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Getting Untappd: Top-Rated Phoenix Area Core Stouts

By Aaron Forrester and Scott Keys: Collectively known as Beers N’ Buddies

One of the most renowned lines spoken by a professional athlete in all of sports history came from that most famous boxer, Muhammed Ali, who claimed, and perhaps rightly so, to be the greatest. In some ways, craft beer enthusiasts are just like Ali, just without the boxing shorts. We stream into tap room after tap room looking for that single knock out beer that will leave us dazed and dumbfounded, and with Arizona Beer Week steadily approaching, it seems only fitting that we should, once again, see which Arizona breweries have floated like a butterfly, stung like a bee, and left their patrons saying one thing: that beer is the greatest.

Having looked at IPAs in our last article, we now move onto a style that is quite possibly our favorite: Stout. As mentioned in our last article, this assessment will be based exclusively using data collected from Untappd, content generated solely by you, the beer enthusiast all the way to the occasional beer drinker. Because of the differences in flavor and intensity that arise from a stout and an Imperial Stout, we have chosen to spilt the two so as to focus solely on base stouts. Bourbon Barrel Aged stouts were likewise omitted for similar reasons, but just you wait, we will get in the ring with these other stout variations soon enough.

For this review, it did not matter if it was a milk stout, oatmeal, American, coffee, or even an Irish Dry stout, we included them all, and we made no distinction if it was served on C02 or Nitro. It should be noted, that every core base stout in the Phoenix Valley scored higher than 3.44 average on Untappd, with some scores within one one-hundredth of a point. With that said, let’s see what Phoenix Valley beer drinkers say are the top base core stouts!

#5

Nitro Milk Stout – Milk/Sweet Stout – 6.8% ABV

Dubina Brewing Company – Glendale, AZ

3.89 Untappd Avg.

Description: Smooth as silk, with a hint of smoky chocolate. The flavor oozes with warm malts.

#4.

Papago Coconut Joe – Milk/Sweet Stout – 5.5% ABV

Huss Brewing Company – Tempe, AZ

3.93 Untappd Avg.

Description: A silky and smooth milk stout made with coffee beans and coconut.

#3 (Tie)

Superstition Coffee Stout – American Oatmeal Stout – 6% ABV

Arizona Wilderness Brewing Company – Gilbert, AZ

3.98 Untappd Avg.

Description: Using an oatmeal stout as the base, we then cold steep 7 lbs. of locally roasted coffee from the Superstition Coffee Co. in Queen Creek, AZ. Finally, we age the beer on Madagascar vanilla beans for a week. Allow this beer to warm in your hands and allow the aromas of coffee awaken your senses.

#3 (Tie)

Jomax – Oatmeal Stout – 6.9% ABV

Wren House Brewing Company – Phoenix, AZ

3.98 Untappd Avg.

Description: Oatmeal Stout made with naturally dried Ethiopian coffee beans (locally roasted by Press Coffee) and blended with cold brewed coffee after fermentation. The addition of the whole bean coffee brings out a cherry like fruitiness which is balanced by the robust flavors of the cold brewed coffee.

#2

Oatmeal Chocolate Milk Stout – Milk/Sweet Stout – 5.7% ABV

Mother Bunch Brewing – Phoenix, AZ

4.03 Untappd Avg.

Description: Aromas of dark chocolate and malt invite a delightful finish with deep flavor; a firm tan head and a rich velvety mouthfeel.

#1

Morning Sex – Milk/Sweet Stout – 5.8% ABV

Beer Research Institute – Mesa, AZ

4.12 Untappd Avg.

Description: Sweet Stout made with a ridiculous amount of cold press coffee from Peixoto Coffee, in Chandler AZ

After multiple rounds in the ring, these are the top 5 stouts in the Phoenix Valley, and according to the data generated by Phoenix Valley beer drinkers on Untappd, among others, it appears that Morning Sex by Beer Research Institute is, as Ali said, the greatest. And this comes as no surprise, for Morning Sex never fails to impress, and on the rare occasion that Beer Research Institute puts Morning Sex on nitro, its overall Untappd rating shoots all the way to 4.43 Avg.  Having had it on nitro previously, we can definitely say that it turns this beer into something completely new and amazing… But we’ll let you be the judge of that. One thing we will be the judge on, is that if anything can be said about Arizona stout drinkers, it is that we love our coffee forward stouts, and this, of course, begs the question, what would you prefer in the morning before work: Starbucks, or a little Morning Sex? 

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