Hakim Stout

Brewed by Harar Beer Factory
Style: Foreign Stout
Harar, Ethiopia

330ml brown bottle. Deep brown in colour, tan head which thins out quickly. Chocolately/cocoa aroma with some sweetness. Starts sweet, has notes of cocoa, black coffee. Finish has some roasted malt, a little sourness to it and lingering coffee bean taste. Medium body, carbonation a bit high.

Didn’t hate my first sip but it was all downhill from there. Way too sweet. Honey-ness dominates all else. Ruined my Ethiopian dinner.

12-oz. Pours brownish mahogany with garnet highlights. Some thick moussy tannish head. Lots of caramel and toffee, maybe little bit of roast nut. Watery body for a stout, but sturdy enough as a food beer (served, all to the better I suppose, with Ethiopian food in this case). A little sour aluminum flourish on the tail end. Pleasantly drinkable, and always happily associated with this restaurant, but not a beer to seek out for center stage service.

Bottled. Pours a clear dark amber with a lacy off-white head. Aromas of molasses and burnt caramel. Light body with medium carbonation. The taste is sweet with molasses, nuts and honey. Quick finish. This is definitely foreign, but a stout? I don’t think so! It is kinda interesting though.

Bottle: Dark brown, hazy ruby-brown when held to the light, with a medium light tan head that lasts. The aroma is sweet coffee, nuts, milk chocolate, cocoa, which overall does smell somewhat oxidized to me, but really does seem to work both in the smell and taste with the flavors present here. Taste is sweet coffee, latte, cocoa, caramel, and roasted malts (though it’s mild in its pungency). Medium bodied, medium carbonated.

Bottle shared with GregClow, Jerc, Hogtown Harry, and Blankboy, his bottle. Dark brown, creamy head. Decent aroma: malt, chocolate, acidic. Taste - deep chocolaty with butterscotch. Like a rich chocolate / caramel ice cream. Sweet butterscotch / caramel grows, chocolate fades as it warms. Nice roast linger. Maybe a little light, but I really enjoyed it, more than the others I shared it with.

Bottle shared with HogTownHarry, GregClow, jerc & tupalev -- courtesy of Presario. Pours a clear dark ruby with a small semi-lasting off-white head. Aroma’s fruity, malty and lactic. Flavour’s milky and malty with along with some roastness. Light bodied. This is an odd one, it’s definitely different then your average Stout but it’s just O.K.

Bottle (330ml). Shared with blankboy, GregClow, jerc and tupalev - blankboy’s bottle. Poured clear mahogany-brown with a decent creamy/foamy/shiny tan lasting head. Roasty aroma, very sweet and lactic, a lot of yeast and chalk/dust character - like malted milk. Tasted of metal, quite acidic and bitter - still roasty and lactic but dominated by smokey harsh bitterness. Fairly decent stout body, acidic, flat and bitter mouthfeel, with a long fairly harsh finish - an odd, malty beer - interesting, but not all that good.