Sinha Stout - Lion Brewery Ceylon PLC (Sri Lanka)

Sinha Stout - Lion Brewery Ceylon PLC (Sri Lanka) 8.8%

Black and utterly opaque in a glass. A vigorous pour generated a inch of mocha foam that settled quickly but did not completely dissipate sticking around the edges and and left some nice lacing. The aroma is chocolate heavy with some coffee, and a touch of grape or perhaps more like raisins and prunes. There is something also a little milky, like you'd find in a milk stout in the aroma. No signs of the 8.8% alcohol in the aroma until it warms up just a little. There is an issue with the aroma though, it is a little bit musty which may be as a result of a little oxygen tagging along in the bottle during the travel time from Sri Lanka to Ontario.

Milk chocolate flavours but a bit of a thin mouthfeel with some taste of alcohol in the finish. Ah, but let it warm up a little bit and the mouthfeel is there as well as the chocolate flavour, dark fruit, some leather tones. Also the finish is more smoke and dark chocolate with some alcohol, but not much, and just a little of that musty flavour. The aftertaste is dark fruit first and then some chocolate.

Overall, Sinha Stout is actually pretty good considering it was only $2.15 and it is 8.8% ABV. It is not the best stout but the only real knock on it is that is was musty and thin at times.