Lion Imperial Pilsner (Lager)

Brewed by Lion Brewery (Ceylon)
Style: European Strong Lager
Nuwara Eliya & Biyagama, Sri Lanka

Brewed in Sri Lanka, the Lion Imperial Lager boasts a proud lion on its bottle cap and bottle label, his golden eyes gleaming at me as his equally bright gold contents fill my lager glass. I’m not quite sure how natural a golden yellow that is, though a tall and proud head of fluffy white foam makes for the perfect mane. Raising my glass, I am immediately overtaken by sweet golden corn, fresh off the cob, cooked and sweetened. A bare whisper of dry straw and hay flits through the background, but quickly yields to the glass of corn sitting before me. Let me say right now that an overly corny beer is never a good thing. My first quaff is thick as his flavor aims right for the top of my tongue where I find a new crop of sweet summer corn growing most magnificently. Too thick and too sweet, he cloys and clogs, making for a hard swallow. Sweet corn which I enjoy fresh off the cob to eat is one thing; this is another issue entirely. Cooked and artificially sweetened, a growing backdrop of dank, soggy hay grows with each subsequent quaff. I have had about all I can stomach, and it is with somber clarity that I share the rest of my glass’ contents with the kitchen sink.

Horrible. I tried it, but I just didn’t like it, and I’m not the only one I fear. Sure, he has a higher alcohol because of the “imperializing” but a beer’s ABV is second to none when it comes to what matters first: taste. Hopefully I will never come across another Lion Imperial Lager, but if I do, I am going to calmly and slowly take a step back, turn around without making eye contact, and head in the opposite direction to safety, and to good beer.

Sri Lankan malt liquor? This strong pilsener is very malty with little or no hop flavor. Killer strength and warming, but nothing to brag about. Pours classic golden with a nice head that quickly settles.

This is a large beer. Golden, with a modest head. Malt aroma, with little hint of the jolt to come. Heavy, thick and strong. The malt and alcohol come through. Finishes with a heavy malt sweetness.

Bottle from Binny’s Beverage Depot, Willowbrook, Illinois: It poured a clear golden body with a respectable head that didn’t want to hang around for too long. The aroma was sweet fresh grain with a dollop of honey and a dash of diesel fuel... the last not strong enough to be too detrimental. The flavor was much the same with little to cut the sweetness besides the alcohol. Oddly, tho, it was fairly drinkable... and warming.

12oz bottle. Orange-tan color with a thin head. Potent sweet sugary aroma. There is some honey sweetness, but there is also some Eastern European ruggedness. I thought the other Lion products were complex and sublime, but this one kind of just goes for the alcohol overkill. Too strong and too sweet for its own good, would have benefited from some hop balance. Drinkable, but unimpressive.

Bottle. Pours a amber body. The aroma is malt. The taste is honey and too much alcohol... sort of tasted like malt liquor

As a novice Lager drinker I was excited to try this. A bit to sweet however for my palate, not bad just not my thing.

Bottle from Steph’s sister in internatiional multipack. Clear golden color with small to medium creamy white head. Aroma is light grain and lager yeast with dry spicey hops and subtle lightly sweet malt. Flavor defintely knocked me back a little with heavy malt with medium sweetness, a little biscuit, a noticable alc presence, caramel, lager yeast and light hops. Medium and slightly syrupy body, light carbonation. Interesting, the syrupy body and sweetness doesn’t work for me as well as the almost acetone like light alc presence. What does work for me is that it’s not completely unbalanced for what it is. I also like the slight grapiness.