Orkney Dragonhead Stout (Bottle)

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

Pours to a dark black body with a thick, fully lasting head (in a tall, tapered glass) with excellent lacing. In my glass (a snifter), it didn’t pour so fortunate and immediately disapated. As such, I’ll go 50-50 with a 4. The aroma is chocolate with a touch of peat and wood, too weak, however. The flavor is peaty. Lightly roasted coffee. Too weak. Very boring and average. Probably too few ingredients in it. The palate is thin and slick. Too average. I’ve had WAAAAAYYYYY better stouts.

Bottle. A thin well balanced stout. Aromas of roasted malts and cherry wood. Black body tan head. Flavor was a weak roasted malts and little watery. Smooth easy drinkable beer. I would have to think the cask would be a great stout see the componants for a good stout are there.

Fairly full chocolate and toast nose, black color with a huge tan head. Thin at first in the body, but full of flavor. Ends with a bitter chocolate bitterness. Predominantly roasted malt tastes. Quick and not complex, but very enjoyable.

Dark brown colour with ruby highlights and a brown head. Aroma of coffee, roasted malt and chocolate. Medium to Light-bodied; Coffee, roasted malt flavour with some subtle chocolate tastes. Aftertaste bittered from the malt, but actually left fairly clean, factoring in the style. Overall, a decent stout, not exemplary though! I bought this 50 cL bottle at Green's Beverages in Atlanta, Georgia and sampled it on 28-September-2003.

Pint bottle from Degarth! - Thanks Joe! - Pours black with a big foamy tan head that stays pretty well and laces in patterns. Aromas of coffee, roasted malts, and some cocoa. Flavor has lots of roasty notes, a little coffee, and some light chocolate.. Thin bodied and less robust than other stouts but this is only 4% alcohol. Not bad though I think it would make a pretty nice session stout...

Bottle: Black with a small tan head, ends dry. Better on cask. On cask NERAX ’04: Black with a small creamy head. Roasted coffee/chocolate aroma, light bodied, starts and ends sweet.

Sampled March 2007
Pours with a frothy, initially three-finger thick, light brown colored head that sits a top an almost black colored beer that has some brown in it. The aroma initially has notes of chocolate to it, both a chocolate liquor note as well as a dusty cocoa note. Quite malty as well with a touches of sweet burnt caramel, lots of toasted grain character. This has a touch of alcohol heat to it in the nose, or perhaps something similar to this as this beer is quite low in alcohol.

The beer is quite dry with an accompanying dusty chocolate note. The middle and finish actually have a note of burnt malt sweetness. This has quite a light body to it; it is very quaffable. The beer finishes with a hint of roast grain astringency, a touch of chalkiness, and a nicely lingering roast coffee character. This actually has a touch of roast derived acidity here, which adds a nice tart backdrop to the other flavors. This is an interesting beer, quite tasty and I like that it is so light. This is something that Guinness draught should aspire to be.

500 ml bottle, via SoLan/TheCheeseMan. Pours a flat black body with some brownish edges under a small fizzy brown head that settled to a thin creamy covering. The nose on this is just great, heavy roast and smoke with some lighter bitter chocolate and coffee. Just a hint of hoppiness. The flavor is slightly lactic with heavy roasted barley and dark brewed coffee up front. Finishes with a slight hoppy kick that doesn’t really meld too well with the roast to me. Mouthfeel is slightly oily with a slight stickiness on the finish. Slightly fizzy carbonation with a little too much pricklyness for me. Overall, I liked this for the most part. If the hops were a little more toned down on the finish and featured the roastiness more it would have been even better. It does get some points for uniqueness though.