RAPID CITY, S.D. — What happens when a craft brewery known for a legendary barrel aged stout decides to make bourbon? The hosts of Whiskey@Work, Mark Houston and Rob Henry, decided to find out.
In their latest episode, the pair finally cracked open a bottle of Dragon’s Milk Origin, a bottled in bond bourbon from New Holland Brewing in Michigan. It’s a whiskey that’s been on their radar for years and one that blurs the line between beer and bourbon.
“This bottle has been kind of a unicorn for us,” Houston said. “We’ve been trying to get our hands on it for about five years.”
The bourbon’s origins trace back to New Holland’s famous Dragon’s Milk Stout, a beer that started as a single barrel experiment and became one of the best selling bourbon barrel aged stouts in the country. The company later turned that success into a full distillery, creating Dragon’s Milk Origin, a whiskey aged and bottled under the strict rules of the Bottled in Bond Act.
“It’s 100 proof, 70 percent corn, 25 percent malted barley, and 5 percent rye,” Henry said. “That high barley content really throws you. The flavor is wild, apricot on the front and a hint of mango on the back. Some decent spiciness lingers as well.”
But this episode goes beyond tasting notes. As the name suggests, the hosts dove deep into dragon lore, tracing the myth from Babylon to Beowulf. “Dragons go back 5,000 years,” Houston said during the episode. “They’ve always represented fear, greed, and power, which, if you think about it, are the same things that drive a good whiskey story.”
Henry laughed, adding, “We’ve learned two things today: dragons are cool, and Michigan corn is weird.”
Between the humor and history, Whiskey@Work finds the same magic in mythology that New Holland found in their barrels, proving that sometimes good stories age as well as good bourbon.