New Holland Pilgrims Dole

WTF. This beer has a disgustingly sticky aroma of candied crickets. It’s so strong, the beer was undrinkable for me without holding my nose. Extremely pungent, sweet malt, rum-soaked raisins/crickets, with a biting alcoholic nose. Tastes more like a cleaning solution fused with a vanilla car air-freshener that you just can’t escape from. GAH!

Nice looking deep, rich amber color. Nose is pure caramel and malt. Good lord this stuff is strong. Alcohol is way way way too strong. In fact, this almost seems bourbon barrel aged. This would be an otherwise delicious beer if the alcohol wasn’t so distracting.

Bomber poured into a snifter. NHPD pours flat bronze with a tiny little head that you have to tease out with a little shake. The aroma is HUGE and sweet with apricots, peaches, pears and hearburn inducing alcohol. Wow! This beer sucks! It is very medicinal with alcohol, kerosene and bourbon. This is going to be a tough nut to get down. I’m determined though!

amber pour with smaller bubbly head. carmel and alcohol in the aroma. flavor was slightly sweet with notes of raisons and malt and whiskey. alcohol is very warming.

On Tap - Poured a beautiful golden orange yellow color with a thick ¼ inch head. This beer is fairly hazy. Smell: The aroma of honey and pears with a hint of hop bitterness. First sip is bittersweet. Then the fruity sweetness soon fades with the bitterness dominating the finish. Tastes of honey, malt, hops, wheat, pears are there, making this wheat wine complex and flavorful. Nice 10% ABV too! Very yummy.

2008 bottle..Call me crazy but this reminded me of Angel’s Share a little bit. It has an aroma of caramel, bourbon, and maybe hints of vanilla. Flavor is suprisingly light and takes on a different character...very sweet with a slight amount of hop bitterness. Palate is very smooth for a wheat wine. Definitely worth checking out

Objectively speaking: 2003 bottle which showed obvious signs of age. A wheat wine in which the wheat remains shy.
I like: Bottle-conditioned, though rather ugly sediments. Fruity (apricot, figs), toasty notions.
I dislike: Headless. Quite yeasty rather than clean. Rather tough alcohol despite advanced age. Advanced sherry-like oxidation (vanilla, powdery nut skin, stale honey). Absent hops. Timid wheatiness. Loose body with quickly dying carbonation.

Aroma of red fruit jam,some graininess, and a blast furnaceof evaporating alcohol. Taste was malt dominated with caramels ,wheat tartness, and again lots of alchol successfuly dominating, It was a nice brew to sip at their outdoor cafe,and people watch