If you were to drink them side by side, you might have a difficult time telling the differences between porters and stouts. The ingredients and flavors aren’t too drastically different — mostly, it comes down to the malts used. Stouts are often made with unmalted roasted barley. This is why you’ll find slightly smoky, roasty, coffee-like flavors when you sip a stout. Porters on the other hand, are made simply with malted barley. This is partly why porters are known to be sweeter.
To find some experts to sound off porters and stouts, we asked a handful of well-known brewers and craft beer experts to tell us the most underrated, underappreciated, and undervalued riffs on these beers currently on the market. Keep scrolling to see all of their picks. When an unseasonably cool fall night hits, you’ll be glad you did.
Societe The Butcher
Zach Fowle, advanced Cicerone and head of marketing for Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co. in Phoenix, Arizona
ABV: 9.6%
Average Price: $13.99 for a four-pack
The Beer:
It’s rare these days to find a stout without vanilla, syrup, or all manner of nuts stuffed inside, but Societe’s The Butcher has been quietly slicing up lesser beers with nary an adjunct for nearly a decade.
Tasting Notes:
Chewy as the last pour of coffee from a French press, the beer coats the tongue with notes of espresso and nut shells, while dark cherries, blackstrap molasses, and torched marshmallows mingle at the edges. It’s a classic flavor profile, and an approach to stout so method it should be played by Daniel Day-Lewis.
Creature Comforts Koko Buni
Garth E. Beyer, certified Cicerone® and owner and founder of Garth’s Brew Bar in Madison, Wisconsin
ABV: 6.8%
Average Price: $12.99 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Creature Comforts’ Koko Buni has a lot going for it. It’s underrated because people might be turned off by the robustness of ingredients, but it’s ultimately a drinkable milk porter because the flavors work in harmony.
Tasting Notes:
From toasted coconut flavors to chocolate cocoa nibs and then layers of coffee complexity. It’s a can’t miss fall beer.
Snake River Speargun
Jody Valenta, co-president and COO of Roadhouse Brewing in Jackson Hole, Wyoming
ABV: 4.3%
Average Price: $11.99 for a six-pack
The Beer:
I’m not sure it’s underrated (at least in Wyoming), given the sheer number of medals gracing its existence, but I’ll say I always know it’s winter in Jackson Hole when I get my first Speargun Stout at neighboring Snake River Brewery.
Tasting Notes:
This buzz-worthy, creamy and rich stout has earned its gold accolades and its place in a glass right in front of me.
Young’s Double Chocolate Stout
Amy Cartwright, co-founder of Independence Brewing in Austin, Texas
ABV: 5.2%
Average Price: $10.99 for a four-pack
The Beer:
Young’s Double Chocolate Stout deserves way more acclaim than it gets. It’s a well-known name but definitely doesn’t get the respect it deserves. It’s a very well-made, flavorful stout.
Tasting Notes:
While overshadowed by Guinness, Young’s delivers all of the creamy chocolate and roasty character I like in a stout. It’s a wildly complex, rich beer.
Hercule Stout
Daniel Gadala-Maria, brewer at Finback Brewery in Glendale, New York
ABV: 9%
Average Price: $9.15
The Beer:
Hercule is uncommon and wonderful. It’s a Belgian stout. It combines the roasted flavors found in stouts with the dryness and distinctive spice characteristics that come from Belgian yeast.
Tasting Notes:
It’s complex, malty, perfectly dry, and gently hopped. It’s a remarkable beer that needs to be tasted to be believed.
Hogshead Hog’s Extra Stout
Enrique Vittorino, brand manager at Wynwood Brewing Co. in Miami
ABV: 5.4%
Average Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
I think Hog’s Stout from Hogshead, out in Denver, Colorado is a highly underrated stout. It’s definitely not a household name. But one sip and you’ll be hooked by its rich, robust, complex aroma and flavor.
Tasting Notes:
It is an outstanding stout with a dry, smooth, chocolaty, medium-bodied flavor profile. Pure unalloyed liquid joy.
Guinness Stout
Rob Day, vice president of marketing at Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers in Framingham, Massachusetts
ABV: 4.2%
Average Price: $8.49 for a four-pack
The Beer:
Guinness Stout. That is if you could consider it underrated. I think many people overlook Guinness because of how big they are, but it’s a damn near perfect stout. Can a beer this popular still be underrated? I think yes.
Tasting Notes:
It’s loaded with chocolate, coffee, and roasted malt flavor while being surprisingly light and drinkable. If that’s not underrated, I don’t know what is.
Westbound and Down Western Justice
Ryan Pachmayer, head brewer at Yak & Yeti Brewpub and Restaurant in Arvada, Colorado
ABV: 14.2%
Average Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
Westbound and Down BA Western Justice Beers. They come in an eight-ounce can and the batch sizes aren’t quite tiny enough to garner the hype of an upstart brewery. So, you have awesome portions with un-hyped packaging and batch sizes, which makes it one of the best stouts in Colorado that you can actually get without reserving or lining up.
Tasting Notes:
It’s new school stout in all the best ways, good chocolate, but with enough of a bittering balance, and a lot of barrel character. It has the mouthfeel to hold that bourbon, but it isn’t particularly cloying for modern-day stouts. You can tell they were thinking entirely of the customer when making this beer, from package to taste.
Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald
Ryan Joy, lead brewer at Green Flash Brewing Company in San Diego
ABV: 6%
Average Price: $10.99 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Edmund Fitzgerald from Great Lakes Brewing. Branded as a porter, instead of a stout (what really is the difference, anyway?) is heralded, but still underrated. It’s also hard for me to get very frequently.
Tasting Notes:
Bitter, dark chocolate, and roasted coffee notes with some underlying sweetness make this beer delightfully rich yet easy to drink. Always a beer I look for on my yearly visit to Ohio.
