Pilgram's Dole

I discovered New Holland Brewing almost by accident when I moved back to the Midwest a few months ago.  I was out at a store and was loading up on beer I had never tasted before.  One of the beers I picked up that night was New Holland's Mad Hatter IPA.  I enjoyed it and officially added the brewery to the "try more varieties" list which seems to always grow and never dwindle.  My enjoyment of Mad Hatter was not due to the hops and the IPA style, but instead due to a particular roasted malt flavor.  St Arnold's Amber has a similar malt flavor and up to that point I had never tasted it anywhere else.

On my last trip to the store, the guy working behind the counter spent a long time talking with me about what beers I liked and what they had in stock that I might also enjoy.  I love these kind of places that can offer good service, speak intelligently about beer, and steer you in the right direction.  As we meandered around the store loading up my cart, we came to a wheat wine by NHB called Pilgram's Dole.  Its a part of their "High Gravity Series" of four beers which also includes a milk stout, a trippel, and a dopplebock.  Pilgrim's Dole is barleywine style ale made with 50% wheat malt which leads to the wheat wine title.

Over the weekend I finally got around to opening it before the first of the Final Four games.  Here are my tasting notes:

• Appearance: dark red to copper in color
• Aroma: Sweet with notes of bread, raisins, alcohol, and some vanilla/oak
• Taste: Chewy with a big upfront malt sweetness, Butterscotch, Finishes with a dryness that brings out oak flavors, The dry finish sets it apart from a standard barley wine and is a result of the wheat malt, Sweetness lingers as well

Overall, I would have to say that this is an interesting beer.  I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either.  I found myself taking a while to drink the full 22 oz due to the sweetness.  Granted a 10% barley wine is not a beer designed to be slammed down, but it seemed to go slower than expected.

Now I need to track down the other three beers in the High Gravity series to see how they compare.  I am hearing good things about the Dragon's Milk Ale so that will probably be next.