Orkney Dragonhead Stout (Bottle)

Brewed by Orkney (Sinclair Breweries)
Style: Stout
Stromness, Orkney, Highlands & Islands, Scotland

Bottle poured black with a light head and very little lacing. Aroma is roast with a hint of cherries. Body is a bit watery with a roast and chocolate flavor and a metalic flavor on the finish.

Pours usual black body and smallish head. Aroma reminds me of Young’s Double Chocolate stout - I believe I quoted that as "I added Nestle Quik to the mix." Some roast in there as well. Palate is very light or watery. On top of that, it doesn’t feel balanced either. The aroma was fine for me, but the flavor was lacking. More coffee comes out in the finish, almost bitter. Blah. I remember having this when I was first drinking beer and thought it was fantastic. I remember savoring every drop, realizing this was a Guinness with a rich chocolately coffee like flavor. It had that light body that fit so well at the time since all I drank was Yuengling and bmc light. My how times have changed. This beer had a lot of potential, but fell far short.

This could be classed as a stout light. A handsome beer that is so deep dark in color and rich looking. The head is truly impressive. After giving up on it fading away I finally drank through it. First impressions were of a nice biting stout. That quickly faded to a weak flavored, although pleasant brew. Most notable among the flavors was a nice fruitiness. However, the most distinct thing about this beer was its lack of substance. Hence the "light" comment. I enjoyed it, but was left wishing for more.

Bottle. Pours an almost black hue of ruby with a nice tan head. The aroma is mostly chocolate with some earthy notes and just a bit of hops. The flavor is nutty at first and fades to roastiness with a saccharine finish. The flavor is quite weak because of the wateriness, which gives the whole thing an artificial feel. This almost seems like stout-flavored Kool-Aid. Disappointing.

Impressive looking brew with a dense black body and a fizzy tan head. The palate is surprisingly thin for what appears to be such a hefty liquid. Coffee, dark chocolate and other roasted malts are accentuated but some hops are revealed along with the dry finish. Slightly metallic nose.

Pours with a nice, frothy head and lively carbonation; creosote, chocolate and roasted nose with a hint of cherry noted fruitiness; burnt, chalky front end with dusty maltiness and dry finish; thin palate; meh.

bottle. Pours a nice dark brown with a full, thick tan head. Yeasty, bittersweet aroma. Thin mouth, yeasty sweet. Rather narrow of a brew. Reminds me of a cola.This is fairly drinkable but lacks real substance.

A mythical, scaled creature hailing from the far North and East is always an eye catcher for an unassuming passerby, which is why when I saw a wooden dragon head peering out from the refrigerator at my local liquor dispenser I had to pick it up the bottle it was inescapably attached to. The glass frame is stockish and bullish, like a championship boxer’s coach, and gives the impression, unopened and untouched, of being a truly masculine brew. However, the texture disappoints, being somewhat "translucent" in the depth and breadth of its flavor. It pours thickly, with a fluid base of opaque brown and a tannish shade for a head. There’s nothing one could call artistic magestry in the overall appearance. It really is just a burly looking drink. The overall flavor is hard to discern for a newbie like myself, but I’d definitely call it smoky, with a subtle but welcome hint of chocolate. Most amazing was the disparity between smelling it out of the bottle and out of a glass. Completely different sensations hit my neighboring sensory nerves. I imagine this beer would be a great drink while doing hard agricultural work in a humid environment. Odd, but this might explain its Scottish origins. The Orkney Stout may be a nice parlor drink. You can’t drink it too fast without catching the suspicious glances of your friends. The environment has to be absolutely right. As I begin to sample the stout I find myself under a noisy barrage; my roommates are playing a raucous children’s game, but once I move to another room and start listening to a healthy round of the Russian Red Army Choir, the flavor and its contribution to the environment are enhanced. Drinking this heavy and hearthy beer I feel like a part of history, sunken into the ground with time and tale. If you plan on being light on your feet and witty do not drink the Orkney stout. It sort of sinks into the tongue and gut with an anvil heaviness - hence the aptness for sitting in a parlor and pontificating on European unification or some such weighty matter to the tune of a brazenly burly Scottish brew.