If you’re not a beer drinker, and sometimes even if you are, dark beer can seem a tad intimidating. Not just because of the colouring, but the rich, malty and often dry taste that is synonymous with beers like Guinness can be polarising. But folks, we’re here to tell you that not all dark beers taste like Guinness (even though Guinness is delicious). Dark beers can come in all shapes and shades, from dark and warm browns to jet black (the versatility!). But perhaps the best reason to dip your toe in the dark beer bayou is because winter is coming, and you’ll need a beer that’ll warm you up, not cool you down. Before we show off our faves, what exactly is dark beer?
What is dark beer?A dark beer is brewed with malt. What is malt, you ask? Good question. Malt is germinated and kilned barley. These are pretty fancy words, so to keep it simple – germinating barley turns the cereal crumbly, making it easier to convert into sugar for the brewing yeast. Kilning makes the malt dry enough for storing and, in the later stages, the high heat is responsible for the colour and flavour of the brew. Cool, huh? There are two super-popular styles of dark beer – the porter and the stout – but you can also get oatmeal stouts, milk stouts, dry stouts, imperial stouts and black IPAs. Of course, there is one stout to rule them all, and that’s the Irish Guinness – but if you’re looking to try some gentler dark beer options (or maybe they’re even more polarising), have a squiz at this cracker line-up below.
