The Highest-Rated Stout in Every US State (2025) [MAP]

Not a bad list. Some of them were right on point, others I'm sure had breweries with better offerings not considered for the ranking.

 

Kinda an ‘interesting’ article in that it starts off with:

“Despite the fact that the overall beer market has had a tough go in recent years, the stout category has continued to grow in popularity — likely thanks to the virality and cultural cachet of one specific Irish product. But Guinness…”

Guiness Draught has an ABV of 4.2% but the list is dominated by Stouts which have an ABV greater than 10%. Since the list is based upon BA rating this is not too surprising since high(er) ABV beers such as Imperial Stouts seem to get the most ‘love’ from BAs.

Cheers!

 

Have seen this before... knew in advance it was some wacky variant of Hardywood stout (Trickery). I peeked at Untappd... plain jane GBS (gingerbread stout) has 4.05 over 65K ratings. Trickery is a 4.3 over 5.5ish K ratings.

And also surprised some random diabetes bomb from Answer or Veil hasn't surpassed it yet.

 

Connecticut, Delaware, New Mexico and Wisconsin are good. The rest can go to hell

 

Iowa was mostly spot on, though...No one would argue about KBBS being the best in that state, however Lua and Pulpit Rock have some incredible stout offerings too

 

“Despite the fact that the overall beer market has had a tough go in recent years, the stout category has continued to grow in popularity — likely thanks to the virality and cultural cachet of one specific Irish product. But Guinness…”

But Guiness what? It's basically a session beer, really (shrugs). Rasputin on the other hand has such option and it's regular version is still ok.

 

I would. I think Mornin’ Delight is a better beer. But this is all subjective.

 

I’d have add Michigan, South Dakota, and Wyoming to that “good” tally — they’re also my personal favorite beers of any style in those three states!

 

Thanks to @brewme for starting this thread — interesting list!

 

I think the good people of the commonwealth may have cooled off on some of their try-hard offerings.

I still think BB Coffeehouse stout might be the best in VA. And I don't tend to like coffee beers.

Also, Snow Pants is the best stout in MD. Possibly the entire mid-Atlantic. 8% hoppy oatmeal stout? That's what I'm about on a snow day.

 

AtG hasn't had the best stouts in this state in a decade.

 

It's one of my favorites too. A local brewpub got a sixtel of it recently and I got 3oz before it kicked.

 

I was lucky enough to try some on tap at the brewery when I was there installing their new can labeler back in 2021. I was blown away by how good it was on draft vs the time I had it out of a bottle.

 

I definetly know for a fact that Ivan the Terrible is one of Montana's most solid offerings! Zonker's is also worthy of the 307 despite there being some great beers that I cannot name of the top of my head.

 

Having everything from Milk Stouts to BBA 15% adjunct monsters on the same list is like having a most popular list of IPAs that includes everything from Session to Black to Rye to Triple. It might be interesting from a purely statistical point, but not overly instructive. A bit of winnowing by style would have been beneficial IMO.

Oh, and I'll concur that Zonker is one damn good 'normal' stout. Wyoming representing well with that one.

 

Kinda surprised Burial hasn't taken the #1 spot in NC. If not them, there has to be something else in this state that's worth mentioning over Event Horizon. I never thought it was any good and Olde Hickory's beers overall are pretty mediocre.

 

At the bottom of the article it references Beer Advocate, so I’m guessing they pulled top Stout by State from our own reviews and rankings. No wonder I thought it was a much more credible listing than the usual VinePair articles.

 

For South Dakota they always pick Firehouse Smoke Jumper (which is rated 3.57) because it has more reviews/ratings than any other. We have a lot of much better stouts here, but they're usually one-offs, so they don't accumulate the number of reviews that Smoke Jumper has in 23 years (24 reviews, 47 ratings). Look at all the great stouts from Covert Artisan, for instance, and they're starting regional distribution.