Dragon's Milk Reserve - Salted Caramel
New Holland Brewing Company

Pours a solid dark tan head with excellent retention and nice lacing. Brew is a lovely dark black.

Aroma is a lovely blend of caramel, bourbon, toffee, and chocolate. Not particularly strong, but very inviting.

Flavor 100% delivers on the premise: bourbon and creamy chocolate up front, thick wads of chewy caramel on the second half. It's more or less a one trick pony, but it's a delicious pony (the metaphor perhaps falls apart on the home stretch).

Shockingly thick and chewy. No hint of the 11% ABV; seriously, this could pass for the thickest 5% ABV brew on the planet.

 

 

Black in color with minimal light penetration. There’s a half inch of creamy light brown on top. The aroma is of caramel, vanilla, and sweet bourbon. I’m tasting caramel and sweet bourbon. The mouth is thick, sticky, and chewy.

Dragon’s Milk Reserve 2021 Reserve 3 (Salted Caramel) from New Holland Brewing. Purchased at Franklin Beer, Franklin, PA, 21/09/22. $ 19.50 (Including tax)/4-pack of 12 oz bottles ($ 0.406/oz). On room temperature shelf at store, stored at 40 degrees at home. Reviewed 28/09/22. Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
On shoulder of bottle in yellow ink “09/09/21”. Served at 54.6 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King Snifter. Final temperature 59.5 degrees.
Appearance – 4.
First pour – Medium Amber (SRM 12), clear.
Body – Brown (SRM 20), opaque. Under direct light, same. When rear-lite, same with olive edges and ruby highlights.
Head – Small (Maximum one cm, aggressive center pour), fulvous, high density but fizzy, rapidly diminishing to a ring of near-microscopic bubbles and no cap.
Lacing – None.
Aroma – 3.75 – Caramel and just a hint of bourbon. No hops, no malt, no yeast, no ethanol.
Flavor – 4 – Definitely caramel-forward, slightly sweet. No malt, no yeast, no hops, no bourbon, no barrel. No ethanol (11 % ABV as marked on label) aroma or taste. Weak gastric warming occurs. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl.
Palate – 4 – Full, bordering on syrupy, caressing carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 4 Overall, very tasty despite the faintness of the bourbon barrel aging.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look:
Smell: boozy, caramelly sweetness
Taste: Salted caramel up front but then subsides into a artificial caramel flavor. melt, woody
Feel: Medium full
Overall: Not my favorite Dragon's Milk. The shift from regulars if not very upfront and strong salted caramel then transition to a kind of artificial caramel flavor. Also, about that upfront flavor, it hits that note so hard that there is not much nuance beyond this for me. It is good. Yes. It is amazing, not so much. I was hoping to love this but find myself wanting a regular on instead. Still very good, but this reserve does not elevate this amazing stout for me.

Bacon, Bourbon, and Beer date night, 12/3/21. A caramely sweet and deep roasty aromas fill the nose! Starting with a very salty one two punch, the caramel flows over the tongue, and ends with a very saline filled alcohol zing.

Wow lots of salted Carmel flavor with that smooth and creamy chocolate and bourbon backbone. Super great beer especially when it’s aged for 14 months. Also the salted caramel doesn’t make it too sweet. Perfect balance.

This tastes absurdly sweet and artificial. This is by far my least favorite one, ill keep trying others but once again I also get zero barrel. I really don't like this one but it's okay