Any stout drinkers in here?
aspieRommel
Icrontic politicoIndianapolis, IN Icrontian
in Food & Drink
Hey guys, I see all these posts about beer and I was wondering if there is anyone who like a pint of stout now and then. I prefer either Guinness Irish or Extra Stout, but I'd like to hear the different kinds (brands) out there that I might want to try as well as see if anyone else likes stout beer.
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top 4 here http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/style/82/
top 4 here http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/style/69/
several great ones here http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/style/84/ but be prepared for a more in your face experience.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/style/ + ctrl+f "stout" =
+1 for Young's Double Chocolate Stout.
Love stouts! Thanks much for the links - I am going to have to check these out.
I know it's god tier and all, but with all the Michiganers here. Founders KBS is stupidly good. Their Breakfast stout is also very very good, and readily available.
Also Bell's Black Note. Also Great Lake's Blackout Stout. Finally Hoppin Frog's B.O.R.I.S is ridiculously good, in all it's variants. It's also an Imperial Stout, So it's high ABV. But it's so smoothe and chocolately and coffeey and caramelly basically It hits all the notes you want from a stout.
even though its not a stout, you might try smithwicks if you like guiness
Same here. and @XGPHero they also have that at the pub I go to a lot. I have been wanting to try it but I didn't know if it tasted good. Yes, I am one of those who drink for the taste (something that my friend @Creeperbane2 always teases me about).
oh i drink for a lot of reasons...taste being not the least of them. and yes it is really good, my favorite pub has it on tap, and from what i understand, it is nitrogenated AND carbonated, which makes for a really nice...texture for lack of a better word. i will also recommend hemp ale by humboldt brewing co., which i believe is very much like a stout, but is also 13% so drink it carefully...it has a tendency to sneak up on you. there are other hemp ales at 9% and 5% but i prefer the huboldt brewing co.
This stuff is insanely good.
Stout you say?
I may or may not be a fan.
EPIC Big Bad Baptist
Firestone-Walker Parabola
Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout (also, vanilla and coffee variants)
Goose Island Night Stalker (which I've only had once and never found it again)
Young's Double Chocolate Stout
Old Rasputin
Victory Storm King Imperial
Harviestoun Ola Dubh (Old Engine Oil aged in varying degrees of Scotch barrels)
New Holland Dragon's Milk
Founder's Breakfast Stout (and Kentucky Breakfast Stout)
Sam Adams' 13th Hour (a Belgian Stout, very interesting)
In the past few days I've had a Skull Rock Stout, Young's double chocolate stout and Anchor Porter.
Out of all three Skull Rock was the best. If you ever get a chance to try it, I highly recommend it. Craft breweries do it better.
@MrTRiot Good to know. We have a few around here, the ones of note being Fountain Square Brewing Co. and Sun King Brewery. I look through their selection sometime.
First: where do you live? Different beers are available in different states. You can use SeekABrew to find out which recommendations are available in your state.
That said, here are my commonly-available-in-Michigan recommendations:
I'm purposefully skipping "whale" beers like KBS and BCBS that you have to either trade for or stand in line to buy.
*I know, porters aren't stouts, but unless you can tell me the sensory differences between the style I don't want to hear it. For virtually all purposes they're the same IMHO
(Edit: Forgot a couple that I love: Rochester Mills Milkshake Stout and Atwater Vanilla Java Porter, highly recommend both of those. Sorry that the Milkshake Stout is in a can @Linc
)
@georgeh I live in Indianapolis.
i do believe someone needs a certain badge...
OK then, here's another list for you of just stouts/porters that I recommend that are also available in Indiana (according to SeekABrew:
There are probably plenty of beers you get that I'm not familiar with, so this isn't an end-all list for you, but all are great stouts to check out.
*Seasonal beers
@georgeh There is essentially no difference. It has to do with the lineage of where the beers originated. I think there may be a difference in the types of yeast as well but literally you won't taste it, it's not like belgian or witbier yeast differences.
So, Great Lakes Brewery is actually by neighborhood brewery ( 1 of 5 but who's counting) and I went on the tour just last weekend and since I am a total beer nerd I was chatting up. The woman leading the tour regaled me with a story about how they were once making a Christmas stout, but someone said that the name Christmas Porter sounded better so they went with that.
On that side note Edmund Fitzgerald is THE porter. At beer festivals it is the porter that all other Porters are judged, the reference porter. YEAH IT'S PRETTY FUCKING GOOD.
Shit man one of the best breweries in the Country is in Muncie. Three Floyds, you can probably get their Scotch Ale Robert the Bruce which is pretty close to a Stout. They have some other releases as well. Like Alpha Klaus which is really malty while maintaining some hoppiness which is rare. They of course have their Dark Lord Russian Imperial stout. But those fuckers are damn near impossible to get your hands on unless you go to the festival release. They also have to be aged.
I am a coffee lover. I am a stout lover, so Kujo Coffee Stout from Flying Dog totally does it for me.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/68/76710/
I keep an Old Rasputin on hand for @Jason when he comes around, LBC's Milk Stout for @Ryder. I enjoy a simple Sam Adam's Cream Stout as my go-to (as I am right this moment!)
Several of my favorite beers are whiskey/bourbon barrel aged, like Ola Dubh, Kunnhenn's 4D, and Atwater's Shipwreck. They are murky types to me, but fall close enough to stout that I'm going by @georgeh's criteria of "I dare you to explain the difference without sounding like an ass."
@Aaron's parents are just back from Ireland and said several times how very different (better) Guinness is over there. I bet I'd like it. Here, bleh, it tastes like a loaf of bread, I won't touch it.
I should maybe mention I have a special edition Ola Dubh set aside for the return of the great @Dunigan but I fear it will be well-aged by then.
I love imperial stouts. Besides Trappist-style ales, they're all I drink these days. My favourites are Deschutes Abyss and barrel-aged Old Rasputin. Other stouts I enjoy are Old Rasputin; Samuel Smith Imperial Stout; Widmer's KGB, Raspberry Russian Imperial Stout, Chocolate Russian Imperial Stout, and Milk Stout; Stone Russian Imperial Stout; Great Divide Yeti Oak-Aged Imperial Stout; Sierra Nevada Narwhal Imperial Stout; Rogue's Big Ass Imperial Stout; Lagunitas Imperial Stout; Dogfish Head World Wide Stout.
One of these days, I hope to try Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout and Bell's Expedition Stout; but I'm not holding my breath, especially for the former.
Stouts were, for the longest time, my favorite type of beer. Recently I've began to lean more towards porter and pale ales, but I will always have a soft spot for stouts (ESPECIALLY barrel aged!)
Few of my favorites:
Mission Dark Seas - This might be my favorite Russian Imperial Stout. Crazy huge notes of chocolate, coffee, and deep malt. Lots of heat, too.
Highwater Brewing Campfire Stout - Tastes like smores on a campfire. Crazy sweet, but just perfect if you're into it.
Honorable mention to my favorite barrel aged stouts - Firestone Walker Parabola, Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout, Alesmith Speedway Stout, New Holland Dragon's Milk.
I love 13th hour. I had one aged for 10 months and it was fantastic (bottle conditioned, so it cellars well). I bought another to cellar even longer, you could tell that 10 months was solid but it could have kept going.
@Jason That's a very solid list. Though I am not a big fan of Rogue....
Yep, I cellared mine for a full year (got it for Christmas, cracked it the next Christmas) and it was fantastic. Still quite active when we popped the cork.
I'm a huge fan of Belgian yeast, that flowery/fruity/but not sweet quality it gives worked really well with the big bold roasty malty of the stout.
As @Linc said, Sam Adams Cream Stout is one of my favorite beers to just have around. New Holland's Poet oatmeal stout is also a great drinkable stout to have around. Now that they are getting distribution over on this side of the country Deschutes Brewing's Black Butte is a new favorite (porter, not a stout but w/e).
That said I am a big aged beer fan. I trade and age beers myself. Mostly BBA or various booze barrel aged stouts and barleywines. Everyone has a BBA beer now a days, but GI Bourbon County, and it variants, is one of the first and best around. Usually anything barrel aged out of Founders Brewing is good. Deschutes does some fine BA beers as well as most of the others listed by others above.
Me either. But their Big Ass Barrel Imperial Stout is good, as is their Double Chocolate Stout. The devil take the rest.
Ok, tried the Old Rasputin, poured almost exactly as pictured above, and LOVED it!
Also grabbed a can of Ten FIDY, some weird toffee ale, a bottle of Youngs Double Chocolate, and some organic cider business.
Really appreciate the discussion and suggestions. I look forward to a good xmas week of delicious loss of consciousness.
I love Black Butte. That's one of my main go-tos when I want a easy going dark beer. That beer introduced me to Deschutes, and they're now a top 5 brewery for me.