Lion Stout

Brewed by Lion Brewery (Sri Lanka)
Style: Foreign Stout
Biyagama, Sri Lanka

Serve in Snifter, Tulip

Bottle from Beers of Europe. Black beer with a tan head. Roast aroma with some chocolate. Sweet and smooth with medium roasted malt flavours. Much better than I expected.

Bottle: First rating of 2007. Dark brown to black pour with a medium tan head. Aroma, chocolate, toffee, rye, and some earthy notes. Flavor, earthy, chocolate, coffee, some some roasty bitterness on the finish. This is surprisingly good, wasn’t expecting much from it, but I like it.

Black with a large long lasting tan head. Smooth silky full body, almost a little oily. Berries in the nose, along with some roast and aniseed. Sweetish liquorice, molasses and roast in the flav. A touch warming but really top stuff.

[bottle from LCBO] Opaque black with a nice tan blanket that clings to the sides of the glass as it receded to a thin, bubbly cover. Roasty toasty dark malts with some floral accents coming through somehow. Nicely rounded flavour with significant sweetness and not as much bitter, roasted barley as expected from the aroma. The only fault that I can find in this beer is a slight alcoholic flavour that comes in at the end. Smooth with a full body and medium carbonation. Leaves a pleasant roasty taste on the palate.

Can’t really make up my mind about this one. I feel almost as if I alternate every other sip being turned off and turned on by it... which suggests a nice complexity. This could be one that I need to drink 3-4 times to get. I’m enjoying this one, and admittedly I was a bit turned off by it the first time I had it. Dark pour with large bubbly mocha head. Strong roast smell: burnt coffee and bitter chocolate. Also strong grain and creamy presence on the nose. Taste reveals a milk chocolate-y sweetness and a somewhat sour milk/metallic note that’s not entirely unpleasant. A little dark fruit. More roasty bitterness and some hops as well. A little too sweet for me. Points for complexity, and I agree with a review below that says it’s surprisingly refreshing for a strong stout.

A rather odd beer. Nose of (I kid you not) black olives. All in all, a pretty decent beer, but it doesn’t make my list of top ten stouts by a long shot. I can say that it is without a doubt the best beer I have ever had from Sri Lanka. Take that how you will. Worth giving it a spin if you’re looking to try something new.

Fruity,sweet,malty,roasted notes,chocolate good mouthfeel.

Pours black with a tan fluffy head that lasts a couple minutes or so. Coffee aroma. Sweet malt body with an all coffee finish. Just o.k.