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From deceptively easy-drinking to weighty and ponderous, the comforts of these dark delights run the gamut. Here, five pro brewers share their favorites.

• Stout
• Porter
• Five on Five

Microscopic and difficult to measure, thiols can nonetheless add up to big tropical aromas in IPAs and other beers. In this video tip, Alvarado Street brewing director J.C. Hill describes a way to free up more thiols using a special yeast.

• Video
• Thiols
• Beta-Lyase

Courtesy of Joe Bowden, head brewer at Munkle Brewing in Charleston, South Carolina, here is a homebrew-scale recipe for the beer that won GABF gold in 2018 in the category Belgian-Style and French-Style Ales.

• Beer Recipe
• Bière de Garde

As a niche style, bière de garde doesn’t always medal at the Great American Beer Festival—but Munkle’s 5 Branches took home gold in 2018, then Echo’s Junebug did it again in 2019. Here, the head brewers from both breweries sketch out the blueprints.

• Bière de Garde
• Farmhouse Ale
• French-Belgian Ale

From our Love Handles department for beer bars we love: In Kailua, Hawaii, the Aloha State’s first self-pour bar doubles as a community nonprofit.

• Love Handles
• Hawaii
• Self-Pour

John Mallett of Bell’s concocted this recipe at the Craft Beer & Brewing Brewers Retreat a few years ago. It’s different from Bell’s Cherry Stout, but he says it shares many of the same themes—including a rich, varied malt profile.

• Beer Recipe
• Fruit Beer
• Stout

Here, two brewmasters who know their way around a dark grist—T.L. Adkisson of Foothills in North Carolina, and John Mallett of Bell’s in Michigan—share advice on balancing juicy fruit with a rich, roasty profile.

• Fruit Stout
• Fruit Beer
• Berries

Overshadowed by Belgian saison and French wine, the “keeping beers” of northernmost France are a product of local ingredients, unique history, and a taste for polite, approachable beers.

• Style School
• Bière de Garde
• Farmhouse Ale

Florida is known for flavor, and Orlando’s Broken Strings hits it right in that sweet spot. Yet founder and brewer Charles Frizzell doesn’t take a cynical approach—every beer is brewed to wow, from pastry stout and “soda sour” to triple-decocted Kölsch.

• Podcast

Alvarado Street cofounder and brewing director J.C. Hill explains some sensory and technical differences between dry hopping and using knockout hops boosted by exogenous enzymes.

• Video
• Dry Hopping
• Knockout Hops

Courtesy of Michael Kane, founder of Kane Brewing in Ocean, New Jersey, this imperial stout recipe meant for aging in a spirits barrel is based on their award-winning A Night to End All Dawns.

• Beer Recipe
• Imperial Stout

Michael Kane, founder of Kane Brewing, explains their patient and intentional approach to barrel-aging imperial stouts, including the award-winning A Night to End All Dawns—from selecting barrels to tasting and finishing.

• Brewer's Perspective
• Imperial Stout
• Barrel-Aging