Thinking about giving stouts another try

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brewjamin_Franklin

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I was raised on hoppy west cost apa and ipas in the pacific northwest. That being said I've never really been a fan of stouts and porters. But since I've gotten into home brewing I'm thinking I should give them another shot. at some point I would like to brew my own, but before that, I need to to do some homework. So I'm wondering if people can recommend some to try to get an idea of what makes the different style varieties great.

Thanks
 
Avery's New World Porter is very good, as well as dryhopped with Columbus (I think it's Cbus). It might be a good transition.
 
There's a bunch of classics out there. Coming to mind first is:

Young's Double Chocolate Stout
Sam Adams Cream Stout
Left Hand Brewing Milk Stout
 
Black Butte, as far as Porters go. My favorite easily accessible stout is probably Obsidian. I guess I tend to lean towards Deschutes. . .
 
I would probably begin with a good porter or two, myself. Black Butte (as has been mentioned) is nice... I still love Sierra Nevada Porter. I have no idea if you can get it, but Bell's Porter was always my fave beer when I brewed there back in the day... Rogue Mocha Porter is nice, a bit hoppier than most porters of course...
 
I am on the East Coast so you probably cannot get Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, but it is great.

New Holland Brewing has a stout called The Poet.

Two great brews
 
I hear ya. You may need to just try a variety of them because they are not all equal. Although they have grown on me,i still am picky about which porters or stouts i like.For every stout/porter you dont like-there is a better one you may like. I think Eel river makes a pretty nice porter. One of the first oatmeal stouts i first enjoyed was Medocino's oatmeal stout-but ive discovered plenty of even better ones. There are different "types" of porters/stouts also- like sweet or robust(dry) etc..
Founders Porter/Breakfast stout or Steelhead extra stout is pretty good.I really like Shalafly's Irish Extra stout.
OH yeah, i really enjoyed the bottled Youngs Double chocolate stout the first time i tried it,i think that may do it for you.
 
Northern Brewers Dry Irish Stout. The older it gets the better it gets. Nice one to start out with.
 
Anderson Valley's Barney Flats Oatmeal stout is a great one to try - different from your typical dry stouts most people associate a stout with
 
If you're ever in Maine, Bar Harbor Brewing Company's Cadillac Mt Stout is AWESOME!

Geary's London Style Porter is great too!
 
If you are a hop head I am guessing you're not into thick chocolate or sweet stouts - me also! I dislike dessert beers in particular. I found a fantastic stout last year: diesel by three points brewery ( if I recall correctly - in Brooklyn) is a hopped up stout, dry and easy drinking at 6% abv or so. My version of this is great. It's essentially a dry stout with a hefty dose of hops:

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 6.00 gal
Boil Size: 7.76 gal
Estimated OG: 1.058 SG
Estimated Color: 31.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 56.4 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 77.00 %
Boil Time: 65 Minutes

Ingredients:
-----------
9 lbs 8.0 oz Golden Promise
1 lbs Barley, Flaked
12.0 oz Black Barley
8.0 oz White Wheat Malt
4.0 oz Carafa II special
4.0 oz Oat Malt
-
0.50 oz Summit [16.20 %] (60 min)
0.25 oz Northern Brewer 9% (45 min)
0.50 oz Northern Brewer 9% (20 min)
0.50 oz Summit [16.20 %] (10 min)
0.25 oz Simcoe [12.20 %] (5 min)
1.50 oz Cascade [5.40 %] (5 min)


I mashed low on this: 147 f for a couple of hours. I dry hopped with 1.5 oz NB
 
Before i went to all grain i brewed northern brewers St Paul porter, it turns out i really like it. Its got a bit more hop kick than porters usually do. I will be brewing an all grain version for sure. This might be up your alley if you like IPAs or pale ales. I believe the kit is based on Summit brewings Great Northern Porter.
 
I don't like many stouts at all, because I don't like the heavy roast flavors I get from them. I only like a couple of porters (Great Lake's Edmund Fitzgerald is a great robust porter that I love), because of the roast.

I have one stout recipe that I make that I really like. It's an oatmeal stout. The reason I love it is because it has a "coffee" ish roast to it, instead of a roasted barley roast, if that makes sense. I like coffee, and that sort of "roasty" flavor is great to me. I've never had a good commercial beer that has that quality, though.
 
Left Hand Milk Stout is great but it's really sweet and creamy. Founders Porter has more of a roasted malt/ coffee flavor and is balanced with some hop bitterness.
 
It sounds like you don't want a sweet chocolate milkshake for a stout.

Just brew the stout drier with less sweet malts. Heavily roasted malts can give a complimentary flavor to bittering hops. With the additional bitter coffee flavors from the darker malts you can tone down the hops considerably.

But make sure the beer dries out nicely. My last stout was 3.5 ABV and over 60 IBUS...It turned out nice.
 
Thanks for all of the responses, so many interesting sounding choices, guess now all I need to is get out their and start sampling.

To be honest my whole goal with this is to give myself more options on brew day. So I appreciate people pointing me in the right direction. Gotta love a strong community like this one
 
I was the exact same way for the longest time. Left Hand Brewing's milk stout opened the door for me. It's sweeter and creamier than a normal stout and isn't as harsh.
 
Here's a few of my favorites that you should be able to get:

Bear Republic - Big Bear Black Stout
Marin Brewing - San Quentin's Breakout Stout
Ballast Point - Black Marlin Porter
Firestone Walker - Walker's Reserve Porter
Sierra Nevada - Stout & Porter
Anchor Porter
Deschutes - Black Butte Porter & Obsidian Stout
 
jonmohno said:
I hear ya. You may need to just try a variety of them because they are not all equal. Although they have grown on me,i still am picky about which porters or stouts i like.For every stout/porter you dont like-there is a better one you may like. I think Eel river makes a pretty nice porter. One of the first oatmeal stouts i first enjoyed was Medocino's oatmeal stout-but ive discovered plenty of even better ones. There are different "types" of porters/stouts also- like sweet or robust(dry) etc..
Founders Porter/Breakfast stout or Steelhead extra stout is pretty good.I really like Shalafly's Irish Extra stout.
OH yeah, i really enjoyed the bottled Youngs Double chocolate stout the first time i tried it,i think that may do it for you.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately those of us on the left half of the country can't easily get Founders...
 
A lot of the beer I was going to suggest has already been suggested. The Big Bear Black is great and I can usually get a bomber for about $4. The Black Butte Porter is also a good choice. Also, Young's Double Chocolate is amazing. Sleepy Dog Wet Snout Milk Stout is good. Left Coast Voodoo, Deschuttes The Abyss and one of my favorites Black Flag which is made by Beer Valley.

Hopefully you end up finding something you enjoy.
 
NineMilBill said:
There's a bunch of classics out there. Coming to mind first is:

Young's Double Chocolate Stout
Sam Adams Cream Stout
Left Hand Brewing Milk Stout
Click to expand...

Those are some of my favorites and the first 3 that came to mind. Some others I find really awesome are; Rogue Double Chocolate Stout, Terrapin Wake n Bake Imperial Oatmeal stout, Southern Tier Creme Brulee Stout, and Bells Kalamazoo stout. I also had the Ligero Black Lager a few days ago from Cigar City Brewing that was really good and drank more like a stout but not as heavy.
 
What SWMBO and I like to do, especially when out of town, is to visit brew pubs and try their sampler out. If you like black coffee and have a BJ's Brewhouse around you it's what their porter and stout are like (mild and strong).
 
Go to the Great Lost Bear on Forest Ave in Portland, ME, Novare Rez on Exchange St in Portland, ME and Boon Island Ale on Route 1 in Wells, ME. You can't go wrong...
 
Firestone Walker's Velvet Merlin Oatmeal stout is good. Lefthand Milk Stout is good
 
You may try brewing an American Stout as a sort of compromise.

I like to use 2-row base (about 90-91%) then equal portions of dark chocolate and roasted barley, American style high alpha hop at 60 mins, another at 20 mins and one more at 5 mins (optional), all the same hop variety. It is simple, tasty, and you still get some hop deliciousness along with the chocolate and roast.

I have one of these in the fermenter now that I used Summit in. I have no idea how that particular hop is going to be in this, but it smells nice.
 
Came here to mention Velvet Merlin (Formerly Velvet Merkin, by Firestone) and Victory's Storm King (so nice I never would have believed it was an Imperial Stout). Storm King wins the "Coolest Logo" and "Most Badass Name for a Beer in History" awards, though.
 
Hoppin frog doris and boris are great, and if you can get it you really should try founders breakfast stout.
 
I'll second youngs double chocolate stout, love it on nitro out of the can. I'm always buying stone smoked porter and Brooklyn blak chocolate stout is amazing
 

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