Black, fast fading tan head. Toasty light chocolate nose.Notes of chocolate and coffee,with a dry malt roasty bitterness finish. I quite like it.

22 oz. bottle, enjoyed 10/5/2005 while biting my nails watching the White Sox cling to a 5-4 lead. Pours nutty brown with a big frothy head. Smell is nice and malty, though not enough to give a hint of its intentions. But the taste really is something different. I get just a hint of smoke and plum, maybe even pipe tobacco floating above a sea of English ale and porter malt. Then the comfy roasties of a dry stout come to the fore. Ends up with a dense feel that gives an impression of barrel-aging. As nice a mix of two great tastes as Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

Pour is black with a nice size head. Aroma is hoppy and slightly malty. Flavor is chocolate and hops with a nice caramal aftertaste. Nothing here to do back flips for but its pretty tasty and satisfying. Only $2.38 for a 22oz is also a plus.

Can a blend be more than the sum of its parts? In this case, yes - black hawk stout by itself is overdry and way too carbonated, with not enough sweetness to balance out the dryness and hops - eye of the hawk has a sweetness to it that just can’t find balance - combining the two seems to effectively eliminate the bad aspects of both beers - sweetness and dryness find harmony, and the chocolate malt in the finish from the stout combines well with the hoppy finish of the hawk to give it a roasty, cocoa-like all-around finish - still, this can’t make up for the fact that you’ve started with two pretty unremarkable ales, although they seem to find balance, the overall experience doesn’t set this ale apart from any other middle-of-the-road ales - nothing about it would allow me to pick it out in a blind tasting - a decent drink, worth it for the price, but nothing to stock up on.