Even More Essential Stouts To Try Before You Die

Stouts are one of our favorite craft beer styles and we especially appreciate them at this time of year. So here are 5 more incredible stouts that you need to get your hands on.

Firestone Walker Parabola

Routinely ranked as one of the top beers in the world, Firestone Walker’s brilliant Russian Imperial Oatmeal Stout is an immense creation.

Aged for a full year in Elijah Craig, Four Roses, Pappy Van Winkle, Woodford Reserve and Buffalo Trace barrels, only to be deftly blended to enhance its’ silken finish, Firestone Walker’s legendary Parabola never disappoints.

Cigar City Marshal Zhukov’s Imperial Stout

While Cigar City’s annual Hunahpu release deservedly generates most of the “stout buzz” for the Tampa-based brewery, their award-winning 11.5 % ABV Marshal Zhukov’s Imperial Stout is equally as impressive and just as essential.

Big Sky Ivan the Terrible Imperial Stout

Founded in 1995 on the back of their instantly popular Moose Drool Brown Ale Missoula Montana’s Big Sky Brewing also brews a spectacular barrel-aged stout.

Unabashedly whiskey- flavored in its context, Big Sky’s 9.5 % Ivan the Terrible is a deep, dark and amazingly complex Imperial Stout that richly showcases its dark chocolate, dried fruit and oaked-bourbon tones.

Malevolence Chocolate Caliente Russian Imperial Stout 

Spiteful Brewing has a huge reputation for crafting BIG beers and their annual stout release is always cause for beer-geek celebration.

Taking its lead from the beloved Mexican hot chocolate tradition, Malevolence Chocolate Caliente Russian Imperial Stout is brewed with vanilla beans, cacao nibs, cinnamon, and a unique blend of peppers.

 Reformulated slightly every year, 2016’s Malevolence is a 10.5% ABV small-batch symphony of spicy richness and a perfect blizzard beer!

Bell’s Kalamazoo Stout

Modest in comparison to many of ales that we’ve already highlighted in our Essential Stout Series Michigan-based Bell’s Brewery crafts what many brewer’s acknowledge may be the perfect American Stout.

Named after the city where it all began, Bell’s Kalamazoo Stout is  a smooth, full-bodied (yet drinkable) 6% ABV year-round  that offers a nuanced blend of dark chocolate and freshly roasted coffee flavors, smartly balanced by a striking hop presence.

 

And if you’ve not already checked out Part I or Part II of our Essential Stout Series – you need to.