Beginner Stouts

Left Hand nitro milk and rogue oatmeal stout definitely got me into stouts. Ever since those two I just can't get enough.

 

I don't see a need for training wheels on any Stout, some are chocolate, some are coffee, some are barrel aged. Try them and see what you like, if you don't like coffee, skip them. If you have a beer friend you can split the cost.

 

I'd try a couple milk\sweet stouts (Young's Double Chocolate is easy to find), a good oatmeal stout (Samuel Smith's is a great example), and then a solid imperial stout like Old Rasputin. My advice is to see what type of stouts appeal to you and then try more of those. Too often people equate Guinness as the baseline for all stouts. If you are venturing into the style find what enjoy.

 

I wasn't a craft beer drinker per se when I had my first Sam Smith oatmeal and loved it. Guinness is only good in an irish car bomb.

 

Give Green Flash's Double Stout a try. It has a great creamy mouth feel and is really well balanced. It's 8.8% or so but isn't too sweet or bitter. It does have some great chocolate notes.

 

Belgians are mediocre? Mind = blown.

 

I suggest Milk Stouts or Oatmeal Stouts - they're a little lighter, creamier. Not so agressive if you're just getting into craft. Get comfortable with those and then move on.

 

Samuel Adams Cream Stout is an excellent beginner stout, and likely, one that you'll always like. Sierra Nevada Stout is excellent too.

 

I don't believe in "beginner beer" and "advanced beer" - this is BEER, not algebra and calculus.

There are 2 categories for everyone - beer they like and beer they don't like. Beers may move across category from time to time.

OP - what flavors do you like? What Stouts have you tried and would like more of in the similar flavor profile?

My "go to" stouts are Buffalo Sweat, Guinness (draught and Foreign Extra), Left Hand Milk Stout, Old Rasputin, 2x Stout from Southern Tier, and Founders. Pretty much came across them at the same time. If you like one stout - keep trying others. Some you will, some you wont. Don't worry about "beginner" or "expert" - trust your tastebuds.

From time to time - go back across old ones you didn't absolutely hate to see if you like them now. Recipies change, tastes change, freshness matters etc.

Screw the labels....

 

Non imperials then move on

 

Before I was officially hooked onto craft, Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout was something I'd drink every now and again. Its a good start.

 

Not necessarily. I remember when I first tried Racer 5 IPA, the taste was so bitter I thought the beer was spoiled. After drinking some APAs and weaker IPAs, Racer 5 tasted really good. First time I had Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra, it was harsh as hell and had to fight hard to get through a six pack. As my palate adjusted, SNTE was really good second time around trying it.

But that applies to very hoppy beers, not sure if its the same for stouts.

 

Life is short, so why muck about with trepidation?

Smuttynose Baltic Porter (it shames so many "stouts")
Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter (see above)
Great Divide Yeti
Founders Imperial Stout
Hoppin' Frog B.O.R.I.S. (if you like this, graduate to D.O.R.I.S.)
AleSmith Speedway Stout

 

In my opinion, start with the basics like Guinness or Murphy's. Stouts are an acquired taste for new drinkers, and if you start with top shelf stouts, you won't appreciate how good they are if you haven't had the lesser stouts.

 

There's certainly nothing wrong with picking up a good stout or two that isn't "Beginner"

If you're serious about getting into craft beer, I think it'd be fun to take some tasting notes on some of those beers right now as you first start to try them.. Revisit the same beers a year later or so and see how much more you notice and how you rate it.. It's interesting how your palatte evolves over the years.

 

Hmm...to an extent, I think the issue is being overthought. I'm not sure if there's any such thing as a beginner-friendly beer. What that person happens to like first? As an absolute ignorant newb, the first beer I really liked was our brewery's stout. It's fairly full-bodied. My palate didn't know hops from chocolate malt from anything else, I just liked it. I tried multiple stouts after that and liked most of them, including some higher octane Imperials. Now that my palate is getting better at picking subtle flavors out, I appreciate each stout for its complex roasty coffee, chocolate, etc flavors. Some stouts that I thought I liked, I've revisited and found them to be a bit boring.

All that said, I'd say a beginner stout (as with ANY style of beer one is trying to get into) is a readily available, economic choice, hopefully one that has decent reviews. Any flagship stout at your local brewery, or anything you can get a reasonably priced 6-pack at your closest liquor store. Why bother with a hard-to-get, expensive, world-class stout? As a beginner, one might not know if they'll even like stouts at all. I wouldn't be so worried about the imperials and such being too intense for a beginner, but rather, a newb might not have the palate to appreciate the beer. So why blow the money on it?

Beginner stout = Any locally available/not excessively expensive stout. Preferably several of them to get a better idea.

 

Disagree.
I'm not advocating chasing down whalez for your first experience with a style, but this isn't school where you need to graduate progressively to the next level of study. Also, I'm not advocating acquiring more than 1 or 2 single bottles of a bigger, imperial stout of one sort or another.

My wife acquired a taste for bigger Russian Imperial stouts within 3 sips of a Caldera Old Growth and would describe every single dry stout. milk stout, export stout, etc she tastes as a porter (i.e. "beer with no balls" in her words) Having her drink her way through "weaker" styles of stout would have been a COMPLETE waste of time and money, I can assure you.

Her evolution went something like...Caldera Old Growth-->AleSmith Speedway Stout-->Southern Tier Choklat-->BCBS (her favorite beer by a mile)

 

Guinness Extra stout and Foreign Extra, Sierra Nevada stout, and Sam smiths Oatmeal stout are all great beers to get acquainted with the style. I think Victory storm king is a good introduction to imperials.

 

Youngs double chocolate is a good starter stout

 

There are no beginner and advanced beers. That's a notion conceived by people who fancy themselves as beer veterans. When you think about what makes a stout, you'll find it hard to disagree with what I'm saying.

Also, stout aged in barrels is nothing more than that.

Drink what your store carries.