Dragon's Milk Tales of Gold by New Holland Brewing Co. was judged as a Specialty Wood-Aged Beer, BJCP category 33B. The beer casts a lightly hazy deep orange color, and sports a massive creamy head of light cream-colored foam that shows great persistence.

The nose presents a richly fruity aroma with strong notes of peach and apricot, some honey malt sweetness and a noticeable vanilla-ethanol hit. Overall, it is lightly sweet with fruity and floral-nectar angles and no obvious hop notes discerned. Both the bourbon and the wood character are quite reserved, but are apparent upon swirling.

The flavor profile is quite sweet from start to finish: notes of peaches, almonds/marzipan and vanilla dominate early, with only very soft bitterness though the middle. A nice woodiness mingles with malt and ester fruity-sweetness (reminiscent of lychee) all through the long finish. Creamy, fat in body, with no astringency and surprisingly no alcohol  heat either. Vanilla and a light lingering sweetness dominate above any clear expression of wood.

This brew is quite sweet and apparently quite strong. It has some similarities to a Belgian golden strong ale, sans the phenols common to that type. Here we have a very rich, medium-sweet (bordering on fully sweet), lush golden ale with strong fruitiness dominating above some interesting almond nuttiness and reserved oak. While obviously quite strong, the beer's tremendous drinkability belies that strength. I think this would work well as a bookend at either end of a meal, preferably one with some richness to complement it. Rather unique, and I rather enjoyed it.