We are firmly entrenched in stout season. The cooler (and sometimes unpleasantly cold) weather is perfect for the rich, robust roasted malt, chocolate, and coffee flavor notes everyone expects from the style. And while classic stouts are well and good, today we want to highlight something a little more potent and richer: the imperial stout.
For those unaware, an imperial stout is higher in alcohol content and has more noticeable roasted malt, chocolate, coffee, and smoky flavors than its non-imperial counterparts. Not surprisingly, they make great drinking as the holiday season starts to ramp up and the weather turns cold.
So which imperial stouts should you buy? Instead of picking hard-to-find beers that you’ll never get a chance to drink, we picked eight great choices that are all readily available at grocery stores and beer stores from Bangor to Bakersfield. Then we ranked them all, based on balance and overall flavor.
Keep reading to see if your favorite imperial stout made the list!
8) Stone Imperial Stout
ABV: 10.5%
Average Price: $17 for a six-pack
The Beer:
First released in 2022, Stone Imperial Stout is known for its pitch-black color and robust, rich flavor. It’s brewed with Magnum hops and roasted malts. Referred to by the brewery as “decedent as sin”, you can age this beer for years if you want to and it will only get better.
Tasting Notes:
A classic nose of dark chocolate, coffee, and caramel greets you before your first sip. The palate is loaded with vanilla, roasted malts, dark chocolate, and freshly brewed coffee. It’s creamy and velvety with a dry finish that leaves you wanting more. Well made, but a fairly straightforward flavor profile.
Bottom Line:
This is a great beer. It’s simple and easy to drink with rich, robust flavors. It’s a great choice for fans of traditional, no-frills imperial stouts.
7) Boulevard Dark Truth
ABV: 9.7%
Average Price: $19 for a six-pack
The Beer:
This 9.7% ABV imperial stout is made with humble ingredients like barley, wheat, rye, and oats. It’s known for its dark obsidian hue and full-flavored, complex flavor profile of roasted malts, dried fruits, and floral, earthy noble German hops.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is all freshly brewed coffee, vanilla beans, toffee, and brown sugar. Drinking it reveals notes of molasses, dried fruits, espresso, dark chocolate, light smoke, and a dry, sweet finish. It’s a classic imperial stout that has countless fans and for good reason.
Bottom Line:
This is a complex, rich imperial stout. It’s heavy on the coffee aspect so if that’s your jam, this stout is completely up your alley.
6) Great Divide Yeti
ABV: 9.5%
Average Price: $14 for a six-pack
The Beer:
This year-round, 9.5% ABV imperial stout has won numerous awards over the years, including multiple medals from the Great American Beer Festival. It’s well-known for its balance, including a roasted malt backbone, sweet caramel flavors, and a nice kick of floral, earthy hops at the finish.
Tasting Notes:
Everything begins with a nose of roasted malts, chocolate, dried fruits, and some gentle floral hops. The palate continues this trend with notes of roasted malts, toffee, vanilla beans, chocolate, light spices, and more floral hops at the very end. The finish is dry and lightly bitter.
Bottom Line:
A well-balanced imperial stout, Great Divide Yeti is one for stout fans who enjoy myriad different flavors. Malty, sweet, and eventually bitter — this is a beer that evolves on the palate.
5) Bell’s Expedition Stout
ABV: 10.5%
Average Price: $19 for a six-pack
The Beer:
First brewed in 1989, you’d have a hard time finding an older Russian imperial stout brewed in the US. Crafted to spend extra time aging in your basement, it’s beloved for its flavor profile of roasted malts, chocolate, and fruit. At a bold 10.5% ABV, it’s sure to warm you up this fall and winter.
Tasting Notes:
Dark chocolate, butterscotch, raisins, brown sugar, and roasted malts make for a very inviting nose. Sipping it brings notes of molasses, dark chocolate, toffee, roasted malts, and dried fruits, The finish is perfectly dry and gently bitter.
Bottom Line:
There’s a reason this beer has been made the same way since 1989. It’s well-balanced and highly drinkable — get some extra bottles and save them for cellaring.
4) Sierra Nevada Narwhal Stout
ABV: 10.2%
Average Price: $14 for a six-pack
The Beer:
A narwhal is an arctic whale known for its unicorn-like tusk (that’s really a canine tooth). It’s wild and bold which is why Sierra Nevada decided to name its imperial stout after this majestic creature. Brewed with Carafa, Caramelized, Chocolate, Estate Pale, and Honey malts as well as ale yeast and Cascade and Ekuanot hops, it’s known for its indulgent chocolate, roasted malt, and lightly smoky flavor profile.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is made up of aromas of roasted malts, coffee, chocolate, and licorice. The palate follows suit with a velvety smooth mouthfeel and a slew of flavors including dark chocolate, roasted malts, molasses, raisins, and coffee. It’s a perfectly balanced mix of roasty malts flavors, sweetness, bitterness, and just a kiss of smoke.
Bottom Line:
Sierra Narwhal is as complex as the whale it’s named for. It has everything an imperial stout fan could look for and it will take multiple samplings to find all the many aromas and flavors.
3) Alesmith Speedway Stout
ABV: 12%
Average Price: $15 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
This award-winning imperial stout doesn’t mess around. At a potent 12% ABV, it’s on the same level as some of its bourbon barrel-aged counterparts. This beer is known for its mix of caramel, chocolate, roasted malts, and dried dark fruits. But it’s the addition of locally sourced roasted coffee beans that truly elevates this brew.
Tasting Notes:
Complex aromas of dark chocolate, roasted malts, floral hops, and freshly brewed coffee greet you before your first sip. The palate is a symphony of dried fruits, toffee, molasses, vanilla beans, dark chocolate, roasted malts, and a nice wallop of freshly brewed coffee. The finish is a gentle mix of sweetness and bitterness with a warming, boozy kick.
Bottom Line:
Alesmith Speedway Stout is a popular imperial stout for many reasons. It’s big, bold, boozy, flavorful, and filled with coffee goodness.
2) North Coast Old Rasputin
ABV: 9%
Average Price: $10 for a four-pack
The Beer:
Named for Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, an influential Russian mystic in the late 1800s and early 1900s, North Coast Old Rasputin is a Russian imperial stout is a 9% ABV warming brew made in the style of the 18th-century English brewers who made the beer for Catherine the Great. It’s known for its rich, roasted malt, chocolate-centric flavor profile.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll find notes of caramel, semisweet chocolate, brown sugar, roasted malts, and dried fruits. After that inviting nose, the palate is loaded with nutty sweetness, dark chocolate, bold roasted malts, and freshly brewed coffee. The mouthfeel is creamy and indulgent with a bit of pleasing bitterness at the finish.
Bottom Line:
Overall, it’s difficult to beat the appeal of North Coast Old Rasputin. There’s a reason it’s won so many awards over the years.
1) Oskar Blues Ten Fidy
ABV: 10.5%
Average Price: $17 for a four-pack
The Beer:
Few beers are so on the nose with their name. But Oskar Blues Ten Fidy is called “Ten Fidy” because it’s literally 10.5% ABV. This popular imperial stout is brewed with two-row and chocolate malts as well as roasted barley, flaked oats, and specially selected hops. The result is a unique, bold imperial stout you won’t soon forget.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is all roasted malts, dark chocolate, coffee beans, raisins, butterscotch, and candied nuts. Taking a sip will transport you to a world of cacao, vanilla beans, roasted malts, coffee beans, dried fruits, caramel candy, and just a hint of floral hops. The finish is perfectly dry and semisweet. It’s a very memorable beer.
Bottom Line:
If you only try one beer on this list, make it Oskar Blues Ten Fidy. It’s big, bold, rich, and sublimely well-balanced for such a high-ABV beer.