Darkest Beers For Darkest Days

It’s that time of year again, the Darkest Day, the Winter Solstice, the time to drink those pitch black beers.  Of course, we drink a lot of dark beers throughout the winter. I had a really delicious can of Hardywood Christmas Pancakes Gingerbread Stout a few weeks ago and it was dark and syrupy and amazing.

Hand holding a Low Earth Orbit 16oz can up to the ceiling, like it's in orbit, with an Elf on the Shelf dangling from the fan above it

This year I’m celebrating with an oatmeal stout that really paired amazingly with the cookies I was baking while I was drinking it. Spritz cookies and Millionaire’s Shortbread and chocolate snowball batter. It’s an Oatmeal Stout from Alementary called Low Earth Orbit. It’s a nice drinking stout, at 6.7% it’s not an oppressively heavy imperial or anything.

Jason: “I liked it smooth not overpowering”

It got some nice roast flavors, some chocolatey notes to pair with cookies, and then just that smooth oatmeal stout mouthfeel without feeling overwhelming or dominating. Just a nice happy beer to enjoy while doing my Christmas baking. And plenty dark.

Jason is drinking a Skinny Chicken 12.8% blackberry pastry stout from Buried Acorn

What are you drinking for our darkest day? Feel free to tweet at us and let us know.

Ceetar can be found on Twitter and Untappd where he’s still making cookies.  You can also email him at beer@ceetar.com.

The Darkest Beer Holiday

It’s time again for the winter solstice and time again to drink the darkest beer for the darkest days.

Let’s make this one a tribute to Brooklyn Brewery’s Black Chocolate Stout. A true classic. A delicious no-nonsense Russian Imperial Stout. There’s nothing added to this beer, no gimmicks, no pastries, no lactose. It’s a 10% darker than night, true pleasure of the winter season, beer.

It also ages fantastically. I’m on record as enjoying high alcohol beers more a year out than fresh. I’m not opposed to drinking a Black Chocolate Stout fresh, but I typically buy some and start drinking ones from last year, or even older than that. I had a 2018 this week, and it was just terrific. The alcohol burn you’d get fresh had mellowed into a roasty, bitter chocolate deliciousness. I actually did a three year vertical of this beer a few years back, which was a lot of fun. I still have one of those in my cellar, which is five years old now. I think I’ll open that one this season too.

Don’t fret though, I have plenty of other darkest beers to drink this season. I think I might celebrate the solstice with the Collective Arts beer on the header image, Origin Of Darkness. The store had a few variations of it, but I couldn’t resist the one with chocolate and pistachio cannoli. Dragon’s Milk is also a delicious one, and the heaviest of all of these. Arecibo by Alementary is more of a sweet stout, with the lactose and the coconut. It’s a beautiful pairing of flavors. That’s a good one to open while backing cookies.

Enjoy the Winter Solstice, beer’s newest drinking holiday. 

Ceetar can be found on Twitter and Untappd where he’s racking up the dark beers. You can also email him at beer@ceetar.com.