What's In My Glass: 8/2/11

Tonight's entry is going to be cut a little bit short by the glass of apple pie moonshine that's sitting in front of me. After a couple beers earlier in the evening, I settled in with a glass of New Holland Dragon's Milk. It's a 10% imperial stout that's aged in oak barrels. Now barrel aging is hardly an uncommon occurrence in the American craft beer scene, but usually it's done in barrels that have already held another type of alcohol. Whiskey and bourbon are by far the most common, but I've seen beers aged in everything from scotch and tequila to rum and red wine. While the barrel aging did add some positive, notably a vanilla sweetness that complemented the dark chocolate flavors from the roasted malts, it also added an overbearing woody oak flavor. I could close my eyes and almost imagine a piece of bark from an oak tree floating in my glass. Dragon's Milk isn't a terrible beer, but there are many better stouts out there, both regular and barrel aged