New Holland Pilgrim’s Dole (365 Day 56)

By scot in 365 Days of American Craft Beer on Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

New Holland Pilgrim's Dole

New Holland Brewing Company isn’t too terribly far away over in south-western Michigan. I tried to tour the brewery a little over a year ago but wasn’t successful, so we ended up at the New Holland restaurant instead. Darn tasty.

In spite of the close proximity to me, I seem to overlook the American craft beer goodness that is New Holland. I have rated five of their flavors and would have to say that outside of Dragon’s Milk, I have found their beers to be very average at best. When there is so much American craft beer to conquer, why settle?

Last night was TNBC with one of the beers on hand being Pilgrim’s Dole. It was the second beer of the evening and I wanted to make sure that my official beer of the evening was something that I had early, took some notes, and wouldn’t get mixed up with the rest of the beers.

Pilgrim’s Dole is made with about 50% wheat and the bottle calls it a wheatwine over a barleywine. It pours a copper hue with little, white foam and a spotty lacing. The nose and taste are very similar: caramel, sweet, and wheat. The beer is thick with little to no carbonation. A nice beer that I would have again and wished I had more than my sampling amount on the evening. Enjoy!

Useless Facts: Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first president to be televised, in ceremonies opening the New York World’s Fair in April 1939.