The Winter of Stouts

Winter hasn’t quite let go of its icy grip on Wisconsin, but I am moving on from Stout season even if winter is overstaying its welcome.  I have always been a huge fan of stouts, but it is one of those varieties I usually won’t touch from mid-spring through late fall.  This year I went a little crazy on the stouts so I put together a list based on my mostly clear recollection of all the great beers and not so great beers over the past 5 months.  Personal preference in the stout category tends to vary a lot more from person to person than other styles.  So feel free to use this as a guide for making your next selection at the liquor store or for calling me crazy.  If you have any ideas on beers I should try to get my hands on next winter, I am always open to suggestions.

The Best of the Best

• Bells Expedition – I don’t know how or why it took me so long to try this beer.  Balanced perfection. Won silver at Great Taste of Cottage Grove.  A few of these will make it to the cellar every year.
• Dark Horse Bourbon Barrel Plead the 5^th – This was the highlight of our Michigan Beercation and truly a perfect beer.
• Firestone Walker Parabola – Smooth, balanced, creamy, amazing.  Hard to capture how great this beer was.

Annual Purchase along with Earning a spot in the Cellar

• Rogue XS Imperial Stout – Was lucky enough to score a 2010 bottle and this beer tasted like it had been barrel aging for years.
• Central Waters Bourbon Barrel Stout – A beer that highlights the barrel aging to perfection, reminds me a lot of…
• New Holland Dragon’s Milk – Have always been a huge fan of this beer and make sure to pick up a 4 pack every year.
• Dark Horse Plead the 5^th – While impossible to live up to the barrel aged version, this beer is super complex and should handle aging nicely.
• Boulevard Dark Truth Stout – This beer uses a Belgian yeast strain that adds complexity.  I am this beer’s biggest fan.
• Founders Imperial Stout – Layered chocolaty heaven.  Amazing.

Darn Impressive

• Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast – So impressive how they impart such a wonderful smokiness into this beer.
• Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel Calvados – I love that more breweries are exploring barrels other than bourbon and this one is great.
• Great Lakes BlackOut – I am only lukewarm on GL, but this beer is their best offerings in my opinion.
• Dark Horse Fore Smoke – To me, smoke in beers is something that has to be done with finesse and hats off to DH for this one.
• Evil Twin/Westbrook Mini Growler – Another complex beauty with a nice burnt flavor.
• Central Waters Satin Solstice – A year round, inexpensive RIS that won Gold at the Great Taste of Cottage Grove.
• Founders Breakfast Stout – A coffee bomb that never tasted better than at the brewery.  Bronze medal winner at Great Taste of Cottage Grove.
• Great Divide Yeti – Very different flavor-wise and carries a nice booziness.  Another beer that took me too long to try.
• Third Tier Ten – The first edition of our RIS homebrew reached a new level after 4 months.  Only minor tweaks necessary on this one.
• Lake Louie Mr. Mephisto’s – I had this beer a couple of times and it grew on me more and more each time.  A great local treat.
• Greenbush Mr. Hyde – A very nice, higher ABV milk stout.  Had a nice amount of sweetness and was another highlight of the Beercation.
• Vintage Scardey Cat – One of the best Oatmeal Stouts I have ever had.
• Goose Island Big John – The cocoa nibs play along perfectly with the base Cook County Stout, such a good beer.
• Surly Darkness – I had very high expectations for this one, definitely on the sweet side and probably not worth trying to seek out.
• Central Waters Fifteen – I was very lucky to be able to try this beer out.  Very solid, but mouth faded away too fast.

Not bad, may revisit in a year or two

• Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout – The late bitterness on this beer is just too much, might be a candidate for aging.
• Great Divide Espresso Oak Aged Yeti – A nice addition of coffee to this beer adds another level, but distracts from already great base.
• Stone Russian Imperial Stout – Too much sweetness on this one, needs something to balance it out.
• Ölvisholt Brugghús Lava – The Icelandic know stouts and this is a smoky treat.
• Sierra Nevada Narwhal – This one also had a little too much hanging bitterness for my liking.
• Victory Storm King Stout – Didn’t have the balance I was seeking in a great RIS.
• Point Brewing Whole Hog – For the price, it is tough to beat this local RIS.
• New Holland The Poet – Had this on cask, was good for an oatmeal, but didn’t blow me away.
• Bell’s Sweet Potato Stout – May not get another chance to try this one, but it was interesting and pretty tasty.
• Sank Creek Sasquatch Stout – Another chocolaty stout that had a bit too much sweetness but wasn’t a bad local offering.
• Rogue Shakespeare Stout – This brew carries a fairly high rating, but didn’t do much for me.

Meh

• Dark Horse Tres Blueberry – The blueberry just doesn’t add anything to this beer.
• North Coast Old Rasputin – It is nice that this beer is available year round, but it just doesn’t compete with the big boys.
• Three Floyd’s Blot Out the Sun – A stout this hoppy just doesn’t seem right.
• Ballast Point Sea Monster – I think this one may have been better fresh, at 8 months old, the balance was getting wonky.
• Three Floyd’s BackMasking – Another FFF creation with a crazy hop nose, just didn’t play nicely with an oatmeal stout.
• Founders Frangelic Stout – Any beer on nitro is gimmicky to me.  Had a nice coffee presence, but flattened out too fast.
• Left Hand Milk Stout Nitro – There is nothing at all redeeming about this beer, bland and too mellow.
• Bell’s Dagger Stout – This booziness of this beer weighed it down far too much.
• Bell’s Milk Stout – This milk stout had too much coffee present and not enough sweetness.
• Young’s Double Chocolate Stout – Definitely an easy drinker, but I am pretty much over British beers.
• Bell’s Double Cream Stout – I think the carb on this beer is off and I have never been a fan.
• Goose Island Night Stalker – This is another beer that is all over the place and the dry hopping just doesn’t play well.

Bad

• Central Waters Peruvian Morning – This beer is all over the place with no balance whatsoever, body is too thin and way too much vanilla.
• Oskar Blues Ten Fidy – Another unbalanced mess and far too syrupy.
• Leinenkugels Big Eddy Imperial Stout – How is this beer so sweet?  Really awful.
• Third Tier 3 B’s Stout – Our first ever homebrew collaboration and what can I say.  At a year old, this homebrew didn’t stand the test of time.
• LakeFront 25^th Anniversary – Thin, watery, all words you would never use to describe a RIS.