This column marks the third-annual Stout Month since I took over Doin’ Beers for this fine publication in 2023. Stout Month, for me, is more than just a marketing gimmick dreamed up by Mountain Sun Pub & Brewery in Colorado back in 1993. It’s an opportunity to lean into the hygge/koselig moments in the winter months, and stubbornly refuse the mercurial trends and release cycles of the beer industry in favor of something like tradition.
Unfortunately, outside of Oktoberfest, many breweries are pretty loosey-goosey with seasonal releases like stouts. A good number of them will only put out one stout each winter, and when it’s gone, it’s gone—better luck next year. The long-running trend of breweries doing limited releases of high-ABV barrel-aged stouts doesn’t help with this, nor does the fact that some breweries release their stouts as early as late October, and some as late as January. I did my best to navigate this lack of consistency and focus entirely on stouts that were readily available at the time of my Stout Month columns back in 2024 and 2025.
But this year, I decided to think bigger. What if, and bear with me here, I held onto every stout I ran across throughout the winter, saved them, and then named my five favorite stouts from the entire season? Now, there’s an idea.
BlackStack Brewing: Routine
American (straight) Stout / 6.5% ABV / ?? IBU
Every time I give a talk about beer (most recently at Nerd Nite Minneapolis), I make a point of saying that I’m not interested in talking about the “best” beer, as if brewing is some sort of competitive, zero sum game with some beers coming out on top and others on bottom. I strongly believe that the best beer is the one you enjoy the most. That said, here you are, sitting at my metaphorical feet, looking for a reward. So, let me indulge you: Routine is the best stout in Minnesota. You will drink it, and you will like it.
I covered Routine from St. Paul's BlackStack Brewing back in my 2024 Stout Month column, and since then it’s become a constant in my house during the winter months. If you’re going to buy/try one stout, I think it ought to be this one. It has a clean-roasted coffee aroma, with a slight breadiness to it. It tastes like sweet toasted malt, with the roast coming in at the end. A light medicinal and tannic bitterness develops on the palate after you have a few sips, but it doesn’t build past that. The result is a stout that hits all those “classic” stout notes while balancing them all together in an incredibly drinkable form.
Brau Brothers Brewing Co.: Red Velvet MooJoos
Milk stout / 5.8% ABV / 24 IBU
What makes a milk stout a “red velvet” milk stout? I don’t know. But, what I do know is that this beer is incredibly decadent given its relatively modest 5.8% ABV. Honestly, I had to do a double-take when I saw that ABV after tasting it, because I didn’t really believe it.
Red Velvet MooJoos, from Marshall's Brau Brothers, smells like chocolate cake, well-baked brownie edges, and oats. It tastes like liquid dark chocolate. It’s sweet, but not as sweet as you might expect. It’s definitely a dessert beer, though. I’m often unable to finish a full 12 (or 16) ounces of similar beers because they just get to be too much. But not this one. It’s nice and drinkable while still being indulgent.
Hammerheart Brewing Co.: Sköll och Hati
“Chocolate Smoked Stout” / 6.9% ABV / ?? IBU
Sköll och Hati narrowly beat out Hammerheart’s other stout this season, Olaf the Stout, for inclusion on this list—which is impressive because I’m obsessed with rye stouts like Olaf the Stout. It’s also impressive because despite Hammerheart constantly releasing smoked beers I love, I still don’t consider myself a “smoked beer” gal. One of these days I’m going to have to introspect on why that is, and grow as a person. But not today!
Sköll och Hati is named after the wolves Sköll and Hati that, according to Norse mythology, chase the sun and the moon across the sky. Which, keeping with this Ely brewery's vibe, is pretty frickin' metal if you ask me. However, as far as beers go, I wouldn’t necessarily call Sköll och Hati itself “metal.” It’s actually quite restrained. The smoke comes through pretty lightly in the aroma, and competes with roasted barley undertones for dominance. Its flavor is what I can only refer to as a “grainy” dry dark chocolate with very mild smoke. There’s a lot going on here, but it’s well-balanced, and not sweet. It definitely rewards a bit of rumination if you’ve got the time.
Indeed Brewing Co.: Moon Dance
Oatmeal stout / 5.1% ABV / 25 IBU
I fell in love with oatmeal stouts when I had Dark Horse Brewing Co.’s One Oatmeal Stout on a cold winter night hanging out with friends at The Happy Gnome in St. Paul way back in the beforetimes. (Note: The Happy Gnome, which was rad, is not to be confused with The Gnome—which parades around in its renovated corpse and is a testament to owner Brian Ingram’s ability to suck.) But I digress... What was I talking about? Oh, yeah.
Moon Dance is a very drinkable oatmeal stout. It has a deep earthy roast aroma, and its flavor is a mild roast with a hint of sweetness that fades. It’s surprisingly full-bodied given its ABV, but that’s oats for ya. More cushion for the pushin'. All this comes together to make Moon Dance one of the very few stouts I will drink more than one of in an evening (with Routine, above, being another).
Little Thistle Brewing Co.: Minimal Responsibilities Hazelnut and Vanilla
Imperial stout / 11.8% ABV / 25 IBU
So, I can’t review stouts without a nod to the big boozy bois we all know and love—and that I kind of complained about in the intro (but only because they’re such limited releases!). Every winter we get a handful of big, bold imperial stouts from Minnesota breweries, and I have to admit, I didn’t expect Rochester’s Little Thistle to put out my favorite. I love their beer, and they consistently hit well above their weight (when it comes to size and location), but there are so many bigger breweries throwing everything at the wall to make beers like this that it just seemed unlikely that Little Thistle’s would be my favorite. Wouldn’t you know it, it was.
Minimal Responsibilities Hazelnut and Vanilla (as opposed to Minimal Responsibilities Peanut Butter, which I did not get to try) pours pitch black, and smells strongly of hazelnut and boozy roast. At 11.8% you might guess that it’s pretty sweet, and it is. But it’s not overly sweet, and the small cans are the perfect pour for something this rich. There’s plenty of of vanilla and hazelnut, as expected, and they manage to balance out without a clear winner. There’s a nice bitter/tart tannic edge to the flavor—possibly from the roasted barley interacting with everything else—that made me keep sipping at it until it was gone. I still have a couple remaining from the four pack I purchased, and I’m saving them for a special occasion.
