after seeing your pic of the black ops brooklyn stout, i really want ro get into stouts, i wanna know what are some more "tame" ones to start off with? and i hate coffee so i want to stay away from coffee flavors in stouts, should i start out with porters?, and how different are the 2 styles, cause i like porters a bit, but to me they are like stouts but just not as "big"?

Give Left Hand Milk Stout a try. Milk Stouts in general tend to be a little bit sweeter and will introduce you to more flavors without kicking your ass.

Devon wrote:
Give Left Hand Milk Stout a try. Milk Stouts in general tend to be a little bit sweeter and will introduce you to more flavors without kicking your ass.

awesome, ill see if i can find some, and whats really the diff between stouts and porters?

Leon wrote:
whats really the diff between stouts and porters?

Honestly, mostly brewer's intention. Technically, some people would say that stouts use roasted barley and porters don't, but that's not always true. Stouts tend to be darker, while porters can range from brown to black. Usually porters are drier as well. But the style started out as Porter, then there was a Stout Porter (a bigger Porter) which turned into Stout.

Jeff wrote:
Leon wrote:
whats really the diff between stouts and porters?

Honestly, mostly brewer's intention. Technically, some people would say that stouts use roasted barley and porters don't, but that's not always true. Stouts tend to be darker, while porters can range from brown to black. Usually porters are drier as well. But the style started out as Porter, then there was a Stout Porter (a bigger Porter) which turned into Stout.

o ok, so it sounds like stouts are "bigger" porters as u mention, which may sound vague but i fully inderstand

I recently started drinking porters and stouts. I would agree to try some milk stouts first. Oatmeal stouts tend to be sweeter also. I've had samuel smiths oatmeal stout and breckenridge's oatmeal stout wouldn't be a bad start either. I'd recommend trying to samuel smith first though. While youngs double chocolate stout is highly recommended I found it to have a slightly too bitter after-taste for myself. Its a good beer though.

Anchor porter is a great porter and perfectly smooth for a first porter.

bsdmon wrote:
I recently started drinking porters and stouts. I would agree to try some milk stouts first. Oatmeal stouts tend to be sweeter also. I've had samuel smiths oatmeal stout and breckenridge's oatmeal stout wouldn't be a bad start either. I'd recommend trying to samuel smith first though. While youngs double chocolate stout is highly recommended I found it to have a slightly too bitter after-taste for myself. Its a good beer though.

Anchor porter is a great porter and perfectly smooth for a first porter.

All great recommendations! I love the Anchor Porter, especially... and it can be found all across the country, which is great.