Which brewery makes the best stouts?

Bruery and founders, also revolution.

 

Fremont, Firestone, Bruery!

 

fremont, perennial, firestone, kane have all been meentioned. i also enjoy the ones i have had from modern times.

 

Central Waters

 

My Top Three are the number one seeds in each of the regions below. I would have to think long and hard about trying to slot one over the other, but the three #1 seeds are my top three. I wouldn't turn down a beer from any brewery listed below, and there are dozens more I love as well. It's my favorite cold weather style, WCIPA my favorite warm weather style.

BA Stout Madness Bracket Style. I haven't had few East Coast or Southern stouts or beers in general, mostly because we don't get many of any style here from these regions in Chicago.

Chicago Region:
#1. Revolution vs. play-in game winner: (#4. Spiteful vs. #5 Haymarket)
#2 Goose Island vs. #3 Half Acre

Midwest Region:
#1 Founders vs. (#4 Prairie Artisan vs. #5 3 Sheeps)
#2 Central Waters vs. #3 Bells

West Region:
#1 AleSmith vs. (#4 Fremont vs. #5 Bottle Logic)
#2 Firestone Walker vs. #3 Modern Times

 

The one that I've thought of but not see mentioned yet is Odd Side out of west Michigan. Rye hipster brunch is one of my favorites

 

I'll second this.

And I'll add one I don't think has been mentioned yet, Barney Flats from Anderson Valley.

 

If you see huge arker this year I'd recommend it

 

Yes definitely overlooked. They make a ton of good ones.

 

Of the ones I can get around here, Founders, no doubt. There are some individual stouts (Darkness, Expedition, Ten Fidy, Old Rasputin, Bourbon County) that I really like from locally distributed breweries, but Founders makes the most stouts I really enjoy.

 

As far as reputation, it’s Side Project and Toppling Goliath head and shoulders above everyone else. Others I’d put a tier below them would be breweries like Angry Chair, Eighth State, Revolution, Hill Farmstead, Perennial, and the like

why would they distribute when they can sell everything from the brewery and cut out the middleman? They make A LOT of beer. It’s not super hard to land trades for some of their non BA stout bottles.

 

Three of my highest stout ratings go to Founders stouts, so that is pretty obvious, and they rarely disappoint. Notwithstanding the recent Maple Mackinac Fudge that was a slight letdown to me...not up to KBS. Deschutes Obsidian I was fortunate enough to have cracks the top five, I think...CRS is real. Epic Big Bad Baptist is pretty close.

My second highest goes to Newburgh thanks to @cavedave and an epic bottle swap we did a few years ago.

These are ones where I can cover the range of ratings with a teeny tiny blanket...

For a lager brewery, I would throw Jacks Abby in the mix with their Brigadeiro and variations on that theme. Too bad that Edmund Fitzgerald is called a porter....

 

Best overall: Side Project/Shared
Best affordable: Goose Island
Best unknown: Little Cottage
Honorable mention: Jackie O's

(acknowledging my bias as an StL guy with the SP logo as my avatar)

 

Top 3: Founders, Prairie, Sierra Nevada

Narwhal in particular has been fantastic this year.

Honorable mentions: Deschutes, Left Hand, North Coast

Local Plug: Lakewood. I don't usually go for flavored seasonal stouts but a handful of the flavored Temptress series are very very good. The original Temptress is also a classic.

 

I don't need to trade to get their non-BA beers, we get those here. They're only hurting themselves by artificially limiting production of their "high-end" BA Stouts, missing out on profit. Oh well.

 

but would they be able to sell out of them or sell them at as high of a price? Or would it go the way of BCBS were some places bottles last on the shelf for over 2 years. I think the way they do business is fine, they aren’t artificially limiting the numbers as much as you think

 

1. Side Project (Easy choice)
2. Toppling Goliath
3. Weldwerks

 

Man . . . you sure do have restraint . . .

 

I was curious to see how this beer evolved with cellaring and I was well rewarded here; for my palate this beer did improve with aging.

It was mentioned above this is the BA version of Narwhal; I should have emphasized that in my post.

Cheers!

 

The Taddy porter is awesome I cannot believe I never had until just a week ago being long in tooth and liking British beer