The 9 Best Dark Beers to Drink in 2022

For years, decades, millenia even—okay, maybe not that long—the dark beer has been synonymous with the stout. You say, “I’m craving a dark beer,” and the universe fills your head with images of freshly poured pints of Guinness. The world of dark beers may not be as heavily populated or popular as the lighter one, but its offerings are just as vast and varied.

Dark beers, everything from stouts to schwarzbier get their color, as well as much of their flavor, from roasted malts. All beer is made with roasted malt, but much like coffee, the darker the roast the richer the brew. By increasing the amount of dark malt, a brewer can deepen the color of the final beer while also adding more complex flavor notes, such as coffee, chocolate, and caramel.

There are other ways to deepen a beer’s color. This can be accomplished through a longer brewing process, either during the boil or by aging the final brew in barrels, where a beer will take on some of the color and flavor of the vessel it’s being aged in, usually charred wood barrels. Each method, each alternation of the malt bill, lends itself to a different type of dark beer, from the light and malty to the rich and creamy.

So next time a dark beer comes to mind, remember the category is far from a one-trick-pony. Here are a few of the best dark beers you can (and should) drink right now.