Opened cold and poured hard from a 473ml can into a willi becher. Opaque and still, the head thin and mocha-coloured, gone inside thirty seconds.
Halo Brewery have built this on brown / chocolate / oat with Northern Brewer in the kettle. 6.8%, 34 IBU: unremarkable numbers on paper, and the beer is better for it.
The aroma writes a cheque the palate very nearly cashes. What arrives is drier and quieter than the nose promises, and while the finish is clean, a point of the score disappears into the gap between the two.
It holds together across a second glass, which is not guaranteed at 6.8%. The bitterness accumulates rather than fatigues, and the aroma is still doing something by the bottom of the second pour, which is the real test of a oak-aged coffee porter.
The coffee is dosed with restraint, which is rarer than it should be. It reads as roast and bitterness rather than as a cold brew poured into a stout, and it has not flattened the malt underneath.
Against the rest of the stout shelf this holds its own comfortably. It is not the beer that will convert anybody to the style, but it is the one you reach for once the converting is done, and at $7.40 / 473ml it is honestly priced.
Bought at Halo Taproom (in stock at the time of writing). Drink it inside two months. The coffee dulls first.
Pair it with something salty and eat while you drink. It rewards the company.
