By Richard Thomas
Rating: B
New Holland Brewing Company’s Zeppelin Bend 10 Year Old American Malt
(Credit: New Holland Brewing)
New Holland Brewing of Holland, Michigan is one of the many brewers occupying the “brewstillery” niche, taking advantage of the fact that in its early stages, malt whiskey and beer are basically the same thing. All it requires for a brewer to make malt whiskey (the brewery also makes their own beer-barrel finished bourbon and rye) is some additional equipment, specifically a still. They reportedly began exploring making spirits as far back as 2005, during the earliest rumblings of the craft whiskey movement. They later introduced their Zeppelin Bend American Malt, but in 2007 they began holding back stock for further aging. The result was this 10 Year Old Zeppelin Bend Reserve.
The Whiskey
At a decade old, this is a rare expression from a small distiller, even at a time when fully mature expressions from the craft sector are commonplace. In Michigan, for example, Grand Traverse released a 10 year old rye, and these are the only two so-aged expressions to come out of The Great Lakes State I can think of. It is an American single malt, distilled to 125 proof and aged in new oak barrels, finished in old Sherry casks, and then bottled at 94.6 proof.
The look in the glass is a dull brown, middle amber. The nose here was a base of cocoa and cedar, accented by cinnamon and a touch of cardamom. The flavor turned to earthy caramel in place of cocoa, but retained the spicy and woody notes, while adding a hint of dried cherry. The finish ran herbal, and briefly so.
The Price
New Holland’s Zeppelin Bend 10 Year Old was released in November 2021, and was available only at the distillery while stocks last. It’s no longer listed with the brewery and it is now 6 months later, so I expect their stocks are gone… but I imagine we will see some similarly aged American single malt from these folks in the future.