Day 14 Advent Beer Box ~ Lion Stout

Happy Monday!  For those of you following along who don't know me, here's a little bit about me.  I own an independent insurance agency in Florida.  We write all types of personal and commercial insurance, including health insurance.  We're coming to the end of open enrollment for health insurance for January 1, 2016 policies.  Today was complete and utter hell.  Busy and so many people with last minute questions.  The deadline is midnight tomorrow, so a full day still left.  This is the first time I felt like a CPA on 4/14!  I was so looking forward to coming home and breaking open bottle # 14 (and then having some wine, because truly I like that too!)

I did have a question and if you have an answer I'd love to know.... I went to the website for tonight's beer, like I do each website and for whatever reason I have to certify on EVERY beer website that I am "of age" (I'm 46, I qualify!) to enter their site.... Really, WHY?  I know, for a fact, there are all types of sites I can go on that I don't have to certify my 'adult' status....why would this matter?  I really want to know.  I Googled but found no answer.

Anywhoo.... tonight we had a really dark, really heavy alcohol tasting beer called Lion Stout.  I thought there were some chocolate notes in there but Todd tasted just alcohol.  It definitely had a strong alcohol smell.  I only had a couple of sips, I just couldn't do it.  Todd finished it off though, liking it much better than last night's sour.

Lion Stout is brewed by Lion Brewery in Sri Lanka and they also brew Carlsberg beer which was the only one I was familiar with on their page.  They have 5 brews, including the Stout and Carlsberg.

What is there to know about Lion Brewery?  Well their story starts in 1860 when the founder, British Planter Sir Samuel Baker established a home brewery.  It appears 1881 is when commercial brewing started.  Ownership changed in 1884 and again in 1911 to the Ceylon Brewery.

Their website says, about Lion Stout, "The dark caramel, large dense headed brew, with its 8.8% alcoholic content, is unique due to its sweet notes of chocolate and coffee interspersed into a foundation of dark roasted barley. Symbolic black to denote leadership, power, focus and strength, is dominant in the labeling as the lion journeys in the twilight unafraid, unbowed and unchallenged."

My opinion when first seeing the bottle was one of Strong and Powerful.  The dark bottle, dark beer color and the lion just resonated 'strong' to me.

Beer Advocate scores this 8.8% Alcohol content beer as a "very good" with a score of 88.  If you like a strong, dark beer, this one is for you!

Try it locally---stop by Craft Beer Cellar in Brandon to grab a bottle or on draft, check out Mr. Dunderbak's in Tampa or World of Beer in Sarasota for a sample!

By the way--have y'all ever really read any of the reviews on Beer Advocate?  I need to learn more about A-S-T-M-O!  If you're not sure what that is, check out Beer Advocate's community page on how to review a beer!

Here's tonight's photo!


ENJOY!