Double stout flavoured with cocoa and brewed partially with rice, both grown in Ghana; indeed this beer belongs to the Tale series, a durable project set up by Belgians to stimulate the local economy in the Nsawam region. From a bulky 75 cl bottle with crown cap, bought at De Pickere in Zele and shared with my girlfriend. Huge, frothy, pale greyish beige, cobweb-lacing, bubbly, stable head on a clear, very dark caramel brown beer with burgundy-ruddy glow - almost black in general appearance so believably stout-like. Aroma of hard caramel candy, old liquorice, cocoa but more in the form of diluted chocolate milk than intense dark 'chocolateness', cane sugar, oxidised coconut flakes, ground hazelnuts, hints of bubblegum, tea, cooked rice, gin and clove. Sweet, slick, clean onset with light sourish edge, hinting at pear and medlar, moderately carbonated with lean, slender mouthfeel (especially seen the ABV); caramelly, lightly brown-bready core with the rice providing extra slickness but also a kind of 'emptiness', which the cocoa sprinkled on top cannot completely fill up. Retronasal liquorice note - as in so many middle of the road stouts and porters - along with vague floral hops, while that cocoa whiff fades and slick caramelliness remains. The hops provide background bitterness while roasted bitterness remains limited; the alcohol, it must be said, is well hidden. Oddly thinnish, both in flavour and in body, for what is essentially a kind of foreign stout - especially in our day and age, where we got used to strong stouts being thick and oily; lacking depth and punch for sure, but nevertheless a decent old school double chocolate stout, vaguely reminiscent of old Young's double chocolate stout from England and the like - in other words, stylistically predating the advent of all those big, sweet, thick impies and pastry stouts. Viewed like that, this is not half bad - in fact it is by far the best of these Tale beers for me, or even the only one worth sampling at all. Maybe it is just these low expectations which played a role in my mild rating here, but this beer was certainly better than expected...

Sample, thanks Robin Svensson. Black, quick beige head. Aroma of cocoa and black malt. Mid sweet with surprisingly light body and clean mouthfeel. Somewhat acri black malt, some cocoa. Mid bitter finish.

Pretty darn good

Good roasty notes, a bit of coffee flavor and just a bit of bitter cacao. Nothing fancy, but a nice enough stout. Thanks Bruno V.

Lingering flavor and pretty full....thanks Bruno V.