The other night I opened up a bottle of Flying Horse Royal Lager, one I’d never heard of. Not knowing exactly what to expect, I opened it and then saw that it’s brewed in India; I’d never had an Indian beer before.

Appearance: Pours crystal clear and gold, with a thin, crisp white head.

Smell: It has that slightly-skunky European lager smell (one I usually associate with Grolsch or Heineken). The grains are noticeable, and there’s a low hop presence.

Taste: Clean. It’s darker somehow than a typical American light lager. Richer. There’s a fruity character in the background, on the tongue.

Mouthfeel: Thin, but with a slightly syrupy feel to it.

It doesn’t score overly high on BeerAdvocate; only 76 and two-thirds (66%) approval rating. Can’t win them all, I guess, even though that’s a fairly decent score for the American Macro Lager category over there. On RateBeer it only scores 2.13 out of 5.

I didn’t think it was too bad, better than the average light lager. It has a richer, grainier character than what you’d expect; perhaps they aren’t brewing with rice adjuncts? At any rate, worth a try.