Hakim Stout

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

Wrong...all wrong. Tiny ammount of head was gone quicker than i could put this stuff out of its misery. Tried to con druken beer clones into drinking most of it - the remaining bottle will rot until there is nothing left in the fridge i’m sure. Fake sweet chocolate stink and taste with low end malts. Beer smelt exactly as it tasted. Red/brown colour and quite see through - if the bottle didnt say ’Stout’ I never wouldve known. Terrible beer but not terrible in an aching stomach way, that is, unless you had more than one. Hardly worth the 5 cents I’ll get back from the bottle depot

very sweet stout, dasrk brown color, slight head, caramel and malt flavors dominate with a slight woody quality.

From Bottle. I had this at an Ethiopian Restaurant tonight. Light, watery stout, but with some decent flavor. Easy to drink, but very uneventful. I was exactly expecting great things from an Ethiopian beer though.

This beer comes courtesy of my own sheer stupidity for wanting try a beer from Ethiopia...the next time I have a stroke of genius like this, slap me. This beer pours a ruby red/magenta color with a thin off-white head and relatively good lacing. Then everything went to hell in a handbag. The aroma was that of roasted barley and plastic. Highly intolerable wet cardboard in there as well. The flavor is very light bodied for a stout and reminded me a lot of the awful Quake Chocolate Cream Ale. Coca-Cola qualities with chocolate, grape and black licorice notes in the finish. It also tastes like horrid wet cardboard. A bit of a cloying finish, though it was sort of amazing given the body was so thin...syrup like stickiness, yet nothing to this beer. Its as if they took the recipe for Coca-Cola and added barley to it, then dunked it in water with a piece of cardboard floating around in it for hours. Drain.... pour! From the Harar brewery...absolutely Hararble!

Bottle at The Office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. You know how Hollywood movies can be really hoaky and unbelievable? Like when Sylvester Stallone rips the bullet out of his abdomen, pours gunpowder in the hole, lights it on fire, and walks away fine? Well, to swallow that sort of thing, you need what’s called "suspension of disbelief." Put your skepticism on hold, and just enjoy the moment. Try that with this beer. OK, it’s not a stout. Yes, it’s a bit on the sweet side. But compare it to any beer in any developing country on earth, especially in Africa, and you will find they are almost all incredibly boring lagers. This one is at least different. Yes, you can see through it, and the head disappears quicker than my IRA did. But it has some complexity to it. It starts out with caramel and molasses, then a bit of cocoa, then a faintly bitter burnt coffee finish. I can think of no better way to celebrate the end of Ramadan. Eid mubarak!!

330 mL into pint glass. Had this at Dukem Ethiopian restaurant in DC. Pours a cloudy light brown like unfiltered apple cider with a decent tan head that sticks around for a little. Aroma is caramel malt, soy sauce, apple cider, and sake. Taste is same as above plus molasses and brown sugar and a good amount of dirty earthiness. This reminds me a lot of Hitachino Nest Beers. Not a stout whatsoever but still very good.

I drank an Ethiopian stout...isn't that insane? Well, the aroma knocked me off my feet, I thought for a minute I had come across some jewel in the brush but let's do a little side by side comparison of the aroma and flavor shall we: 1)There was an incredible full aroma of vanilla bean, rum and egg nog, little hints of espresso and a definitive sweetness that was not overpowering or distracting. 2)the vanilla/rum/eggnog goodness in the aroma was completely and utterly gone with the first sip. How the hell did they manage that one? Okay the espresso is there, I'll give them that, but combined with the crippling thin mouthfeel it tasted like iodine. A few minutes after finishing this I think I tasted a smidgeon of vanilla, but hardly enough to compensate. This is probably the most lopsided beer I've ever had.

Bottled: Aroma - Horrid, smells like a chocolate-coated fart. Nice color, deep-deep reddish brown color. Fast dissapating head. Tastes of cocoa and light coffee with maybe some berry accents. not a strong flavor but that was okay because it was not all that appealing - glad I tried it but would not buy again.