Looking for darker and sweeter beers in Texas

Old Chub from Oskar Blues, Backwoods Bastard from Founders are excellent malty Scotch Ales.

 

I’d imagine Wee Heavies would work well, Backwoods Bastard from Founders is a year around beer. Old Chub is pretty good too, and Barleywines would also work. Bigfoot is probably available most everywhere, depends on your distro area to what’s around. I don’t see where your from, but I’d find the best beer store in your area and tell him what your looking for. This time of year you shouldn’t have much trouble finding beers in those kinda styles.

 

I've always thought that Founders Brown Ale fits that niche in a well done American way.

 

One thing that’s definitely changed in 20 years is price. Unfortunately, a lot of the time, the better the beer, the higher the price. Also, abv has definitely ticked up some too, which...I’m not inclined to complain about.
It’s hard to recommend anything without having an idea of what part of the country you live in.

 

OP, seems like you are after malty and less expensive beer. My suggestions.
Shiner Bock
Bell’s Best Brown Ale
Broegel Original Bock sold at Aldi.
Cheers!

 

Try looking for some McEwans again.

Think of Backwwoods Bastard as a bourbon barrel aged version of Dirty Bastard. You might hate or love a beer like that. One difference between today and twenty years ago is that today American brewers are very fond of aging beers like this in bourbon barrels. It changes the beer a lot.

 

Yeah, Bell's Best Brown is a favourite of mine.

 

And your not going to fine these kind of beers at prices you remember 20 years ago too. Beers like Backwoods Bastard carry a premium because as Zid mentioned they’re aged in Bourbon barrels which always jacks up the cost. All of these beers mentioned are really good representatives of their styles, but they’re not cheap. You could look for some Porters too, they’re rich and roasty, you might find a local brewer that puts out something you like at a better pricing point.

 

Real Ale Real Heavy. You can probably get at HEB or Twin.

 

Great Divide's Claymore, while it doesn't pack the same punch as McEwan's, has a similar finish.

 

I don’t really know the distribution in Texas but I would definitely recommend Skull Splitter (if you can find it), Scotty Karate by Dark Horse (again, have to find it, but it’s not pricy) and I echo the Bell’s Best Brown sentiments. Sam Smith’s Holiday ale or Brown ale is great and Cigar City Maduro could be up your alley, and relatively cheap and a pretty non-threatening ipa that’s affordable is Lagunitas Little Sumpin’ Sumpin. Lagunitas Brown Shugga is out right now and that’s awesome and relatively cheap for what it is.

I was gonna recommend some stuff by Barrier (which is local to me) but I doubt they distro anywhere around you.

 

It's difficult to know your perception level for hops (especially when you said you've liked some hoppy beers in the past), and to know what beers are avaiulable to you where you live in Texas, so my recommendation is to review this style list https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/styles/ and click on those that are of interest and you'll get another list of the most popular beers in that style along with that beer's BA rating. Buy singles if you can of the specific beers that are available to you until you find the one(s) that you like.

P.S. Welcome to the BA site, Austin.

 

If you like bigger beers that are malty, a bit hoppy, I’d recommend going to your nearest Total Wine and look at your options in aged Double IPAs. There’s a slew here on the shelf a good many at 8 months old or so. I say this half in jest because Total Wine frustrates me to no end, but if you like malt forward beers, a tad sweet, a bit hoppy, probably lower on the bitter scale a DIPA with some age on it might be something you’d like too, you might even negotiate a discount. Lots of guys like big hoppy beers with some age on them, everyone’s different. I wouldn’t discount looking at a DIPA with some age on it as it meets most of your likes without using roasted or darker malts, you might find a grateful store manager to give you a good price too to move product.