Lion Imperial Pilsner (Lager)

Pours gold with a big white head. Aroma is light bready malts and a little bit of earthy hop. Flavor is light bready malts with a little bit of alchohol and syrup like quality. Not bad.

Poured from bottle into Tulip. Slightly hazy, pale orange-yellow with very active (and loud) bubbles and head, but the head subsides very quickly with no lacing. Looked pretty good for about a minute and a half. Aroma of German noble hops, semi-sweet malt, cheap alcohol. Unfortunately, the hop smell disappeared, leaving mostly the cheap alcohol. Wow, that does not taste the same as the somewhat dry, hoppy smell. Very, very sweet, like candy, but very peppery hops counter and are prominent at the finish. Tastes like a Malt Liquor with out of place hops. Cloying. Pretty carbonated, light to medium body, feels alcoholic (if that makes sense). Adding this note from a short while after I finished: I have an awful aftertaste in my mouth still.

Sweet alcohol, grains, pasteurized aroma. Harsh, alcoholic malty taste, some barnyard and straw as well. Not a fan of this one. LOVE the stout however.

sample. atlanta hotoberfest. gold under a huge white head. malty strong aroma. honey and sweet with noticeable alcohol. peppery, sweaty flavors. not good.

Pour is a hazy golden with a large white head. Aroma is an ok pils malt with some yeastyness in there. Flavor is heavy sweet malt with an almost honey like presence. Very sweet and heavy. Kinda malt liquorish but the alcohol is hidden well. Still, I won’t be needing this again.

Pours out a clear golden amber with a fizzy white head that shrinks rather quickly. Aroma is mostly sweet pils malt with a grassy hop note. The flavor starts off with a ton of sweet malt, some hops come out, but the malt is still very much the star of this show. Some light alcohol warming on the end, to go along with the ever-present sweet malt. Slow sweet finish. More than full bodied, with a light tickle of carbonation. Pretty good lager.

Single 330mL bottle from Total Wine in Huntersville, NC. This is one heavy bottle - the quality of the bottle is obviously the key to keep this lager fresh on a trip from Sri Lanka to the US. Pours a clear gold color with a white head. Aroma is sweet and malty with a touch of hops. Flavor is malt at the beginning with a small alcohol presence, small hops bite and a warming effect. This hides the alcohol well and I was impressed with this rather strong tasting beer.

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.