As you may have gathered from recent posts (and my Twitter
account if you’re following there) I recently returned from a two-week holiday
in Sri Lanka. As with most holidays, prior to travelling I did a bit of research
on what beer to look out for but information on Sri Lanka was pretty scant. This
post from Red Hunt was about the best I could find and is worth a read, although
it appears to be a bit out of date now. I thought I’d put together a brief post
(I’m reluctant to call it a guide) detailing what I was able to find when I was
out there.
Where to buy beer in
Sri Lanka
Beer is pretty widely available in restaurants although not
always legally. A lot of places don’t list it on the menu but will offer it to
you on arrival. On one occasion a waiter hurried around a restaurant I was
eating at asking everyone to put their beer bottles under the table! I was also
unable to buy beer on Sri Lankan National Day (February 4th)
although again it appeared that not everywhere adhered to the ban. You may also
find it difficult to buy beer on or around ‘Poya’ days (full moon) which are
celebrated by the Buddhist population.
As in many other countries beer is not sold in supermarkets
or small shops, it’s available only in specially licensed premises known as ‘Wine
Shops’. These aren’t always that easy to find, when I was walking around towns
on foot I rarely came across them but when driving from town to town I seemed
to see loads, so it’s quite possible that they’re located on the fringes of
settlements.
On the whole it doesn’t seem that the authorities are that keen to promote beer consumption.
Carlsberg’s website (owner of Sri Lanka’s biggest brewery) suggests that there is a ban on all forms of advertising for alcohol, even on trade.
How much is beer in Sri Lanka?
Alcohol is fairly cheap, particularly from a Western
perspective. Large 625ml bottles would cost little more than approx. £0.80
($1.30) or so from a wine shop, including the strong beers and stouts, a quite
astonishing price when you consider the amount of alcohol in them. Restaurant
prices were higher and in some of the smarter or more touristy places you might
pay up to £2 or so ($3.30).
Beers available in
Sri Lanka
I’ve featured four Sri Lankan beers on this blog in the last
week or so and I’ve got a couple more that I brought home with me but I didn’t
find it that easy to track stuff down.
 |
| Lion Stout |
The national brew is Lion Lager, a very reasonable Asian
lager typical of its style. You won’t need to try hard to track this down as it
is served absolutely everywhere. Also available from the Lion brand is Lion Stout, an absolutely wonderful 8.8% stout that is pretty much as good as any I’ve
ever tasted. This is a little bit harder to track down but if you can find a
wine shop, they’ll have it. The third Lion brew I spotted on my travels was
Lion Strong, an 8.8% lager. I’ve got a small can of this at home which I bought
out of curiosity and a post will be along when I’ve drunk it! The Lion Brewery
is owned by Carlsberg and it’s also possible to find Carlsberg and Carlsberg
Special Brew, should you feel the need.
 |
| Three Coins Lager |
The next most popular brand seems to be Three Coins. I tried
the Three Coins Lager which was reasonably good, refreshing but not as good as
Lion. Three Coins Lager is pretty widely available in restaurants. Three Coins
previously produced a range of other beers including a wheat beer but the
brewery was acquired by Millers in 2011 and it appears that these are no longer
produced. I also picked up a can of Sando Stout (8.8%) which is also brewed by
Millers and I’m yet to drink but again, a post will appear soon.
The other lager I managed to try was the Sri Lankan version
of Anchor Smooth. As per my post on this lager, versions are brewed across
Asia. This isn’t a particularly good beer at all and unless you’re a completest
I’d stick to Lion or Three Coins.
Annoyingly I came across a wine shop on my last night that
had the widest range of beers I’d seen on the whole trip but I didn’t have room
in my bag for any more (or the desire to carry them). Stupidly I didn’t note
the names but there are more beers out there although they are most likely
variations on a theme; pale lager, a stout (most likely 8.8% ABV) and strong
lager.
To the best of my knowledge there aren’t any microbreweries
out there and the beer you’re likely to find will be from one of the three
breweries mentioned above, but I’d love to be proved wrong on this so please
let me know if you find anything exciting!
Beer locations in Sri
Lanka
Actual pointers on where to find beer are always useful, so
here are a few places I found that didn’t just sell Lion Lager…
Kandy – The Queens Hotel bar serves Three Coins Lager and
Anchor Smooth. This colonial-era hotel is also quite a pleasant way to pass a
couple of hours and is of interest historically, there are some old photographs
and artefacts on display near the bar.
Ella – There is a licensed bar on the main road towards the
north of the village. When I went it was populated entirely by locals despite
the large tourist presence. They sold me a Lion Stout to take away and had a variety
of other beers available (again I didn’t make a note, sorry!)
Negombo – There are at least three wine shops on the main
roads that run alongside the beach (Porutota Road and Lewis Place). They sell
different stuff at each one; one place sold Lion stuff exclusively whilst
another had everything but (yet again, I didn’t make a note) and this was where
I picked up my Sando Stout.
Saturday
evening’s drinking was rounded off with an IPA from the Kernel brewed with Motueka,
Centennial and Stella hops off the keg at Stormbird in Camberwell. I find it
pretty cool to be able to drink so many fresh and local beers at the moment;
for example this beer was brewed within about 2 miles of the pub. I also enjoy
that The Kernel often labels their beers with the type of hops used. When I
first started writing this blog it was these labels that lead me into first
investigating the world of hops and the myriad different varieties. It also
helps with tasting and makes it far easier to work out what you like, and what
you don’t. The beer pours a hazy gold and looks like it could be heavy going!
The taste is earthy, musty hops, it’s nice and crisp with a strong bitter
element as you’d expect. There’s also some bitter orange in here and a tiny
hint of sweetness too that makes it a very drinkable beer indeed, for me.
