First Draught — Dragon Stout one of Jamaica’s best beers

Opinion

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This article was published 18/08/2017 (2951 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Most of us love going on tropical vacations in the middle of winter, but the biggest problem for a beer geek is that it’s hard to find a good beer! Sure, you can drink the common local products that are fairly reminiscent to your typical North American lagers, but lighter.

I went to Jamaica back in 2014 for my mom’s birthday, and the one thing I heard over and over again from friends who visited the same part of Jamaica is that there’s actually some amazing beers in Jamaica!

In Jamaica, it’s expensive to import most beers. You will still see Miller Lite and Budweiser available at grocery stores in tourist hot spots, but you will be paying US$4 per bottle. In Jamaica, you won’t find your regular versions of Heineken or Guinness Stout that you see here in North America. Instead, you will see a version of the beers that are brewed right on the island brewed with local ingredients with possible. I’m not a fan of Heineken, but Heineken in Jamaica is incredibly crisp, smooth and easy to drink. Locally brewed Guinness in Jamaica is a different recipe than what we see here in North America, it’s a stronger, darker, molasses-rich stout that’s absolutely delicious with jerk chicken or steak.

I drank a lot of Guinness Extra Foreign Stout while in Jamaica, but Desnoes & Geddes’ Dragon Stout was an even more popular stout on the island, and I enjoyed their Dragon Spitfire Stout even more, but unfortunately it’s not available in Canada — and surprisingly not spicy even though the name would say otherwise.

Desnoes & Geddes’ Dragon Stout is a Foreign Extra Stout that tops out at a whopping 7.5 per cent ABV, but only comes in a tiny 300 ml bottle to make up for the high alcohol content.

Dragon pours a thick, rich, black body with a decent amount of yellowish/beige head on top that diminishes quite quickly, leaving behind some bubble residue along the side of the glass.

The aroma is pretty complex for a stout. I get a rich amount of molasses in my initial sniff in the beer, but then in my next one I get a sweet, herbal perfume aroma overpowering everything else. I take another sniff of the beer and I’m getting roasted barley malt that gives off a light yet bitter coffee aroma, dark chocolate, and a hint of burnt sugar or a hint of Jamaican rum.

Dragon Stout is easily one of the best tropical inspired stouts in the entire world. It’s a sweet, rich, dark and heavy stout that’s complex and welcoming for a Canadian autumn. The stout has a rich, molasses flavour to it with a hint of dark rum-like taste to it, light notes of roasted malt to give it just a hint of coffee (less than usual). It’s incredibly sweet, dark, forward on the molasses more than anything else.

With its relatively high alcohol content, it’s not as boozy as I would have thought — it does have notes reminiscent of dark rum, but not the typical burn. This is incredibly smooth and can be more of a desserty stout in my opinion, but it works well with spicy food.

I really want to pair this with jerk chicken now, as all I can think about is my memories of eating jerk chicken with sweet, dark stouts like this in Jamaica. Dragon Stout isn’t as heavy or bitter as your typical craft stouts, nor is it as creamy as the typical domestic Guinness stout you see in North America. This is a fine example of some of the best beer in all of Jamaica. I wish we had Dragon’s Spitfire Imperial Stout, but I have a couple bottles of Spitfire aging from my visit a few years ago that will likely get opened up around Christmas time.

Dragon Stout is available for $2.25 per 300 ml bottle at Liquor Marts in Brandon (10th & Victoria, Corral Centre), Swan River, The Pas and Virden.

Rating: 4 out of 5 pints

» Cody Lobreau is a Canadian beer blogger who reviews every beer he can get his hands on as he believes that he should try every beer twice to get an understanding if it’s truly good or bad. BeerCrank.ca