Buzz Beer Review: The Cleveland Brewery’s White Stout, ABV, IBU and Where to Find It

Buzz Beer is The Cleveland Brewery’s answer to a question most stout drinkers do not think to ask: what happens if you build a stout's roast character and body without the black-as-midnight color. It is brewed as a “white stout,” a pale, gold-to-amber pour that drinks like a stout but looks like it should be a wheat beer. The community rating sits at 4.07 out of 5 from 147 ratings, a strong mark for a beer this unusual, and one that made it easy to want to sit with a full glass and actually work out what is going on in it. This review breaks down where the beer comes from, what is actually in the glass, and where it lands against the other stouts already covered on this site.

Buzz Beer at a glance

How it tastes, by the numbers

The Cleveland Brewery: background

The Cleveland Brewery is a small, city-named operation that has spent the last few years finding its footing in Northeast Ohio. The brewery’s original home was a taproom near East 185th Street, in the Slavic Village-adjacent “Old World” corridor on Cleveland’s east side close to the Euclid border, a neighborhood better known for its bars and ethnic bakeries than its breweries. Local coverage in 2026 reported the brewery is aiming to reopen with a new location in Cleveland’s Flats, the historic industrial riverfront district along the Cuyahoga River that has become one of the city’s main nightlife and brewery corridors over the last two decades. A separate trade report the same year described the brand “finding new life” through a working relationship with Cleveland Whiskey, another local Cleveland producer, which tracks with how a lot of small regional breweries have handled thin margins recently: share space, share equipment, keep the brand alive under a bigger roof.

None of that changes what is actually brewed under the name. The beer lineup leans into approachable, drinkable styles rather than chasing haze-craze IPAs or barrel-aged rarities, and Buzz Beer fits that mold: an easy-drinking stout built to be ordered a second time, not just photographed once.

ABV, IBU and what is actually in Buzz Beer

Buzz Beer comes in at 7.1% ABV, solidly in strong-stout territory and well above the 4-5% range of a standard dry Irish stout like Great Lakes Brewing’s Edmund Fitzgerald Porter (a different style, but the closest well-known Cleveland comparison). The IBU sits at just 15, which is low even by stout standards. Classic dry stouts usually run 25-40 IBU, so a 15 IBU reading tells you this beer is not chasing bitterness; the roast character and residual sweetness are doing the talking instead of hops. That is consistent with what “white stout” actually means in practice. Traditional stout color comes from dark roasted malts (chocolate malt, roasted barley, black patent malt), and those same malts are the main source of a stout’s coffee-and-cocoa bitterness. Brewers building a white or golden stout swap most of that dark grain out, usually for a debittered black malt, roasted grain extract added post-boil, or a carefully dosed touch of dark malt without pushing color, so the beer keeps a roasty, coffee-toned flavor profile while staying pale in the glass. The tradeoff is exactly what shows up here: rounder, smoother bitterness and a lighter body than a jet-black stout of the same strength, without giving up the roast character that makes a stout taste like a stout in the first place. If you have never run into the concept before, it is worth reading how milk stouts soften bitterness with lactose for a related example of brewers adjusting a stout’s classic edges without changing what the style is built to deliver.

The full review

Buzz Beer pours a hazy gold to light amber with a tight, off-white head that holds up better than most pale beers at this strength, a small tell that there is real body behind the color. The nose leans into biscuit and light caramel before a genuine roasted-grain note comes through underneath, more like the smell of dark toast than the espresso-and-cocoa punch you get from a classic stout. That is the whole appeal of the white stout idea: your nose says “something malty and golden,” and then the first sip says “stout” a half-second later.

On the palate it drinks smoother than the 7.1% ABV suggests. Roasted grain and a touch of dark caramel lead, there is a light nuttiness in the middle, and the low 15 IBU means almost none of the drying, coffee-ground bitterness you would get from a jet-black stout at the same strength. The finish is dry-ish but short, no boozy heat, no lingering roast bitterness stuck to the back of the throat. Carbonation is moderate, which keeps the body from feeling heavy despite the strength and the malt-forward profile. Compared to South Shore Stout, which leans into a heavier, more traditional dark-stout body, Buzz Beer is the lighter, more sessionable cousin that happens to share a similar backbone.

It is not a beer built to overwhelm anyone. If your baseline for “stout” is something like an imperial stout, which pushes strength and roast intensity to the extreme, Buzz Beer will read as restrained. If your baseline is a light lager, this will still read as a stout, just a gentler one. It sits comfortably in the middle, which is exactly the gap a “white stout” is designed to fill.

What food pairs well with Buzz Beer

Because Buzz Beer keeps the roast character of a stout but drops most of the bitterness, it pairs more flexibly than a classic dry stout does. Grilled and smoked meats are a natural match, the light caramel and roast notes echo char and smoke without competing for space on the palate, the same logic behind most beer and dessert pairing guides that put stouts next to rich food rather than delicate dishes. Roasted nuts, pretzels with mustard, and aged cheddar all work well alongside it too. On the dessert side, vanilla-forward options (custard, creme brulee, vanilla ice cream) play nicely with the biscuit-and-caramel malt profile without clashing the way a very hoppy beer would. Serve it in a tulip or standard pint glass rather than a snifter. This is not a sipping beer meant to be warmed in your hands; it is built to be had at a normal pace, cold, with food nearby.

Where to find Buzz Beer

Buzz Beer is a small-brewery, mostly taproom pour, it has not turned up on Saucey’s delivery catalog as of this review. If you cannot get to Cleveland to try it, these five widely available stouts share enough of its DNA (low bitterness, roast-forward flavor, food-friendly body) to be worth ordering instead, or alongside it for comparison.

How Buzz Beer compares to other stouts on this site

Stacked against the other stouts already covered here, Buzz Beer sits in an unusual spot. It shares South Shore Stout‘s roast-forward, food-friendly approach but drops the color and most of the bitterness. It is stronger and less sweet than a dedicated milk stout, but far more restrained than an imperial stout pushing 9%+ ABV and heavy roast intensity. If you have tried Oreo Speedwagon and liked the dessert-adjacent stout idea but wanted something less sweet, Buzz Beer is the more savory, less candy-forward version of that same general concept. It is also a useful beer to bring up if you are working through Cicerone-style style knowledge, since it is a clean, real-world example of brewers manipulating malt selection to change a beer’s appearance without changing its underlying style category.

If you like this style

Fans of both classic stouts and lighter-bodied ales tend to get along with white/golden stouts once they try one, since the format is built to bridge the two camps. For more on where this fits in the wider stout family, see our guide to imperial stouts and our guide to milk stouts, and for pairing ideas beyond what is covered above, this beer-and-dessert pairing guide is a good next stop. If you are building out a home bar or tasting setup around stouts like this one, a proper stout or tulip glass makes a bigger difference to the aroma than most people expect.

Who Buzz Beer is for

The verdict

Buzz Beer is a genuinely interesting execution of a style most drinkers have never consciously encountered. The Cleveland Brewery did not just brew a decent stout, it brewed a stout that argues color and flavor do not have to travel together, and the 4.07-out-of-5 community rating from 147 ratings backs up that it landed the idea well rather than just attempting a novelty. At 7.1% ABV and only 15 IBU, it is strong enough to take seriously and gentle enough to order a second round of. If you are ever in Cleveland and see it on tap, it is worth ordering purely for how it upends your expectations before the first sip even lands.

FAQs

What style of beer is Buzz Beer?

Buzz Beer is brewed by The Cleveland Brewery as a “white” or golden-colored stout, part of the broader American stout family. It uses the roast character of a traditional stout while keeping the color pale gold to light amber instead of the usual near-black pour.

What is the ABV of Buzz Beer?

Buzz Beer is 7.1% ABV, which puts it above a standard dry stout and closer to a strong or export stout in terms of strength.

How bitter is Buzz Beer?

Buzz Beer measures 15 IBU, which is low for the stout category. Classic dry stouts typically run 25 to 40 IBU, so Buzz Beer’s bitterness is noticeably softer, letting the roasted malt flavor come through without a sharp, dry finish.

Why is Buzz Beer a lighter color than a normal stout?

Traditional stout color comes from heavily roasted malts like chocolate malt, roasted barley, and black patent malt. A white or golden stout swaps most of that dark grain out (often using a debittered black malt or a post-boil roasted extract) so the beer keeps a stout’s roast flavor while staying pale in the glass.

Where is The Cleveland Brewery located?

The Cleveland Brewery is based in Cleveland, Ohio. It originally operated a taproom near East 185th Street on the city’s east side, and 2026 reporting indicated the brewery was working toward a new location in Cleveland’s Flats district.

Is Buzz Beer available outside of Ohio?

Buzz Beer is primarily a taproom and local-market pour tied to The Cleveland Brewery, and it is not currently listed on national delivery platforms like Saucey. Drinkers outside the Cleveland area looking for a similar profile can try comparable low-bitterness American stouts such as Bell’s Kalamazoo Stout or Deschutes Obsidian Stout.