to be what I would refer to as an Imperial Stout-black as night, high in alcohol, roasty, coffee and chocolate overtones, and a balanced bitterness. All three styles generally have a minimalist approach to carbonation as cask ales obviously do not maintain the pressure normally found in other beer styles.
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