Lion Stout

Brewed by Lion Brewery (Ceylon)
Style: Foreign Stout
Nuwara Eliya & Biyagama, Sri Lanka

Dark with a big and rocky head. Rich, sweet and chewy. Decently balanced. Evident alcohol. Subtle chocolate and coffee flavors were nice. Roasty and a little spicy. Somewhat cloying at times. Pretty good stuff, but like a few others, I found it just a little under par to the hype. A decent stout, sure, but not as great as some make it out to be.

625. Pours deep opaque black with three fingers of thick, surging tan rocky head. Smells mildly chocolatey along with some sour aluminum. Nice attack: medium body with soft carb and restrained flavors. Sweet and chocolatey mid-palate, some light roast and toast in there but nothing domineering. Light finish. Easy drinking, flavorful but still almost refreshing, especially for the abv. Nice stuff.

Courtesy of Degarth. Pours deep darkness with thin mocha head. The mild aroma has fruity esters, roasty malts and a level of burnt maltiness. The taste starts with roasty to burnt malts followed by sweet molasses, some chocolate malts and licorice. The mix works well and trends into the finish and leaves a malty to burnt maltiness into the after taste. Very nice.

Black with a creamy beige head. Heavy smoky roasted aroma, very nice. Palate delivers what the nose promises. A really nice surprise, given this is Sri Lanken in origin (much better than Sandoo of the same origin).

Some nice roasted chocolate and toffee notes, and some light caramel present as well. Thisis actually not bad, as I was not expecting too much, but this was actually very refreshing and easy to drink.

After months of teasing ’maybe next week’ promises, Nav finally conjured the sought-after Lion from his cricket bag. And it was worth the wait. Glugs inkily into the snifter an impenetrable pitch, creamily heaped cappuccino suds receding to a slick. A dribble-inducing waft of black cherry, soy, chocolate liqueur, malt whiskey, Marmite, resiny hop spice and charred barrelwood arises. This is a special beer before you’ve even tasted it. Mouth is drinking chocolate-thick, deep, bittersweet and satisfying, with a chocolate complexity that is one moment powdery and sweet, the next packed with 80% cocoa bitterness. Creamily smooth but warmingly boozy. Lingering tobacco, charcoal and Marmite afters. Big, bittersweet, creamy and dangerous. I’m not being greedy but I really need a crate of 625ml bottles to get to the bottom of this beer.

What a joy to select a beer because of it representing a different country to sample, and it being something other than a skunky international-style lager. This beer deserves a ’10’ for appearance--poured ungently, a unique and gorgeous type of cascading followed, leaving a caramel colored lace head, mostly diminishing after five minutes. Dark as a winter’s moonless night. I could sense some alcohol in an otherwise understated and malty aroma, but that was mostly absent from a relatively (but not supremely) complex mix of smoke, coffee, and bitter chocolate (the smoke was the strongest). Michael Jackson’s endorsement (on the bottle label) of this as a liquor-like beer is perhaps charitable, in that it might also be interpreted as having fleeting moments of medicinal-like flavors--a slight flaw on an otherwise enjoyable beer, one worth seeking out.

Trade from Footbalm - Thanks! Dark brown, tan head. Woodsy, earthy (mushrooms?) aroma. First flavors are initially spicy, and peppery, with a hint of burnt toast and tar. Crisp hop finish. Thin for a stout, but it fits with the beer. Nice and even kind of refreshing.