Stout recommendations

BCBS
BCBCS
KBS
Parabola
Stone Imperial Russian
Schlafly Reserve Stout
Brooklyn Chocolate Stout
Evil Twin Bozo

 

Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout
Stone Woot Stout 2.0
Anything from Sam Smith's
Young's Double Chocolate Stout
Victory Storm King

 

@popopine Keep in mind, "stout" is a large family of dark beers that includes many different styles, including American and English stouts, imperial/double stouts, milk stouts, oatmeal stouts, russian imperial stouts, cascadian dark ales/black IPA, and irish dry stouts. Also the term porter is generally interchangeable with stout*, so American and English porters and baltic porters should also be included. You can find BA's top rated beers in these categories here: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/style/
Many of the beers listed in the style categories are relatively easy to find and a good place to explore the different sub-styles from.

( * To everyone else, I'm not trying to restart the old stout vs. porter debate, I'm only trying to make sure the OP doesn't rule out any beers because of a label.)

 

Founders Breakfast Stout
Samuel Smith Organic Choc. Stout
Southern Tier Warlock
Ten Fidy

Some of these should be easier to find as we're entering my favorite time of year for beer

 

Dogfish World wide stout

 

Lion Stout
BCBS and any variants
Central Waters Bourbon Barrel aged stout
Ten Fidy
Founders Breakfast stout, KBS, and Russian imperial stout
Siberian Night
Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout
Southern Tier Choklat
Southern Tier Creme Brulee
Samuel Smith Organic Chocolate Stout
Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout
Southern Tier 2X Stout
Evil Twin stouts are usually really good
Prairie Bomb!
Dogfish Head World Wide Stout
Epic Big Bad Baptist
Great Divide Yeti and the variants
Maine Beer Mean Old Tom
Firestone Walker Parabola
All of these stouts I have tried, and they are all excellent, then again I am partial to stouts.

 

I'll second that and agree to Ten Fidy

 

$$ Too much for my wallet

 

Ravens Eye, Eel River
Black Albert, De Struise
Temptress, Lakewood Brewing Co

 

Big Black Bear by Bear Republic hasn't been mentioned yet. It’s solid and fairly underrated in my opinion.

 

Rogue Chocolate Stout
Saranac Imperial Stout
Ten Fidy

 

Samuel Smith's oatmeal stout and Samuel Smith's imperial stout are excellent and easily available. Comparing them is interesting to see the difference in styles.

 

I hear good things about Bell's Kalamazoo stout- I haven't tried this one yet but it is high on my list. Yeti is pretty good. It's a pity you won't find Blue Pants Pinstripe anywhere but Alabama pretty much as I adored it.
But Old Rasputin is the one to beat. I love that one too.
If you want something for dessert I highly recommend Samuel Smith's Organic Chocolate Stout.
I also loved Dark Truth (the beer that started it all for me) and Left Coast's Voo Doo.

 

Intoxicating Lineup...

 

Others have mentioned it but I thought the Evil Twin Biscotti Break was a real standout for that kind of dessert beer.

If you happen to know anyone in MA, I really enjoyed Nightshift's Taza Stout (theoretically chocolate stout, but I felt chicory prevailed). Not available outside MA unfortunately.

 

Intoxicating is right. Just about everyone has listed HUGE beers, which is good. I drink mainly Imperials myself.

But consider some more modest stouts, while you're at it:

- Sierra Nevada Stout
- Bell's Kalamazoo Stout
- Bell's Double Cream Stout
- Deschutes Obsidian Stout (if you can get it; I cannot)
- Magic Hat Heart of Darkness (tasty and underrated, IMO)

And there are others for sure. But I think you'll find that these more modest stouts are incredibly drinkable.

 

I would put them in tiers:

Samuel Smith's Organic Chocolate Stout - Year Round - One of my personal favorites
Founder's Breakfast Stout - Fall - EXCELLENT
Bells Black Note Stout - Limited - BRILLIANT- A local bar had this a couple weeks ago on a special Bells 25 tap takeover or I would not have had the pleasure. If you can get your hands on it by all means do it! World class beer!

Ten Fidy - Fall - can be a bit pricey but worth it
Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout - Year Round
Left Hand Milk Stout - Rotating but I see it year-round - very good
Stone RIS - Spring - very good
Sierra Nevada Narwhal - Rotating - very good
Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout - Winter - very good
Peche Mortel - Rotating - very good - especially if you like more of coffee flavor
Southern Tier Choklat - Rotating - good

New Hollands Dragons Milk(Bourbon Barrel) - Year Round - solid beer
Left Hand Milk Stout Nitro - Year Round - I prefer the standard but still a good stout
Young's Double Chocolate - Year Round - pretty good but a notch below Samuel Smith and Left Hand sweet stouts
Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout - Year Round
Boulevard Dark Truth Stout - Year-Round - solid beer

****I left off BCBS because I had one bottle of it back before I was really into stouts and I couldn't fully appreciate it. I'm sure it's worthy of it's lofty status but I can't give it a fair suggestion. In hindsight I should have loaded up on it as my local Whole Foods had a lot of bottles of both the BCBS and the BCBCS

 

Some needs to put Struise Black Damnation V - Double Black in here , 2 years of hunt and I have yet to find it . Out of curiosity is it a real Imperial stout or a Belgian Stout> Not a fan of the latter.

 

Leaving BCBS and BCBCS is like a cardinal beer sin