As a Beer writer I enjoy almost every style of beer. I do appreciate seasonal offerings, and I’ve met a lot of people who drink darker beer during the winter months, saving lighter beer for the hot times! I understand that, but given the amount of dark beer that’s released in the summer, I hardly have any rules on what to drink, and when to drink it. So as I write this article over Independence weekend, I am going to write about stouts, and discuss why they are excellent across these long summer nights!
I have always felt that stouts are a very sociable beer. Many of them come in larger bottles, and these are meant for sharing. The craft beer industry likes to make them more robust every year, and often times these beers are barrel aged. And like other styles before, there is a trend to fruit the heck out of stout these days! From pastry stouts to oatmeal stouts, or milk stouts to milkshake stouts, this is one of the most diverse styles of beer available. And as long as you appreciate dark beer, there is something in the stout realm that’s for you!
My love of stouts came very early in my appreciation of beer. One of the first good beers I got to try was a Murphy’s Irish Stout. I’ve always liked the flavor of it more than Guinness and the dry Irish Stout always holds a special place in my heart. As I have tried different specialty stouts, I sometimes think that the Irish Stout would’ve been a better base to work with then some of the other types of stouts. I’m getting ahead of myself, but it just goes to show that people no longer seem content to just drink the very simple stouts of our forefathers. Back in the nineties I usually found stouts to be rather uniform. It has always been a very cut and dry style of beer until craft beer got its hands on it.
When I started exploring crafted stouts, the variants were very simple: oatmeal, imperial, milk etc. I learned to appreciate the simplicity of these flavors. I also realized I liked coffee in my beer very early on. Nearly a decade ago, I remember trying Abraxas from Perennial, and being blown away by the fresh coffee flavor. To me it tasted like they had blended coffee with beer, and the match was perfect. And since then I have had nearly everything in a stout, and they’ve all been pretty good. Brewers are getting so creative on what they put in beer, and the public seems to be embracing it!
When I started writing about beer five years ago, I wrote several articles about stouts. Many of the breweries I wrote about are still doing the style excellently. 18th Street is making amazing stouts, and they recently released to plethora of barrel aged ones. Upland is still making Teddy Bear Kisses, and doing a good job with variants, including the minty Polar Bear Kisses. Indiana City’s Shadow Boxer Is still one of my favorite oatmeal stout’s as is Schlafly’s. 3Floyd’s is still kicking it out of the park, and the two dozen variants they did with last years Dark Lord is just exciting. Our beer culture has only gotten bigger in the last five years, and the amount of good stout we have to choose from is now just staggering!
A few months ago I was experiencing good releases every week from Garfield which included an amazing coffee stout. Scarlet Lane also released a large assortment of variants of their Dorian Stout. The White Chocolate Guava Dorian was awesome, and I hope they make it again. I traveled the state last year, and found good stouts everywhere I went including at Vincennes, and Ruhe. If that’s not an indication that the style is immensely popular, I don’t know what is!
I find good stouts wherever I seem to go. A few weeks ago I stopped into Wedgewood where I had a stout made with blueberry Mississippi Mud, as well as an excellent banana stout. Deviate and Centerpoint collaborated on Satan’s Seedlings which is an excellent barrel aged stout clocking in at 16%. I had some at Centerpoint’s Festival, and also on tap there last weekend. And on Monday as A Taproom welcomed in Cincinnati’s Streetside Brewing for the month of July, they tapped two amazing Demogorgon variants. I got to try a tiramisu and an apple brandy version which both were phenomenal.
So I could go on about all the different stouts we have available, but if you like craft beer I think you’re already aware. You probably have some in your beer cellar, And I think a long summer night is a great time to bust them out. I purchased a pack of milkshake stouts from Rochester Mills that I would like to drink sometime soon. I also have a lot of good beer from Mikeller(Beer Geek Breakfast and Brunch) that seems to be asking to be drank. I collect a lot of different beers, but stouts make up a large chunk of my collection, so I’m never at a loss for one.
Whether or not you like Imperial Stout‘s, or more simple ones, breweries are making plenty of them for you to drink. As the months get colder, sours will still stay popular, but I think will see even more awesome stouts coming out. Fruited Stouts are everywhere, and they are what people seem to like to drink. And as I travel, it’s fun to see all the different styles of dark beer available. As I said at the beginning of the article, stouts are what I first drank as I ventured into craft beer over 20 years ago, and I haven’t forgotten my first love when it comes to beer!
I’m writing this article high in the mountains of Pennsylvania where I’ve come to spend some time with my family. Good beer is available no matter where you go, and they certainly make excellent stouts here in Pennsylvania. Whatever you do this summer, take the time to enjoy a good beer, and if you love stouts, there is never a bad time to enjoy them!
So Much Beer So Little Time 