Lion Stout

The local liquor stores have been suffering from an acute lack of Russian Imperial Stout lately, so I decided to try out “Lion Stout” from Sri Lanka. The label is a colorful and striking image of a lion's head, so the bottle is visually appealing. On the way home from the store, I was joking with my wife that we could earn lots of street cred as beer snobs if we become exclusively devotees of Sri Lankan stout. Obscurity is the key to superior hipness, after all.

My wife took a sip of the Lion, looked up, and said “it's a good stout for a country where you wouldn't expect them to make stout.” I tasted it a moment later, and my conclusion was about the same. It doesn't have quite as much character or flavor as I would like, but it's a very drinkable stout. So I won't be adopting an exclusively Sri Lankan stout policy no matter how hip it would be, but I do recommend it.

 

We also tried the local Flat Earth Brewing Company's “Cygnus X-1 Porter,” and I would call this one a hit. Porter and stout are awfully similar- the truth is, I'm not really sure what the specific difference between them is supposed to be, although they are clearly not quite the same. This porter is a fine specimen, and particularly good for a local microbrew. I'll be trying out more of the Flat Earth beers soon, because they seem to know what they're doing when it comes to beer.