Brewery: Desnoes & Geddes
Location: Kingstown, Jamaica
ABV: 7.5%
Version: 284ml bottle

I must admit when I think of Jamaican beer Red Stripe lager is immediately what springs to mind. I certainly didn’t expect to find a stout from there, especially one this strong, but a quick scan round the web tells me that stouts like this are actually very popular out there. So once again the world of beer is educational. The Desnoes and Geddes company has been operating for over 90 years, although is now owned by Diageo, which makes me wonder why I can’t seem to find an official web presence for Dragon Stout. There’s a soft drinks oriented Desnoes & Geddes site, a dedicated Red Stripe one but not even the Diageo site has a mention. If any of our more knowledgeable readers know of one please drop a note in the comments and I’ll add it. Anyway, enough moaning about the lack of e-marketing, that’s more Darrens’ territory, on with the tasting.

It says stout on the label so unsurprisingly it pours black, with a reddish tint, but there’s no head at all, not even a glimmer of one. The aroma is odd, not something I could pin down. There’s some malt and molasses but something else wafting off it; I read one comment of sweaty socks but it wasn’t that bad, perhaps the sweet candy Stonch refers to. That strange aroma carries on to the flavour; there’ s the standard roasted malt, chocolate and liquorice but I also picked up on cherry and date elements. The alcohol strength takes a back seat and doesn’t dominate but what does tend to get in the way is an over-riding sweetness which kicks in early and stays to the finish, almost completely swamping the other more desirable flavours present at the start. Overall then, despite the negative comment Dragon Stout is worth picking up if you see it, if only to tick off another from the world beer list; it’s an interesting take on the style but there’s plenty of better stouts out there and I doubt I’ll be revisiting this one.