Fancy Pants Sunday: Dragon’s Milk x Dungeons & Dragons — D20 Brew: Silver Edition
Welcome to Fancy Pants Sunday, Peaks & Pints’ weekly celebration of beers that arrive not with a pop-top, but with a prophecy. This week’s exalted elixir is Dragon’s Milk x Dungeons & Dragons: D20 Brew – Silver Edition, a 20% ABV imperial stout aged in double bourbon barrels and infused with real-world vanilla beans and fantasy-world grandeur. Brewed by New Holland Brewing in partnership with the tabletop titans at Dungeons & Dragons, it’s less a beer than a scroll-wrapped incantation in a black velvet box. Sip it alongside your favorite character sheet. Or, better yet, drink it as one.
The Founding of New Holland Brewing
New Holland Brewing opened its doors in 1997, born of a shared vision between two Hope College homebrewers, Brett VanderKamp and Jason Spaulding, who saw potential in pairing small-batch craftsmanship with West Michigan’s agricultural roots and storytelling spirit. With a modest setup in the city of Holland, they began producing beers that quickly earned a regional following, scaling up just as the Midwest craft beer boom began to shimmer.
Spaulding would later leave to found Brewery Vivant, but VanderKamp stayed, shepherding New Holland into a modern powerhouse with breweries, brewpubs, a distillery, and a reputation for chasing bold ideas. Whether it’s crafting sours, developing high-proof spirits, or launching experimental collaborations, New Holland brews with one foot in tradition and the other kicking open the door to possibility.
The Legend of Dragon’s Milk
First brewed in 2001, their Dragon’s Milk began as a bourbon barrel-aged imperial stout—a novelty at the time—and quickly evolved into a genre-defining name. The beer’s success became the beating heart of New Holland’s identity, spawning an entire Dragon’s Milk Reserve series, numerous limited releases, and even barrel-aged whiskeys.
What makes Dragon’s Milk unique isn’t just its strength or its smooth richness—it’s its mythology. Each bottle feels like a relic. A whisper from the cask. A beer that leans more toward ceremony than session. With its roots in bourbon-soaked oak and its claws dipped in vanilla, spice, and charred sweetness, Dragon’s Milk became the beast that carried the brewery’s banner.
D20 Brew: Silver Edition — Roll for Revelation
The D20 Brew: Silver Edition is the apex of that mythology. Created in collaboration with Dungeons & Dragons and inspired by the wise, regal Silver Dragon of campaign lore, this imperial stout is a 20% ABV, double-barrel-aged titan conditioned with Indonesian and Madagascan vanilla beans. It’s a sipping experience designed for moments of pause, reflection, or rolling a nat 20.
D20 pours obsidian black with a gleam of mahogany at the rim. Aromas swirl with bourbon heat, charred oak, vanilla resin, and melted chocolate. On the palate? A wave of toasted marshmallow, dark roast coffee, boozy cocoa, and enough vanilla to soften a lich’s heart. The finish lingers like a good campaign: warm, intense, and with more depth the longer you stay with it. It doesn’t drink like a beer. It drinks like loot.
You fancy, New Holland Dragon’s Milk x Dungeons & Dragons — D20 Brew: Silver Edition!
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