New Holland Pilgrims Dole

Brewed by New Holland Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Holland, Michigan USA

Bottle. Viscous, pure amber body with a silky off-white head that fades. Prominent sweet maple aroma with notes of caramel, grapes and raisins plus some spicy hop character. Flavor has nutty highlights and deep caramelization with medium-high sweetness and balancing bitterness. A little syrupy, but still an enjoyable and tasty sipper.

OK ... this is probably better than a barley-based barley wine. Nearly clear dark brown, almost no head. The black hole of beer ... so viscous that bubbles seem to get trapped in the liquid. Nose of wehat, of course. The taste is simple, grain (wheat in this case), and alcohol. Mouth feel flat and soft and syruppy and dead. Possibly better than the OverAll 12 I gave it, but it loses style points for having so little interest to go along with all that alcohol. I really did not enjoy this and did not finish even a small glass. Drain pour for me.

I had this beer draft at Zeno’s in PA. The beer pours a dark somewhat cloudy amber with little to no head. The aroma is sharp and wheaty. The flavor is a deep sharp sweetness that persists through the drink. There are some hints of fruits, but more than anything, and I have to thank mj for pointing this out, the beer reminds me of a cask aged English pipe tobacco I smoke in the winter. This was my first wheat wine and I I have to admit I expected something a bit more distinctive. Had I not known better I might have thought this beer was an off flavored barley wine.

Bottle. Pours orange with a small off white head. Aroma of wheat malt, alcohol, and even sense pumpkin spices even though there are not in it. Initial flavor is sweet and citrusy that transitions to a bitter and spicy midde., with a hint of tang. Finish has some boozy and yeasty notes. The struggles to between being a barleywine and a wheat wine, but they are not playing well together on my palate. This just comes off as odd.

Draft glass
Consumed at Zeno’s, July 2007
Labeled simply as New Holland Wheat Wine. Dark garnet colored body, tan head, still body, about 10% opaque (nearly clear but not completely). Maple syrup sweetness in the nose, high alcohol as well. Taste? More sharp alcohol, cedar wood, HUGE tobacco flavor, sweet and bitter tobacco, I guess. Bitter but not hoppy on the tongue, just boozy and bitter with dry cedar wood notes in the finish. The wheat characteristics were there, but more subtle that other wheat wines I’ve had. Decent enough though. I like it.

Bottled. Murky and amber colured with a dense tan head. Malty with notes of grains, caramel, alcohol,fruits and hops. Also has strong sour notes. Intentional??

22 bottle thanks to my wife’s recent trip to Wi. Aromas of malted caramel and roasted barley grains. Amber body with beige head. Thick caramel body texture with barley grain flavor also present. Alcohol was present also as the aftertaste on palate was like i just put some ambolsol on my gums.

Bottle. Sweet malty aroma with lots of fruitiness. Caramel and hops. Pours a gritty, sediment-ridden orange-amber topped by a lacing, creamy beige head. Taste is dry but with strong fruitiness, medium-strong hopping comes to dominate before a wave of obvious, burny alcohol takes over. Actually, after a while, this seems very cloying. Good-tasting wheat and yeast around the edges. Prominent honey. Fullish body and mf but still off-putting. Rough drinking... and yet somehow satisfying. I like the addition of wheat to the normal Barleywine recipe - this is good enough to warrant its own RB category, some day :) A second bottle might see a higher score.