Review: Dragon’s Milk Origin Small Batch Bourbon
New Holland and its flagship Dragon’s Milk bourbon barrel-aged stout is, and was, a beer that always felt a step or two behind its pseudo-mass market, craft contemporaries in Founders’ KBS and Goose Island’s Bourbon County. Despite a mid-2010s distribution deal with Pabst, KBS and Bourbon County won the races in accessibility, visibility, accolades, and to be honest, quality. And due to their broad distro and increased production, I can currently walk down to my local beer shop, half-a-block away, and snag a 4-pack or bottle of each world class limited release for MSRP.
Though what’s lost in all of that chatter of mindshare is the importance of independence. While Founders and Goose Island have sold to Mahou San Miguel and Anheuser-Busch, respectively, New Holland remains independent, now the largest craft brewery in Michigan. Goose Island’s sale and influence may have allowed brewmaster Brett Porter access to Sazerac (and Founders’ increased scrutiny of a potentially toxic company culture; whoops!), but New Holland’s independence has enabled the brewery, still led by co-founder Brett VanderKamp, to do exactly whatever in the hell it’s wanted.
That freedom has allowed them to keep their offerings tight, experimenting with a few Dragon’s Milk variations that rival the stouts those aforementioned brands are releasing, and, most importantly, installing a beautiful Prohibition-era pot still all the way back in 2005. Long before the bourbon boom, long-er before most every other brewery or beer-centric corporation started doing single barrel picks, sourcing, or onlining their own stills, New Holland was experimenting in spirits with an eye toward whiskey.
We’ve covered some of New Holland’s early spirits offerings here, all of them ranging from decent to good, however their newer Dragon’s Milk Origin series feels like a relaunch of sorts. It has a marketing campaign behind it, a striking, scaled and frosted gradient bottle that looks like something the Khaleesi would carry out of a rather large fire, and a 5 year old age statement. Oh, and the designation “small batch,” which in New Holland’s defense they do define as batches of a maximum of 100 barrels.
So, advertising dollars and dubious classification aside, what separates Origin from the rest of the lineup? Flavor. Unlike their previous releases, the Origin series forgoes the beer barrel aging hook. It allows that pot still and their high-malt mashbill to do the talking, resulting in a unique, grain-forward pour, a pour with a nose of apricot-flavored Ovaltine and St. Bernardus Christmas Ale.
The front palate is (literally) all malted barley and (figuratively) some malted chocolate, sweet but not cloying, lightly raisiny, lightly milky baking chocolate. The midpalate is where it shines, as the apricot notes from the nose bloom into fresh, fuzzy peaches with a hint of cherry. It’s incredibly fruity while still grounding itself in that malted barley – rye spice-dusted stone fruit perching atop a dense cocoa base. If there’s anything to complain about, it’s that it’s a little thin in the mouth for a pour that evokes such sweet treats.
It sits in a liminal space between what more grain-focused craft distillers are doing and, say, the current Kentucky malt du jour. But those points of comparison are only useful in helping to wrap one’s head around this whiskey. There are no analogues, no competitors, no Bourbon County “Small Batch.” While probably not for everyone, it’s something everyone should at least try. Origin is absolutely singular — and if Michigan’s first distillery since Prohibition keeps aging, keeps iterating, it’s sure to produce something mythical.
95 proof.
A- / $55 / dragonsmilk.com
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