A beer with my name on it !

• By Piyush
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On my recent trip to Toronto, I had dropped by the LCBO.

For those of you who don’t know what the LCBO is - LCBO stands for the Liquor Control Board of Ontario and are generally the only stores allowed to sell hard liquor in Ontario.

While at the LCBO, Imagine my surprise, when I found a beer that has my name on it !

The beer is called Sinha beer and is brewed by the Lion Brewery (Ceylon) Plc. in the Nuwara Eliya & Biyagama regions of Sri Lanka and has a heritage dating back to 1881 ! It comes in two varieties – a Stout beer and a Lager beer. The one I tried out was the Sinha stout.

The Sinha stout beer is 8.8% alcohol by volume, which is a little more than most beers. It is brewed from British, Czech and Danish malts with Syrian hops and an English yeast strain. All the ingredients are transported along precarious roads to the brewery located 3,500 feet above sea level. It is a traditional stout with a blend of chocolate, coffee and toffee flavours. It has an extraordinary chocolate, mocha liquer like character.

The pour is thick, rich and creamy looking with a huge and rocky light brown coloured head. The head settles down to a thick, coarse and rocky cap fairly quickly and leaves a thin lace on the glass. The aroma is quite interesting, some chocolate, roasted coffee, toast and a hint of sulphur. Feel is very rich and creamy, quite thick on the tongue and a bit drying. The taste is all about the  roasted malts, just as it should be. There are lot’s of coffee and chocolate tastes with some nice toasted bread flavours. Bits of raisin and date are hidden away in there along with a cream taste. The finish is moderately dry with lingering coffee/chocolate tastes. Definitely a very pleasant beer, great to drink on a cold day.

The Sinha stout is also listed in Roger Protz book as one of ‘300 Beers to Try before you die‘.