Recommendations for a German Stout

[DKIM272]

I need help selecting a gift for a friend of mine who likes good German Stouts. Does anyone have any good recommendations??? Also, any suggestions on where to buy it would be much appreciated, preferably online.

Thank you much!

Dan

[steveh]

Okay, I'll jump - first off, welcome to the board Dan, and the world of good beer.

There really aren't German Stouts. I'm not sure just what your friend might be looking for, maybe Munich Darks or Baltic Porters, but Stout is an Irish and U.K. style of beer - unless someone has some new info.

With the rise of some brew-pubs in Germany, I imagine that some could be brewing a Stout, thereby being loosely defined as German Stout. But you can bet they're probably following a recipe that has its roots further north and west.

Do you have any more info on what your friend has been drinking?

S.

[chazwicke]

schwarz bier maybe ?

[DKIM272]

Stevah:

Didn't know that Stouts were more of a UK thing. Very informative. Still drinking, still learning...

As for my friend, I'm not too sure what he drinks exactly. Since a "German Stout" doesn't really make sense, can you recommend a few good stouts (or German beers) that would make a nice present? Also, if you know of any good reputable online retailers, that would be helpful too. Thanks for your help.

Dan

[steveh]

I don't do a lot of on-line beer buying myself, but here are a couple that have been recommended in the past:

http://www.vintagecellar.com/ & http://www.liquidsolutions.ws/main/

If you search for "stout" at Liquid Solutions, you'll get 4 pages of results! Perusing the first page alone shows some great brews from micro-breweries as well as imports. You might also look into Porters as they are cousins to Stout and there are many good ones available (Sierra Nevada and Anchor, for two).

As far as dark German beers go, Chaz has probably hit the nail with Schwarzbiers. baltic Porters have a nice eastern European dark flavor to them, but different from U.K. style Porters. I haven't found too many Munich Dunkels (darks) imported to the U.S., though Dinkel-Acker makes a pretty good dark lager. Be careful of dark Bock beers ending in a suffix of -ator (Optimator, Salvator) - they're quite good, but also very strong and will sneak up on you!

Good luck, let us know your findings.

S.

You might also go to the Beer & Travel forum/ Beer in the west and ask about good liquor stores in your area - and there's always some of the beer-of-the-month clubs advertised.