I've Tried Hundreds of Beers. These 10 Dark Beers Are the Best for Winter Sipping
While summer months have us thirsty for bright, crisp beers, the plunging temperatures of winter bring all things rich, toasty, and roast-y into the spotlight. Enter: dark beers.
But that’s a pretty broad category, and while many minds might jump instantly to stouts and porters, there are also American and English brown ales, Scotch ales, Czech dark lagers, and German dunkel lagers. What they all have in common is their malt.
“Dark beer is driven by the dark malts the brewer selects, along with a few other minor variables,” says Ryan Murphy, lead brewer at Schilling Beer Co. “The malts range from toasted bread to sticky caramel and toffee to light and dark chocolate and finally coffee and roast-slash-char notes.”
All malt gets dried and heated to halt germination and prepare it for the brewing process, but the malts used in the best dark beers are cooked longer. They’re used in varying proportions with base malts to craft different styles. Roasted barley, for example, is a quintessential distinguisher for a roasted espresso-like Irish stout while chocolate malt helps define brown ales.
Aging can also have a hand in darkening a beer. As a beer hangs out in a barrel—especially one that’s been charred or previously hosted bourbon—it absorbs some of that barrel’s flavors and color. From malts to barrels to possible adjuncts like vanilla beans, the choices are pretty limitless for dark beer.
To help you navigate all these options, check out what we believe are some of the best dark beer brands available in 2024. And, if you're interested in more of the best beers, check out our lists of the best non-alcoholic beers, best fall beers, and best Christmas beers.
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Best Dark Beers at a Glance
- Best Stout: Goose Island Bourbon County Stout
- Best Porter: Deschutes Brewery Black Butte Porter
- Best Brown Ale: Sierra Nevada Tumbler Brown Ale
- Best Dark Lager: Schilling Beer Co. Karluv 13 Czech-Style Dark Lager
- Best Black IPA: Firestone Walker Wookey Jack Black IPA
Best Dark Beers of 2024
Goose Island Bourbon County Stout
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- Region: Illinois
- ABV: 14.7 percent
- Tasting notes: Toasted almond, caramel, cherry, vanilla, cocoa.
Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster Garrett Oliver calls Goose Island Bourbon County Stout a game-changer: "[Former Goose Island brewmaster] Greg Hall perhaps doesn’t get the credit he deserves,” he says.
The Chicago brewery debuted the first bourbon barrel-aged stout in 1992, creating the mold that countless breweries have followed ever since. And Goose Island itself has since broken that mold annually by collaborating with bourbon’s most esteemed distilleries.
Part of the magic, says Goose Island senior innovation manager Mike Siegel, comes from using un-rinsed barrels to capitalize on as many bourbon and American oak flavors as possible, which express as vanilla, coconut, cinnamon, spices, and caramel.
2024’s Original Stout was aged for 16 months in a mix of barrels from Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill, Four Roses, and Wild Turkey.
Deschutes Brewery Black Butte Porter
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- Region: Oregon
- ABV: 5.5 percent
- Tasting notes: Coffee, dark dried fruit, chocolate, toasted bread
There are three characteristics every American porter must have: Roasted, almost burnt malt character; dessert notes like coffee and chocolate; and a moderate level of hop bitterness that counters that sweetness.
All are richly present and deftly balanced in Black Butte Porter. The aroma offers up earthy bitterness mingling with cocoa and roast, delivered with some fig, date, and cherry plus coffee in the flavor. The mouthfeel is full and creamy, but it finishes dry so it’s never cloying.
Sierra Nevada Tumbler Brown Ale
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- Region: California
- ABV: 5.5 percent
- Tasting notes: Toasted bread, herbs and earthiness, caramel, nuts
Sierra Nevada hardly needs the bucolic autumnal scene on its Tumbler Brown Ale can—this brown ale is an obvious taste of fall.
It stays firmly in the brown-ale lane, with toasty bread crust and walnut flavors rather than a stout or porter’s chocolate and coffee. However, it also dabbles in cozy sweet notes, like caramel.
Its hops are at just the right bitterness level, with an herbaceous quality that keeps even that caramel refreshing and dry, so you keep wanting another sip.
Schilling Beer Co. Karluv 13 Czech-Style Dark Lager
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- Region: New Hampshire
- ABV: 5.3 percent
- Tasting notes: Cocoa, coffee, toasted nuts, pumpernickel bread
“Karluv 13 is evocative of the full-bodied Černé Pivo beers from Czechia, designed to provide a robust malt character along with the famous drinkability of well-balanced Czech beers,” says Murphy.
He utilizes floor-malted Czech pilsner malt, some Munich malt, other darker malts, and an intensive, traditional decoction mash process that unlocks layered notes of baker’s chocolate, spiced bread, and roasted coffee beans all in a crushable, refreshing format.
Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout
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- Region: New York
- ABV: 10 percent
- Tasting notes: Dark chocolate, espresso, dark dried fruit
“I vividly remember the first time I drank Brooklyn's Black Chocolate Stout,” says Patrick Chavanelle, senior research and development brewer at Allagash Brewing Company. “The flavors were so rich and intense, I had never experienced anything quite like it before.”
Legendary brewer Garrett Oliver calls BCS his “résumé beer” for his brewmaster position at Brooklyn Brewery, which he’s held since 1994. It’s a Russian imperial stout, strong and rich. The sub-style is less common today, making BCS’s staying power all the more indicative of its quality, balancing hop bitterness and tannic roast with mouth-coating sweetness.
Von Trapp Dunkel Dark Lager
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- Region: Vermont
- ABV: 5.7 percent
- Tasting notes: Toasted bread crust, caramel, chocolate
Similar to a Czech-style dark lager, a German dunkel should express the roasted dark malt depth and sweet notes within a crisp, easy-drinking liquid.
Von Trapp Dunkel nails this balancing act, delivering rich caramel and toffee that harmonizes with earthy hop bitterness, roasted dryness, a cascade of carbonation, and an overall smooth finish to the mouthfeel. Chocolate-covered caramel flavors have never been more thirst-quenching.
Jack’s Abby Smoke & Dagger Smoked Black Lager
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- Region: Massachusetts
- ABV: 5.6 percent
- Tasting notes: Chocolate, coffee, earthiness, smoked bacon
Jack’s Abby elevates the quintessential roasty-yet-crushable black lager with a hint of smoke to create a more subtly savory experience.
Jack Hendler, cofounder and chief production officer of Jack’s Abby parent company Hendler Family Brewing Company, says Smoke & Dagger utilizes a blend of roasted malts including chocolate malt and smoked malt, the latter sourced from the Bamberg region of Germany, famed for its smoked beers.
“The goal is to have the smoky character seamlessly blend with the roasted barley character,” Hendler says. That goal has deliciously been achieved.
Firestone Walker Wookey Jack Black IPA
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- Region: California
- ABV: 8.3 percent
- Tasting notes: Cocoa, toasted bread, spicy rye, citrus peel, pine
You don’t have to abandon your quest for big, bold hop character and bitterness when venturing into roasted chocolatey flavor profiles. Firestone Walker Wookey Jack is one of the trailblazing examples of the black IPA, a flavor wallop of toasty char, chocolate, and rye spice from the malt and citrus, pine, and resin from the hops. No wonder it’s taken gold three times at the Great American Beer Festival.
Allagash North Sky Belgian-Style Stout
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- Region: Maine
- ABV: 7.5 percent
- Tasting notes: Coffee, chocolate, dark fruits, caramel
Allagash North Sky ticks all the satisfying “roasty, chocolatey stout” boxes, but with the added boost of the brewery’s renowned Belgian approach. Chavanelle says as much as the malt defines North Sky’s flavor profile, unique notes come from a Belgian-inspired focus on fermentation.
“Our house yeast strain is what provides the nuance and complexity that make the beer stand out,” he says. “The light presence of yeast-derived phenols are interwoven throughout the aroma and play a complementary role that helps boost the dark chocolate and coffee notes.”
Untitled Art Non-Alcoholic Chocolate Dark Brew
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- Region: Wisconsin
- ABV: Less than 0.5 percent
- Tasting notes: Brownie, graham cracker, toasted bread
Without the presence of alcohol, the malt in non-alcoholic beers can sometimes express itself too sweetly, making dark beers—where sweetness is welcome—an ideal entry into booze-free beers.
That profile works for Untitled Art Chocolate Dark Brew. It's reminiscent of brownies fresh from the oven. And those dessert vibes are perfectly tempered by crisp effervescence and dry-finishing roast, for an alcohol-free experience that’s packed with flavor.
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FAQs About Dark Beer
How Is Dark Beer Made?
Dark beer’s production process boils down to some inclusion of deeply cooked malts. The actual brewing method is no different from that of lighter beers.
Depending on the style a brewer wants to achieve, brewers add some proportion of roasted malt to an overall grain bill also consisting of lighter base malts. The more dark malt they use, the darker the beer.
Flavor nuances come from the specific malts chosen as well as other possible factors, like barrel-aging.
How Is Dark Beer Different From Other Beers?
Aside from literally looking darker, dark beers boast flavors from the degree to which the malt was cooked.
Within the darker malt range, relatively lighter varieties like Carafa and chocolate yield mocha-like notes, compared to black patent malt and roasted barley, which offer subtle astringency, charred toast, and espresso.
Generally, expect fuller, richer beers with notes from toast to chocolate to dark dried fruit.
Does Dark Beer Have a Higher Alcohol Content?
Dark beers aren’t necessarily boozier than light beers.
Take dark lagers, like the German schwarzbier: Its ABV range is 4.4 to 5.4 percent, compared to a German pilsner’s 4.4 to 5.2 percent or an IPA’s 5 to 7.5 percent.
The exceptions are stouts and porters, which are often barrel-aged, driving alcohol content up. Styles like stouts can be brewed to imperial strengths from 8 to 12 percent.
What We Look for When Choosing the Best Dark Beers
To make the selections for this list, I combined my own knowledge of the signifiers of a well-made dark beer with evidence of positive responses to these brews. Namely, they're frequently included in “best of” lists and have high ratings on trusted beer community forums like Beer Advocate.
They had to demonstrate the hallmarks of their styles: roasted but crisp and easy-drinking dark lagers; hop-bitter yet caramel-y, nutty, and toasty American brown ales; or full-bodied stouts with characteristics unique to adjuncts or barrel-aging.
Why You Should Trust Me
I've been covering beer since 2018, and have been an avid member of the craft beer-enthusiast community since 2008. I cover beer news and trends and brewing techniques for outlets including Punch, Food & Wine, Inside Hook, CraftBeer.com, VinePair, Thrillist, The Washington Post, Craft Beer & Brewing, and Brewing Industry Guide.
I'm also a certified cicerone beer server. Throughout my writing, research, cicerone studies, and beer-curious world travels, I've delved deep into every readily available beer style and am especially a fan of dark lagers.