Good Stouts for beginners?

Left Hand's Milk Stout Nitro would be a good next step. And you can't go wrong with any stout from Bell's.

 

+ ODELL CUTTHROAT PORTER

 

+ La Cumbre's Malpais (Foreign Export Style) Stout. Just baller...

 

@IPAExpert69 Regarding stouts and porters just be aware there is no difference between them today. If you are new to stouts/porters, please do not make a rookie mistake of arbitrarily excluding one or the other because of a name. They are both very dark colored ales. If you go back in time over a century there was a stylistic difference, but no longer, although the words have survived time. The stout vs porter debate can be controversial for some people, so to avoid that debate shitting all over this discussion, below are some links to prior discussions. If anyone feels compelled to argue or wants to learn more here you go...
https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/stout-or-porter.517584/
https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...ween-a-porter-a-stout-and-a-brown-ale.419620/
https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/porter-vs-stout.243882/

...there are more if you look...

 

Stone Xocoveza. Probably the only thing I like from them.

 

"Good Stouts for beginners"

One too many recommendation don't belong here!

 

Left hand milk stout, odell cut throat porter, ska steel toe stout, murphys, st peters cream stout.

 

If you like Guinness, just about any stout is going to be approachable. Darkstar November is probably my favorite beer period, but it can be expensive on the secondary market.

 

Guinness just released their 200th Anniversary Stout, which is a very good Foreign Export Stout. If you are really looking for 'beginners' stouts, I would probably avoid imperials or adjunct/additive stouts. Not sure of what is available to you, but Deschutes Obsidian Stout is also very good and is about everywhere.

 

Ten Fidy might be too strong for a beginner.

I would say something like

Deschutes Obsidian Stout
Samuel Adams Cream Stout
Sierra Nevada Stout

 

I started out drinking stouts that werent fresh and it kinda turned me off. I also started out drinking imperial stouts. Recently ive been drinking milk stouts and stouts around 5-6% αbv. fresh on tap and ive been super impressed. The Bells double cream stout and Stone Xocoveza bottles i recekntly got were less than 3 weeks from bottling and i feel like it makes a huge difference. Those along with the Belching Beaver peanut butter milk stout on tap may be my favorite brews at the moment and im an ipa guy. Now i have no problem drinking a 6 month old Founders breakfast stout but it was surely these fresh stouts that made me a believer.

 

Speedway Stout

 

To reinforce what has already been mentioned , Stout and Porter are two different names for exactly the same thing.
In fact, history is littered with examples of the same beer being sold under both names either at different times or in different markets..

 

Lol. That was actually my first stout. It is probably not a beginners stout. I had a 13 oz. Pour for lunch along with a couple others. It is one of the best stouts ive ever had but I almost over did it that day.

 

Idk... From my experience i like the few porters ive drank but they usually seem a lil watered down or somethin compared to stouts. It may have been a freshness thing but i remember thinking Deshuttes black butte porter was pretty weak. It gave me the idea that porter was kinda like a session stout. I dont really see any imperial porters around and porters are hard to find fresh.

 

I agree with the Porter recommendations here. If Guinness is your starting point, Porters are your next step in the dark craft world. Bells and Founders will get you going just fine.

 

Excellent list it's nice to know that at least some BA's know the difference between a Stout and an Imperial Stout.

 

It is easy to find individual examples which seem to show a pattern one way or another.
Basically the style is Porter. Stout simply means strong so the stronger Porters were called Stout Porter or just Stout.There were brewers who simply called all their beers Porter.Or used the names interchangeably at will.But the difference disappeared post WW1 when many brewers simply rebadged their Porters as Stouts .