The "Mane" Event

This post needs a little background. Stay with me, as I promise it will get back to beer.

For about 8 years now, my family has been involved with a local childrens theater company called Blackbox Players (http://www.blackboxplayers.com/). My wife and I have enjoyed acting for quite a while and now that we have kids who enjoy being on stage, our interest in Blackbox is even stronger. This fall's show is a musical version of the C. S. Lewis book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It has been a fun show, with an interested cast of adults and children and some great original music from a local artist.

I am cast as Aslan, the mysterious lion leader of the good forces in the land of Narnia. Aslan has proven a difficult role for me to play, as I am typically cast in a comic-relief type role. Aslan does not joke; he does not make the audience laugh; he hardly even smiles. All the same, it has been an interesting role for me and the costume is really neat (see the attached picture).

Now, back to beer. One of my fellow cast members has been interested in brewing for quite some time. We got to talking and I invited him to my house over to brew a batch of a beer of his choosing to help show him the ropes and see if he would like to explore the hobby further. He said he wanted to do an oatmeal stout and we left it at that. Apparently, he was in a grocery store looking for a couple commercial examples of oatmeal stout when he saw a beer bottle with a giant lion (think Aslan) on its label. He kindly purchased it and gave it to me as a gift.

Lion Stout is brewed by the Lion Brewery PLC, which is located in Sri Lanka. It is a beer that has gained quite a following outside its country of origin. The bottle has the following quote from Michael Jackson, of Beer Hunter fame, ". . . the stout was soft, fresh and quite delicious. This was the top-fermenting Lion Stout . . . it was bottle-conditioned and had an extraordinary chocolaty, mocha character . . ." Ratebeer.com gives it a rating of 98%, with well over 1,000 votes. Here is my humble review . . .

The stout pours with a thick mocha-colored head. The foam has a tight bubble matrix, which makes it look rather like a giant pillow, though it gradually dissipated, leaving a neat lacing on the glass. The beer itself it as black as I imagine a black hole would appear. I held the glass up to a strong light and I could not perceive any light coming through. The aroma has a distinct dark chocolate smell, with just a hint of alcohol, which reminds me of a Godiva liquor. I also get hints of coffee, but it does not come close to competing with chocolate in the nose.

The flavor of the beer is devine. It is smooth and creamy, without any of the alcohol presence I would expect from an 8% ABV beer. The main flavor component through the entire taste is dark chocolate. I get some coffee and mocha in the mid-palate, but it is subdued. The end of the palate has a slight sweetness; one that competes nicely with the slight roast character of the beer. The stout reminds me most of a "death by chocolate" desert, but not as sweet. It is really quite incredible.

A special thank you to my kind cast-member, Tres, who gave me this wonderful stout. It has been my pleasure to review it. My vote . . . it gets a big ROOOAAARRR!!!