Good Stouts for beginners?

Founders Breakfast will make you see the potential. A lot of great ones out there, that's where I started.....

 

That's What She Said by Tree House is a very good beginner stout.

 

Are you just looking for stout recommendations or are porters OK as well?

What do you like about stouts that makes you want to drink more of them?

 

Firestone Walker Mocha Merlin is a good intro stout I've seen on shelves a lot recently in NJ.

If you're accepting porter recommendations, try Deschutes Black Butte or Founders Porter.

 

Founders Breakfast Stout is great, but it might be a little too much. Seek out some lover ABV (5-7%) Stouts.

 

I agree Breakfast Stout isn't quite an intro beer. It's fairly big/bitter.

 

ten fidy and breakfast stout are my favorite easily accessible stouts, but they are heavy hitters ABV-wise. might want to start lighter with something like left hand nitro stout

 

If you are just looking at stouts, my favorite is Bell's Kalamazoo. If you are looking for Porters as well, Founders and Fuller's come to mind.

 

STOUTS:
Bell's Kalamazoo Stout
Deschutes Obsidian Stout
Sierra Nevada Stout
Left Hand Milk Stout
Stone Coffee Milk Stout
The Duck-Rabbit Milk Stout
Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout
New Holland The Poet

PORTERS:
Founders Porter
Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald
Deschutes Black Butte
Sierra Nevada Porter
Bell's Porter
The Duck-Rabbit Porter
New Belgium Portage
NoDa Coco Loco
Samuel Smith Porter
Fuller's London Porter
Oskar Blues Death By Coconut
Harviestoun Old Engine Oil
Foothills People's Porter

 

Porters and milk/sweet stouts are what I'd recommend. Good for beginners and also just really good overall beers.

 

Old Rasputin by North Coast was the first one I ever had that blew me away. It’s probably the beer that made me really fall in love with the style.

 

Left hand milk stout is also a great stout starter.

 

One more...

Lancaster Double Chocolate Milk Stout was one of my favorites when I first got into beer.

 

My first thought are Porters.

 

The beers from Duck Rabbit are very underrated IMO.

 

My first thought were Guinness.
I honestly don't know about American beer though.

 

@IPAExpert69 to also look at porters is a good suggestion. @DISKORD also put togethor a great list. As you live in NJ. I would go find a wegmans which will allow you to buy singles of several types and varietys. That will allow you to expose yourself to a lot of variety without commiting to a full six pack