Beer drinkers are weaning themselves off of so many unfortunate St. Patrick’s Day traditions. Green beer? Gone. Drinking enough to shame their Irish forebears by the end of the night? Well, mostly gone.
The next step? Reaching for a locally made, artisanal stout or porter, rather than that well-known macro sludge. No, we’re not talking 12 percent ABV pastry stouts crammed with everything from the supermarket candy aisle. And we’re not talking 14 percent barrel-aged behemoths. We’re talking mostly dry, non-adjuncted, reasonably low-alcohol beer you can crush without much concern.
“[Dry stout] is a simple beer—one of the simplest,” said Kevin McElroy, co-founder and head brewer at Random Row Brewing Co. “I think for me, it is that kind of roasty flavor that comes along with it. Personally, I am a low ABV beer drinker. [Dry stouts] have so much flavor, but they don’t have that heavy alcohol content. It’s the combination of drinkbalility and taste.”
Here’s a look at seven local stouts and porters to replace your Guinness this St. Paddy’s Day.
Random Row Brewing Co.
Sublimation Stout, 4.9% ABV
Random Row’s Sublimation is likely the one true dry Irish stout you’ll find on C’ville taps this March. McElroy says it’s made with but a few humble ingredients: British pale malt, roasted barley, flaked barley, East Kent Golding hops, and British ale yeast. The brew’s been as low as 4.5 percent ABV in some batches and featured other Euro-staple hops like Perle, but it always has a roasty, unsweetened flavor profile typical of the dry Irish.
Reason Beer
Strange Currencies, 5.7% ABV
Blurring the lines between styles, Reason’s Strange Currencies porter offers the roasted coffee, chocolate, and caramel flavors stout lovers crave. But it also brings a hoppy edge you don’t find in traditional Irish stouts. Legend has it Reason’s head brewer, Mark Fulton, originally brewed Strange Currencies in honor of his wife and named it after the REM song that soundtracked their first wedding night dance. These beers, you will be mine.
Champion Brewing
Company
Blacklight Tapestry, 5% ABV
Champion Brewing Company has made a number of stouts over the years that put a pint of Gat to shame. So, while this year fans’ll have to settle for a robust porter, they know they’re in capable hands. Black Light Tapestry brings chocolate, coffee, and chicory flavors to a creamy body, as well as a subtle hop tinge at 25 IBUs. Dark beer lovers have praised the brew, which has been on tap at Champion since February 5, for its dark-roast, nearly burnt aesthetic.
Seven Arrows
Sundog Milkstout, 5.5% ABV
Not all the great local Guinness substitutes are purely dry. Seven Arrows’s Sundog Milkstout features the addition of non-fermentable lactose sugar, making the resulting brew slightly sweet. The lactose also gives the beer its creamy mouthfeel, which the brewers say manifests in a “tight, thick head like whipped cream.” But Sundog’s flavors are in line with our other macro-alternatives—they brim with chocolate and coffee, along with a slight hoppiness and roast bitterness.
Decipher Brewing
Scytale Stout, 5.7% ABV
Decipher Brewing’s Scytale Stout is a unique alternative to the St. Paddy’s Day fare on our list, as it features oatmeal and is on the nanobrewery’s nitro line. Both attributes are designed to give the ale a creamy mouthfeel—the oats during the boil and the gas erupting into tight bubbles as the dark liquid hits the glass.
Rockfish Brewing
Company
Baltic Porter, 7.2% ABV
So what the heck is a Baltic porter? It’s a lager, meaning it’s fermented differently from other porters, which are ales. According to the Beer Judge Certification Program, it’s a style categorized with other porters primarily due to its malt character. BJCP, the gold standard for beer style definitions, says Baltic porters might have hints of “caramel, toffee, nutty to deep toast, and/or licorice notes…Some darker malt character that is deep chocolate, coffee or molasses but never burnt.” Baltic porters also feature higher alcohol contents than other porters, but they fall short of imperial or barrel-aged stouts, making them a fair sub for dry stouts.
For one example of the style, pull up to a pint of Rockfish Brewing Company’s Baltic Porter. The brewery’s take is mostly dry, pops with roasted coffee and chocolate, and comes in at a reasonable 7.2 percent ABV.
Devils Backbone Brewing Company
Danzig, 8% ABV
Devils Backbone Brewing Company offers a sturdy Baltic porter in Danzig, a beer that’s won numerous awards at the Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup. “Baltic porters bring aspects of strong lagers and English porters together,” says Jason Oliver, Devils Backbone’s head brewer. “We have always brewed it to be a true-to-style Baltic porter.”
At nearly twice the alcohol of a Guiness, revelers will want to take their time savoring Danzig’s flavor profile, which delivers the coffee and chocolate notes typical of a porter. “It’s kind of a hybrid,” Oliver says. “Beer styles are a bit of an invention to classify things. They serve a purpose, but they can’t cover all the bases.”