New Holland: So Many Beers, So Little Time!

First stop on our Anti-DLD Brew Tour was New Holland Brewery in Holland, Michigan! We went that Saturday, figuring is was "sort of kind of on the way" to Grand Rapids, where we had planned to spend the night. The plan was to grab dinner and a few brews at New Holland, drive to GR to check into our hotel, then spend the evening at Founders.

We ended up getting there later than expected, which meant we missed our friends who started eating/drinking without us! Whatever. We saw them on the street as they were leaving and we were going in. We didn't want to be rushed, so we ended up finding some seats at the bar and ordering some noms, as well as a taster of every beer on the ment. Yes, this menu:

Here's what "every beer on the menu" looked like. Yes, all three trays were ours. Plus one more since the number of beers on tap wasn't divisible by 6:

Please note: I was NOT the designated driver. So, as you can imagine, I can't really remember much about this beside that the beers were delicious! We went through each beer and tasted them from lightest to darkest, making notes on our sheets as to which ones we liked. Once we got through a taste of each one, then everyone just drank their favorite. It ended up working pretty well since we had a mix of folks that liked light and dark beers, so everyone got to drink a fair amount of what they liked.

I highly recommend coming with a group to test everything out, especially if you have folks with different tastes, or others that don't know what they like. Great way to taste the selection as well as to find what suits you personally!

I recall the food being decent, but you definitely don't come here for that! The beer is the showcase, and it's definitely a fun time getting to try them all. If I'd blogged about this immediately after the fact, I'd probably go through all my recommendations and descriptions.... Which of course I took note of! Unfortunately it's been over a year, so best to just go back and see what they have on tap now!

(Hmmm-- perhaps it's almost time for a follow-up trip??)

That said, the Dragon's Milk is always a goodie if you like them dark. They had a bourbon barrel aged one, as well as a nitro when we went... HEAVEN. I love IPAs as well, so the Imperial Hatter was one of my faves. Definitely looking forward to planning another trip in that direction to check out the new batches and remind myself which other ones I like!  Perhaps next time we'll stay at a hotel nearby so we don't have to worry about sticking to a schedule and having one person be able to drive after!


Anyways, after dinner and tasters, the other non-DD and I were both fairly. . . Happy? :) We didn't have that much time to dilly dally since we wanted to make it to GR with enough time to actually hang out at our next stop. So we finished up fairly quickly then headed to Grand Rapids, checked into the hotel, then made our way to Founders. More on that next time!