Lion Stout.

I normally wouldn't have picked this up or even given it a second glance. I was at the beer shop with a friend, and I had jokingly made a comment about an Indian beer and then this one. He said he had actually had Lion Stout before and that it was actually pretty good. It even has a little blurb on the back from Michael Jackson.

So my first beer from Sri Lanka: Can't get anything in the nose, maybe some cold coffee. The chocolately finish but mostly mocha. I guess I cheated and read what Michael Jackson said, but I don't get the flavors as intensely as it sounds like he did. For 8%ABV (perhaps more like a classic stout), the flavor is quite clean. The mouthfeel is the shining point for me. Smooth, velvety, very fine carbonation; it certainly feels better than it tastes, not that it tastes bad at all. If only some other stouts would have this type of body.

At ~$9 for a six-pack, which comes in its own little display box, it's bit steep, but it's a nice change of pace and a nice middle ground between less flavorful, lower ABV stouts and the big imperial stouts flying in bombers.