Best Stouts: 12 Ranked by a Homebrewer, From Guinness to Imperial

The best stout is Guinness Draught, the iconic Irish dry stout that is the smooth, roasty, creamy benchmark the whole style is measured against. That is my verdict after buying and tasting twelve of the most respected stouts in the world side by side, every one out of my own pocket, and scoring each on aroma, balance, body and drinkability.

I am Dan, and beer is my life. I have been an active homebrewer for over 10 years and have tasted breweries all over the world. This guide is built from my own tasting notes, with honest scores and a full review behind every pick. You can read more about me or see everything I have reviewed on my author page.

Stout is a whole family of dark beers, not one drink. Below is the best stout for every mood, from the smooth, sessionable Irish dry stouts through the sweet milk and chocolate stouts to the huge, barrel-aged imperial sippers.

A quick map of the styles: an Irish dry stout like Guinness is light, roasty and bitter. A milk or sweet stout adds lactose for a creamy sweetness. An oatmeal stout uses oats for a silky body. An imperial stout cranks the strength and richness up to eleven.

I have ranked them together here because that is how people actually shop for a stout. If you want to see exactly how stout compares to its closest relative, our Porter vs. Stout breakdown covers that side by side.

The Best Stouts, Ranked

Here is the short version, ranked by how they actually taste. Full reviews are linked under each pick.

Rank	Beer	Style	ABV	Calories	Our score
1	Guinness Draught	Irish dry stout	4.2%	125	4.6/5
2	North Coast Old Rasputin	Russian imperial stout	9.0%	300	4.6/5
3	Left Hand Milk Stout Nitro	Milk (sweet) stout	6.0%	200	4.5/5
4	Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout	Oatmeal stout	5.0%	180	4.5/5
5	Founders KBS Espresso	Barrel-aged imperial stout	12.0%	380	4.5/5
6	Young’s Double Chocolate Stout	Chocolate stout	5.2%	190	4.4/5
7	Bell’s Kalamazoo Stout	American stout	6.0%	210	4.3/5
8	Deschutes Obsidian Stout	American stout	6.4%	220	4.3/5
9	AleSmith Speedway Stout	Imperial coffee stout	12.0%	380	4.3/5
10	Guinness Extra Stout	Extra stout	5.6%	175	4.2/5
11	Sierra Nevada Stout	American stout	5.8%	200	4.1/5
12	Murphy’s Irish Stout	Irish dry stout	4.0%	120	4.0/5

The Best Stouts at a Glance

Swipe through the top picks and tap any card to jump straight to the full write-up.

Best Stout Overall: Guinness Draught

Guinness is the most famous stout on earth for a reason. The smooth, creamy nitro pour, the roasty coffee character and the light, drinkable body make it the benchmark for the Irish dry stout style. It is not the biggest or richest stout here, but as an everyday pint it is still the one everything else is measured against.

The iconic Irish dry stout and the benchmark for the whole style, a smooth, creamy, roasty nitro pint that is famous the world over.

Serve it right: A classic dry or milk stout is made for a proper pint glass, poured to build a thick, creamy head. This is a best-reviewed everyday set.

• Also worth trying: Murphy’s Irish Stout

Pairing it with food? Try our beer and food pairing guide. More like this in our Guinness Extra Stout review.

Best Imperial Stout: North Coast Old Rasputin

If you want the full, rich, roasty imperial stout experience, Old Rasputin is a benchmark, and unlike most great imperial stouts it is available year round at a sensible price. It is a 9% beast of dark chocolate, espresso and warming malt, best sipped slowly. The best value big stout you can buy.

Old Rasputin is one of the great American Russian imperial stouts, a rich, roasty, 9% monster that is widely available and endlessly rewarding.

Serve it right: A big, rich stout shows best in a stemmed tulip or snifter that traps the aroma and lets you swirl it. This is the glass for imperial and barrel-aged stouts you want to sip slowly.

• Also worth trying: AleSmith Speedway Stout

Pairing it with food? Try our beer and food pairing guide. More like this in our AleSmith Speedway Stout review.

Best Milk Stout: Left Hand Milk Stout Nitro

For the smoothest, creamiest stout you can buy in a can, this is the pick. Left Hand’s nitro packaging gives it a cascading, Guinness-like pour, and the lactose makes it sweet, creamy and full of milk chocolate flavour. It is the beer I hand to anyone who thinks they do not like stout.

Left Hand Milk Stout Nitro is one of the smoothest, creamiest stouts you can buy in a can, a sweet, chocolatey beer with a cascading nitro pour that rivals Guinness.

Serve it right: A classic dry or milk stout is made for a proper pint glass, poured to build a thick, creamy head. This is a best-reviewed everyday set.

• Also worth trying: Young’s Double Chocolate Stout

Pairing it with food? Try our beer and food pairing guide. More like this in our Young’s Double Chocolate Stout review.

Best Oatmeal Stout: Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout

The beer that revived and defined the oatmeal stout style. Oats give it a smooth, silky body and a soft, gently sweet character that sits perfectly between a dry and a sweet stout. A timeless Yorkshire classic and still the reference point for the style.

Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout is the beer that revived and defined the oatmeal stout style, a smooth, silky, gently sweet classic from Yorkshire.

Serve it right: A big, rich stout shows best in a stemmed tulip or snifter that traps the aroma and lets you swirl it. This is the glass for imperial and barrel-aged stouts you want to sip slowly.

• Also worth trying: Deschutes Obsidian Stout

Pairing it with food? Try our beer and food pairing guide. More like this in our Young’s Double Chocolate Stout review.

Best Coffee Stout: Founders KBS Espresso

For a special-occasion, dessert-style stout, KBS Espresso is spectacular. It is a bourbon-barrel-aged imperial stout loaded with real coffee, coming in at a huge 12% of espresso, dark chocolate, vanilla and oak. One small glass, sipped slowly after dinner, is a genuine treat.

KBS Espresso is a bourbon-barrel-aged imperial stout loaded with coffee, a huge, decadent 12% beer that is one of the most indulgent things you can pour.

Serve it right: A big, rich stout shows best in a stemmed tulip or snifter that traps the aroma and lets you swirl it. This is the glass for imperial and barrel-aged stouts you want to sip slowly.

• Also worth trying: AleSmith Speedway Stout

Pairing it with food? Try our beer and food pairing guide. More like this in our AleSmith Speedway Stout review.

Best Budget Stout: Murphy’s Irish Stout

Guinness gets all the attention, but Murphy’s is the other Cork-brewed dry stout, and it is usually a few dollars cheaper for a comparable pour. It skews slightly sweeter and less bitter than Guinness, with a softer roast character.

If you are stocking a fridge for a match or a barbecue rather than sipping one slowly, Murphy’s gets you most of the way to the Guinness experience without the Guinness price tag.

• Also worth trying: Guinness Extra Stout, a stronger, more bitter step up from Guinness Draught.

Curious how stout stacks up against its closest cousin? Our Porter vs. Stout guide covers exactly that. For a completely different direction, our Best Dark Beer Brands roundup looks beyond stout into the wider world of dark beer.

Explore More Beer Guides

Want to go wider? These guides cover the rest of the beer world:

• Best beers (all our guides)
• Best IPAs
• Best lager beers
• Best Belgian beers

Stout FAQs

What is a stout?

A stout is a dark, top-fermented beer made with roasted malt or roasted barley, which gives it its black colour and its coffee, chocolate and roast character. The family runs from light, dry Irish stouts like Guinness through sweet milk and chocolate stouts to huge, strong imperial stouts.

What is the difference between a stout and a porter?

The two styles overlap heavily and the line is blurry. Historically stout was simply a stronger (stouter) porter. Today porters tend to be a touch lighter and more chocolatey, while stouts, especially Irish and imperial ones, lean more on roasted barley for a sharper roast character. In practice many beers could be called either.

Is Guinness the best stout?

Guinness Draught is the most famous stout and the benchmark for the Irish dry style, which is why it tops this guide. But stout is a huge family, and for richness an imperial stout like Old Rasputin will beat it, while for smoothness a milk stout like Left Hand may suit you better. Best depends on what you want.

What is an imperial stout?

An imperial stout is the strongest, richest style of stout, usually 8 to 12% ABV, dark, thick and intensely roasty. The style comes from strong stouts brewed in the 1700s for export to the Russian imperial court. Old Rasputin and Speedway Stout are examples in this guide.

How We Test and Score

Every beer here was bought with my own money and tasted properly, not skimmed from a spec sheet. I score each on aroma, balance, body, drinkability and how well it does the job it is built for.

Simple beers are not marked down for being simple, but the ones with real character and balance score higher. You can see every score on the individual beer reviews, and if bitterness numbers matter to your decision, our What Does IBU Mean? explainer covers where stout typically lands on that scale.