​A cold dense black coffee like infusion with a fine creamy foam or head on top is what comes to your mind when you think of a stout beer. So, what is a Stout? A Stout is a top-fermented beer or an ale which is typically made using roasted unmalted barley and often with adjuncts like oatmeal etc added. The classic aromas of a stout include coffee, chocolate with hops in the background. Going against its looks, a Stout is not that bitter but is on the sweeter side relatively speaking in terms of beers. Indians have taken up to stout very well, perhaps it all started with the Irish Guinness and then the microbreweries took it even higher so much that we now have stouts in bottles made by Indian producers. Here are the Indian Stout Beers in bottle
Simba Stout
Creamy, Espresso, Ebony, Bold are the adjectives the company uses to describe their stout. It is again light bodied relatively with 5% alcohol. 

​Bira Malabar Stout
The Malabar Stout beer from Bira mimics a cold brew coffee with alcohol. It has 4.5% alcohol and is much lighter than traditional stouts. They use coffee beans from the Malabar hills in India and hence the name. Sounds like a good beer to induct a coffee lover into the beer world.
Goa Brewing Cos Breakfast Cereal Stout
This one has a different take on a traditional stout with a different grainbill. This one had rice puffs, oats, corn flakes as the base of the beer and you now understand where the nomenclature comes from. They also add adjuncts like chocolate and lactose to the mix and bottle it at 4.5 percent alcohol
Briggs Brewery Stout Alchemy
A full bodies Irish stout, it exudes aromas of caramel, coffee and chocolate and will moderate bitterness from the hops. This will be released short in the market 

A career in bartending is slowly gaining momentum in India and hence lot of bartending institutes and bar schools are mushrooming to fill the gap in bartending education. Whilst some may be focused on education, many are factories where the quality of education of often ignored specially due to faculty with lack of industry experience and hence content. 

The Happy High hence is slated to start it's own bartending school in Mumbai after being in the wine and spirit education field for 10 years.  The Bartending Academy in Mumbai will be headed by Ajit Balgi , a WSET Educator, India's first India based wine educator who is also a Cognac Educator( one of the 90 in the world) and also a Maison trainer a global bar training program. Ajit has trained over 5000 professionals and has trained  hoteliers in Maldives, Thailand and London and is associated with beverages for the last 19 years.

The Happy High Bar School aims to groom beginners and get them job ready with content that is relevant for today's bars. We will look at getting the basics right in terms of spirits knowledge, wine tasting techniques, cocktail styles and cocktail making apart from getting the core of customer service and Bartender's personality right. Whilst Flair Bartending is what many beginners aspire to learn, we feel that the skill is not relevant for bars in India and abroad for now. Hence Fire Flair etc will be out of purview in this course. 

How to choose a Bartending School in India?
Dos:
- Look at the Faculty & industry connect
- Look at the infrastructure - a functional bar, equipments
- Look at the course relevance and practical aspect. 

Don't:
- Don't look for low fees. You do a bar course once, so please don't cut corners.
- Don't look at earning money during the course.  You are there to study. 
- Don't get lured into Flair Bartending, the industry relevance is low. ​

Please write to us at contact@thehappyhigh.com for more details