Star Lager
Nigerian Breweries, Ltd.

 

Bought from Home Bargains UK, 600ml bottle. Poured into pilsner glass. Slightly skunked aroma upon opening, thin white head that lingers well. Taste is very much a pilsner with more of a sweet malty profile, very much akin to Pilsner Urquell but a bit sweeter. Malted Sorghum brings a unique sweet vegetable note to the taste. Very good lager.

Clear orange body, short lived cap settles into a ring. Smells of cheap euro grains with fruity esters, mild skunk. Taste is so fruity, sugar and esters all the way baby! Not much else to report though. Not offensive just odd honestly. Feel is thin and malty, no definition to speak of. But hey first beer from Nigeria!

Poured into a Seattle Beer Week pint glass. Pour a light to medium golden amber with three finger white head that dissipates slowly to a thick cap with nice lacing. Aroma of sweet, bready lager malt, grassy hops and apple juice. Flavor is sweet bready malt, lemon, apple juice and sweet adjunct notes with light grassy hops. Flavor dies out quickly in the finish. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. It’s been a while since I've had a sorghum brew, but it appears that this component gives a light sweetness like corn in American adjunct lagers. In fact, the initial taste is mellow, slightly sweet and inoffensive like that style. I rather liked the initial taste of the sorghum, but the flavor really plummeted into the finish, leaving the light grassy hops stark in the finish. Light in bitterness, but within adjunct lager range. A fraction of a point added to the aroma/flavor score because despite being shipped in a green bottle, there is virtually no sign of skunking, which is interesting. Not my style of brew, but left me thinking it could interest me in tasting a crafty sorghum ale to see how it tastes. Except for underwhelming flavor depth, tastes fine and I could see drinking this on a hot African evening or with a meal.

 

Green 450 ml bottle poured into a tumbler pint glass.

L: Clear light amber, three quarter inch white head, tight foam with an island of sudsy foam in the middle, moderate retention.
S: Subtle nose, grainy, bread, absolutely no skunk.
T: Malty, medium sweet grain and bread, hint of spicy hops up front with a light grassy bitterness to finish, honey note as it warms.
F: Crisp light body, frothy and chewy feel adds to the weight, small tongue bite.
O: A little on the sweet malty side but good, certainly better than expected.

Poured from an 11.2 oz. can. Has a golden color with a 1/2 inch head. Smell is of sorghum. Taste is sharp sorghum, little else. Feels medium bodied in the mouth and overall it was nice to try a beer from Nigeria, but one is plenty. I have had far worse sorghum beers.

 

 

Star Lager has a thick, off-white head, and a pale gold appearance, with lots of powdery suspended sediment and heavy lacing. The aroma is of malted barley and grain syrup. The flavor is of those elements, with virtually no bitterness. Star Lager is full bodied and has a mostly-dry finish.

RJT

I note that malted sorghum is an ingredient
Having not eaten/tasted sorghum to the best of my knowledge I was somewhat in the dark
This has a sweetish malt flavor which I wasn’t expecting
I would envisage crisp sharp and cleansing more important if one was sweltering away in Nigeria (assuming you hadn’t been kidnapped as is the want of several Nigerian rebel groups)

Bought a bottle of this beer at the local Total Wine.

Poured into a tall pint glass. Clear bright yellow color with decent inhead and good lacing. The initial smell was classic for a lager, sort of crisp and corny. However it faded quickly. Sort of bready but boring. Pretty good feel for a lager. Probably not a repeater.

It has got a soft mouth, which is why I rate Star considerably higher than the BA average.
Looking at Star, it is considerably below my average of 3.25. Smells improve slightly as I am a malt-head; but sweet malt is all I get. For Taste, it is barely balanced; but still is... lingering hops will make Star into something resembling its name. But what a Feel ! Star is ultra-soft for a lager.

My only brew from Nigeria so far, the company's website shows many advantages via its ownership with Heineken. Classic beer advertising and the most advanced and sustainable brewing techniques I could imagine in Africa. It seems to be a business run as well as if it were in Europe... a testament to Heineken's methods and reach. Huge Overall Hugs for this high production brewing outpost.

Shared 330 ml can, at local tasting. ABV is 5.1%. Pale golden colour, large white head. Minimal aroma, hints of grassy and citrussy hops, not unpleasant though. Fairly "clean" and neutral pale lager flavour, a hint of citrus, noticeable hops. Not as bad as I feared

Poured from a bottle into a pint glass

Appearance – The beer pours a clear golden amber color with a one finger head of puffy white foam. THE head fades rather fast leaving just a trace of foamy lace on the sides of the glass.

Smell – The aroma of the brew is light overall, consisting of a little bit of a grainy and bready smell mixed with a almost apple juice like aroma. At the same time there is just a little bit of pear and apricot as well as a touch of mustiness and hay.

Taste – The taste begins with a caramel and apple, pear, and peach sweetness mixed with some bready and grainy flavors. These tastes remain relatively constant throughout, with very little change across the taste profile. A little bit of grass and a slight increase in the apple comes to the tongue, leaving one with a slightly fruity lager taste to linger on the tongue.

Mouthfeel – The body of the brew is medium in thickness with a mid of the road carbonation. Overall, the feel is OK for the tastes and nature of the brew.

Overall – An OK lager. Nothing too special or exciting though.

16oz green bottle

Pours a finger of white head into my Pilsner glass, fades pretty quickly. Initial lacing looks subpar. Body is golden yellow, darker than your average lager. Doesn’t look too good so far.

Nose is not that great either - syrupy malt at first, paper, reminiscent of oxidation. Kinda settles down and come across as just really malty; British; Marris Otter. Maybe some caramel or toasty/burnt notes. Overall just too sweet and malty, hard to tell if it’s intended or not.

I don’t think this is oxidized, but man is this all over the place. Burnt caramel malt with a fruit ester/almost sour patch finish. This tastes like malt flavored water, extremely fake. Extracty, though not in a grossly sweet syrupy way - just fake. This is bad.

Carbonation is high-ish. Body is paper thin, this feels like water as much as it tastes like water. Sweetness is lowish, but higher than an average lager. Bitterness is not noticeable. Very poor mouthfeel.

Drinkability is ok I guess, but definitely gross at times.

Appearance turned out poor, zero lacing.

The flavor cleaned up some of the odds and ends, but it still tastes like extract and water.

 

 

Bottled in a big green 600ml bottle and purchased from Home Bargains
Pours a virtually clear golden body with quite a thick white head
Aroma is corn flakes and skunking
Flat sweet malt slight bitter finish with subtle soapy notes
I actually don’t dislike it

The green bottle should have warned me but it was in the cooler at the local TW so I figured why not? Clear medium orange/gold with quickly dissipating white head leaving moderate lacing-looks ok. Nose is grainy and grassy ,a little skunky with a whiff of solvent. Taste follows with smoldering bandaids and bitter wet cardboard. I've had worse. If it was sweltering and this was really cold I could see drinking a few....or not.