Dragon's Milk 2014 Raspberry

Discussion in 'Cellaring / Aging Beer' started by drac86, Apr 3, 2015.

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  1. drac86

    drac86 Zealot (517) Jan 28, 2014 Indiana
    Trader

    Hi all, I recently picked up one of the Dragon's Milk reserves with raspberry, and I was wondering if it is worth hanging on to or drinking soon. I've had regular Dragon's Milk aged a couple years and it was tasty, but I wasn't sure what the raspberry addition would do to it. My instinct is to drink it sooner rather than later because fruit seems like something that falls off a bit sooner in other other beers, but if I'm being honest, I don't have much solid reasoning to back that up in this case and was hoping to get some input on fruit stouts in particular.

    I have done a bit of searching in the cellaring forum, but nothing about fruit stouts jumped out at me. Apologies if this or something like it has been answered before and I missed it.
     
    #1 drac86, Apr 3, 2015
  2. KSOZE

    KSOZE Initiate (0) Feb 10, 2015 Ohio

    No clue on cellaring, but I can tell you I cracked this at a bottle share 2 weekends ago. It was phenomenal, and I would be disappointed if the raspberry fell off as it was not in-your-face sweet as I feared it might be.
     
    #2 KSOZE, Apr 3, 2015
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  3. Rsqrd1

    Rsqrd1 Crusader (436) Jul 10, 2014 Illinois

    This is one of those situations where it's best to buy 2. My experience is that any fruited stout is going to lose some of that flavor over time. Whether that's good or bad depends on your own tastes. I enjoyed the raspberry DM, but I have a couple bottles I'm cellaring as well because I think I'd like it more once the fruit is a little more subtle.
     
    #3 Rsqrd1, Apr 3, 2015
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  4. KSOZE

    KSOZE Initiate (0) Feb 10, 2015 Ohio

    Agreed. Always try and buy 2 of something I'd like to cellar, but in this instance it was super limited in my area and had 1 bomber limit. In these cases, I usually drink as soon as the opportunity presents itself.
     
    #4 KSOZE, Apr 3, 2015
  5. drac86

    drac86 Zealot (517) Jan 28, 2014 Indiana
    Trader

    Thanks for the input.

    I dunno, I may just hang on to it and let it rest - I much prefer subtle fruit flavors, especially in bigger beers. I've read a bunch of the reviews, and while of course there are plenty of outliers, the majority seem to describe a raspberry taste that would be stronger than I prefer. In any case, the fruit flavor won't get any STRONGER, so probably best to let it keep for a bit and hope for the best.

    And yeah, I try to buy 2 for things I want to cellar, but I could only get 2 of them and one went to a buddy who doesn't get New Holland distro. Oh well.
     
    #5 drac86, Apr 5, 2015
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  6. MOVERTON1284

    MOVERTON1284 Initiate (0) Jul 23, 2014 Alabama

    I had this about 2 months ago and it was good. Still got the fruit aroma and flavor. I would imagine it would fade if aged for a long time. I would probably drink it now
     
    #6 MOVERTON1284, Apr 9, 2015
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