As the winter season approaches, there are only a few weeks and days left where the weather is still warm enough to enjoy the easy-drinking lagers of summer and fall. After November, we recommend turning to the warming, malty flavor of a well-made stout. Roasted malts, chocolate, coffee, caramel, and lightly bitter hops flavors aren’t really suited for late spring and summer days. Although, if that’s what you’re into, we won’t judge you.
Like with many beer styles, there’s more than one stout variety waiting to be enjoyed during the winter season. There are dry stouts (like that fairly famous Irish stout you know and love), milk stouts, oatmeal stouts, potent imperial stouts, and even bold bourbon barrel-aged stouts. But today, since we’re also in need of a caffeine boost to get us out of our late winter funk, we’re going to take a closer look at stouts for fans of coffee.
By this, we mean stouts that taste like coffee, but to a larger degree, stouts that literally have coffee included in the ingredients. This not only adds a lightly bitter, roasty flavor but, in some cases, a little bit of eye-opening caffeine as well. What more could you ask for while we eagerly await the start of spring, right?
Luckily, many stouts on the market fit this criterion. Some are more well-known, and others deserve a little more recognition. All are loaded with roasted coffee goodness. Keep scrolling to see them all. Or would you rather just drink a cup of coffee instead? No? We thought so.
Almanac Boost Coffee Stout
With a name like Boost Coffee Stout, you should have a pretty good idea of what you’re in for when you crack open one of these bad boys. Almanac collaborates with different coffee makers to brew this potent, rich, robust beer loaded with coffee and vanilla. Unsurprisingly, it’s known for its roasted malts, dark chocolate, buttery caramel, vanilla bean, and freshly-brewed coffee flavors. If you can’t have a cup of coffee, we prefer the next best thing: Almanac Boost Coffee Stout.
- Origin: California
- ABV: 9%
- Price Range: $19-25 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
Elysian Split Shot Milk Stout
When it comes to Seattle, besides the constant overcast weather, the city is most known for its coffee prowess. It’s no surprise that Elysian makes a coffee-centric milk stout. This collaboration between the iconic brewery and local Stumptown Coffee is something special. Add Northwest pale, C-15, C-45 dextrin malts, Franco-Belges kiln coffee malt, Black, Roasted, and Chocolate malts, as well as flaked oats, Magnum hops, and milk sugar, and you have the equivalent of a well-made cup of coffee in beer form.
- Origin: Washington State
- ABV: 5.6%
- Price Range: $11.99-12.99 for a six-pack
Narragansett Autocrat Coffee Milk Stout
Rhode Island’s Narragansett is most known for its popular lager. You know, the beer that made an epic appearance in 1975’s ‘Jaws’ and is still popular and crushable today. Well, the brewery makes more than just like crisp lager. One of its most interesting and delicious alternative brews is Autocrat Coffee Milk Stout. This collaboration between the historic brewery and equally historic coffee brand Autocrat is known for its mix of bittersweet chocolate, sweet toffee, vanilla, and bold coffee.
- Origin: Rhode Island
- ABV: 5.5%
- Price Range: $8.99-10.99 for a six-pack of 16-ounce cans
Lagunitas Willettized Coffee Stout
This is the kind of beer that you definitely purchase if you find it in the wild. Lagunitas first brewed a coffee-filled version of its popular imperial stout. It then collaborated with the well-known bourbon distillery Willett to age it in barrels that held its popular whiskey. The result is a complex, multi-dimensional imperial stout loaded with flavors of dried fruits, sweet bourbon, caramel, vanilla beans, bittersweet chocolate, and bold, freshly-brewed coffee. What could be better?
- Origin: California
- ABV: 13.1%
- Price Range: $13.99-16.99 for a four-pack
Terrapin Wake-n-Bake Stout
Athens, Georgia-based Terrapin Beer Co. collaborated with local coffee roasters Jittery Joes to create this coffee-filled imperial oatmeal stout. Brewed with 2-Row, Crystal 85, flaked barley, flaked oats, chocolate malts, black malts, and roasted barley, as well as Nugget hops, it’s known for its notes of dark chocolate, coffee beans, roasted malts, and creamy vanilla.
- Origin: Georgia
- ABV: 9.4%
- Price Range: $11.99-12.99 for a six-pack
Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout
When it comes to stouts for coffee fans, it’s tough to beat the appeal of Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout. It’s arguably the most famous of the bunch and for good reason. This imperial stout is brewed with coffee and chocolate and barrel-aged in former bourbon barrels. The result is a bold, highly complex, potent beer known for its charred oak, sweet, warming bourbon, dark chocolate, vanilla, and caramel flavors.
- Origin: Michigan
- ABV: 12%
- Price Range: $16.99 for 17.99 for a six-pack
Sierra Nevada Coffee Stout
Some of the beers on the list are coffee-filled but have their flavor profiles propped up by other flavors. Sierra Nevada Coffee Stout doesn’t need that. It gets its bold, coffee, chocolate, vanilla, and lightly bitter hop flavors from the addition of Brown, Chocolate, Especial, Munich, SN Crystal, and Two-row Pale malts as well as oats, ale yeast, Ekuanot hops, and San Francisco Bay Coffee.
- Origin: California
- ABV: 6.2%
- Price Range: $11.99-12.99 for a six-pack
Evil Twin Imperial Biscotti Break
Sometimes you encounter a stout that’s so unique, and so flavorful, you want to tell everyone you meet about it. That beer is Evil Twin Imperial Biscotti Break. Brewed to taste like you’re dipping biscotti in coffee, this dark chocolate, coffee, vanilla, caramel, and boozy barrel-aged beer gets its flavor from being brewed with coffee, almond, and vanilla.
- Origin: New York
- ABV: 11.5%
- Price Range: $16.99-18.99 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
Stone Brewing Xocoveza Tres Leches Stout
To say that a lot is going on with this beer is an extreme understatement. This beer is supposed to taste like a mixture of tres leches and Oaxacan hot chocolate in beer form and that’s exactly what it is. The folks at Stone did this by brewing an imperial stout with chocolate, coffee, Pasilla pepper, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg. It’s spicy, sweet, and totally memorable.
- Origin: California
- ABV: 8.5%
- Price Range: $13.99-14.99 for a six-pack
Modern Times Black House Stout
Modern Times is the kind of brewery that seems like it can do no wrong. All of its beers, especially its coffee, stout Modern Times Black House Stout, are great. Brewed with two-row, kiln coffee malt, pale chocolate malt, black malt, biscuit malt, Crystal 60 malt, and oats, it gets its coffee flavor from the addition of Ethiopian and Sumatran coffee. It’s filled with bitter chocolate, coffee, vanilla, and caramel flavors that leave you craving more.
- Origin: California
- ABV: 5.8%
- Price Range: $12.99-13.99 for a four-pack
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