Orkney Dragonhead Stout (Bottle)

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

Bottle @ Pullman, Helsinki Finland Backlog 2 April, 2005
Thin and well attenuated (BB11/05). No off tastes, though. Rather boring, actually. Maybe some roasted notes in the end.

Black colour. Thick white creamy head. Sweet and somewhat smoky nose. Flavour is roasted, malty and slightly acidic, with hints of chocolate. A quite ordinary stout, still not bad.

Bottled. Black opaque, big brownish foamy head, thick lacing. At first very roasted aroma, later a bit sweetish barley and malt. Rich carbonation for being a stout. Very bready flavour with hints of roast. Leaves mouth a bit sticky. Otherwise very good, but the carbonation ruins it

Mmmmm, filtered and pasteurised, low alcohol, bottled, light stout. I should stop there, as you can probably see where this is going. But I won’t.
Let’s talk a little about pasteurisation and filtration.
Once upon a time, there lived a wonderfully roasty, fruity, chewy, thick-looking stout, who had magnificent complexity and plenty of soft, easygoing carbonation. Everything went together nicely, with a true fusion of flavors and zesty livliness. Then some brewers came along and decided they didnt want any more of that pesky complexity, and soft, engaging carbonation.
"Who needs a lively, interesting range of flavors!! Let’s pasteurise the hell out of this baby!"
And it was done. But not yet satisfied, they said
"Away with ye chewy, gritty, substantive texture and body. We’d rather have a watery, dull, thin one, with lots of sharp, artificial carbonation!!!"
And thus it was filtered.
Now, children, can anyone tell me the moral of the story?

bottle. poured a translucent dark ruby with a slight whiteish head. not much aroma...chocolae and cardboard...prety boring...weak palate, roasted malt flavor...meek, this brew would get its butt kicked in a street fight by a mean American stout like rouge and great divide contenders. more like a weak porter.

(Bottle) Black colour. Nice head. Roasty, slightly smoked aroma. Roasty coffee-flavour. A nice easy-drinking session-stout.

Bottle. The colour is pitch-dark; the medium compact, two-finger high foam is brown with some beige spots.

The smell is full of burned dry malts and some coffee with a hint of butter/cream.

The carbonation is rather strong (stronger than I expected for a stout) with small bubbles.

The taste is burned with dry notes of coffee, dark bread, soil, toffee cookies and a touch of salt. The body is rather weak with a medium-strong bitterness. The aftertaste is also burned with a creamy feel and a slowly growing sweetness. It is not particularly long lasting, but well balanced.

I found this being a rather mild stout, making it easy to drink.

Opaque black, large, rich firm, brown head. Full roasty aroma with loads of dark malt with a whiff of smoke. Nice. Full-bodied for a 4 % ABV brew! Rosaty, vlean and smooth flavour. Clean roasty aftertaste of coffee with a hint of peat. Quite pleasant, this..