Alaskan Smoked Porter 2005
83A deep brown beer with garnet highlights, vintage-stamped and enjoying a cult following. An acquired taste but brilliantly constructed nonetheless.

Alaskan Smoked Porter 2006
88The peaty smoke flavours take a bit of getting used to but this is a surprisingly easy drinking strong porter that would work wonderfully with shellfish. A world classic.

Baltika No6 Porter
Incredible texture... Sweet and winey start... Slight margarine on nose, and a sweet lactic flavour... Aroma rich and chocolatey with coffee beans and treacly notes... The palate presents dominant ric...

Bartrams Captain Bill Bartram's Cherry Stout
73An interesting concoction that would be good with a creamy pudding, as long as it's not too sweet. The samples tried were well over carbonated (almost explosive!), but hopefully this problem will now ...

Bartrams Captain Bill Bartram's Damson Stout
65The bitterness, smoky notes and tart fruit don't really come together. Not as smooth or as successful as the Cherry Stout (above) from the same brewery.

Batemans Dark Lord
77A deep garnet/ruby porter, named in honour of English Civil War commander Thomas Fairfax. Full-flavoured and satisfying.

BrewDog Rip Tide
80A big, solid, clean and uncompromising imperial stout, packed with flavour.

Brooklyn Chocolate Stout
85Not as sumptuously chocolatey as you might expect from the name but an exceptionally good, deep ruby-coloured stout.

Broughton Ales Scottish Oatmeal Stout
65A somewhat thin ruby beer, not as smooth as it could be.

Browary Polskie Brok-Strzelec Brok Porter
75A bizarre Polish beer, full of character, as Baltic region porters tend to be. It probably won't suit everyone's palate, but it does grow on you.

Carlow Leann Follain

Cervesera Montseny Negra
78An assertive stout that's perhaps just a bit too tart for some palates.

Cotleigh Peregrine Porter
73An enjoyable bottle-conditioned porter that, on this tasting, just lacks a little carbonation.

Cwmbran Plum Porter
75An interesting, reasonably successful marriage of fruit and dark malts from a Welsh microbrewery.

Dark Star Espresso
75This ruby beer certainly lives up to its name. Just as an Italian espresso coffee (unsugared) is a bitter, demanding drink and a shock to the senses, so is this uncompromising, bold stout, courtesy of...

De Struise Black Albert
90A bittersweet, remarkable beer, an imperial stout with a Belgian twist – in fact they call it a ‘Belgian Royal Stout'.

Deschutes Black Butte Porter

Deschutes Obsidian Stout
Black as midnight with a dark head. Deep, black chocolate aroma, wonderfully complex and clean. Roasted chestnuts, tamarillo skins, chocolate, roast vegetables. Hoppy and very bitter in the mouth, a g...

Deschutes The Abyss

Dogfish Head World Wide Stout
78A big, attention grabbing stout, but perhaps a touch too sweet and with too much alcohol floating about – something that is exacerbated by the level of carbonation.

Dragon Stout

Farsons Lacto
75An unusual, pleasant beer that is in no way as heavy as it looks. The secret is that this is not a genuine milk stout but instead an adapted bitter, with caramel, lactose and vitamins added. But it's ...

Farsons Lacto Milk Stout

Fuller's London Porter
85A rich and satisfying porter, created in the 1990s and stamped with the Fuller's hallmark of quality.

Fyne Ales Vital Spark

Great Divide Yeti
89A first-rate imperial stout with a distinct American accent, thanks to the skilful use of fragrant hops. The carbonation allows this near-black beer to drink much lighter than its 9.5% ABV.

Hampshire Laughing Leprechaun
75Clean and tasty but a little thin for its strength.

Harvey's Bicentenary Stout
80A bold, demanding beer for the Battle of Trafalgar commemorations. An acquired taste.

Harvey's Imperial Extra Double Stout
88Splendid re-creation of the imperial Russian stout style in a corked bottle. Not for the fainthearted or the novice.

Harvey's Imperial Extra Double Stout 2003
84The daddy of imperial stouts, a recreation of a beer once imported into the Russian empire by Albert Le Coq. It's an acquired taste, with no compromises.

Harviestoun Old Engine Oil

Hawkshead Organic Stout
81A smooth, tasty, easy-drinking, bottle-conditioned stout.

Hida Takayama Stout

Hoggley's Solstice Stout
76A full-bodied stout with plenty of good roasted grain flavours but, on this occasion, not quite enough carbonation.

Honda Sangyou Company Preston Ale Stout (Irish Ale)

Hook Norton Double Stout
83A fine, dry, deep ruby-coloured stout, fresh, crisp and clean. Now available bottle conditioned.

Ise Kadoya Stout

Kiuchi Hitachino Nest Expresso Stout

Left Hand Imperial Stout
80A full-value, deep-ruby coloured, US beer that defies its strength with enormous drinkability.

Les Trois Mousquetaires Porter Baltique

Lovibonds Henley Dark
75A porter made from seven malts, including malt smoked over local Chiltern beechwood.

Mauldons Black Adder
83A garnet-coloured brew that is far too quaffable for its strength. More of a strong mild than a true stout.

Meantime London Porter
90An exceptionally good, authentic, deep-ruby porter, bottle conditioned to be light, fresh and easy to drink. Not to be missed.

Meantime London Porter
85Complex – far more than a straight roasted-grain-dominated porter – but easy-drinking, despite its obvious strength. Good light body, too, and splendid corked-bottle presentation.

Meantime London Stout
83An excellent stout, clean, fresh and packed with flavour for its relatively modest strength. Perhaps a little light on the swallow, but it finishes well.

Minoh Beer Imperial Stout

Minoh Beer Stout
Deep black with dark chocolate and freshly ground coffee to the aroma... Silky textured with sweet rounded malt opening... Slightly sweet finish with chewy, caramelised malts and burnt toffee... Rich,...

Nethergate Brewery Umbel Magna
78Some might find the coriander just a touch too heavy as a flavouring for this rich, malty, bottle-conditioned porter, but it's a very pleasant creation.

O'Hanlon's Port Stout
78A fine, dry and bitter, ruby-brown stout with a fruitiness that is not quite what you'd expect from a beer laced with port.

Okell's Aile

Ossett Treacle Stout
78Dark and bitter without being too demanding. Good balance of complementary flavours.

Primátor Double 24%
83An exceptionally sweet Czech porter – complex and packed with flavour.

Primator Stout

Randalls Guilty
73A dark ruby stout with a tart fruitiness that, rather than enhancing the beer, destabilises it a little.

RCH Old Slug Porter
80A bitter ruby beer with a pronounced roasted malt character and little in the way of sweetness. However, the light, airy body makes it very easy to drink.

Redoak Baltic Porter

Rogue Chocolate Stout
80A beer for chocoholics, containing natural chocolate flavouring, but still very much a beer.

Rogue Mocha Porter

Rogue Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout
Rich chocolate, coffee, bitter hops – good refreshing finish. Clean/soft malt balance. Well balanced, easy drinking.

Saguenay Criminelle

Saltaire Hazelnut Coffee Porter
79This bright amber-red beer is loaded with flavour for its strength, but seems a bit too contrived and artificial. Saltaire's beers are terrific but this is not one of their best.

Samuel Adams Cream Stout

Samuel Adams Holiday Porter
Refreshing, winey taste. Lots of roasted malt character yet a light and medium body. Very drinkable. Chocolate dominates the aftertaste.

Samuel Adams Honey Porter

Samuel Smith Imperial Stout
83Good imperial stout flavours but at a more manageable strength than most examples of the style currently on the market.

Shepherd Neame Original Porter
75Well balanced, with pleasant, wintry flavours, although perhaps lacking a bit of body, as it dries quickly.

St Peter's Honey Porter
75St Peter's are imaginative brewers, but they've overplayed the honey in this one and it detracts from the flavours of the base beer, rather than complementing them. That said, surprisingly it's not to...

St Peter's Old-Style Porter
80As its name reveals, this is a porter produced the old way, by blending aged beer with a younger brew. It's full of flavour, yet well balanced. A good, hefty, ultimately bitter porter.

Swan Lake Porter

Thornbridge McConnel's
78A vanilla stout, flavour-packed and interesting, as we've come to expect from Thornbridge Brewery.

Traditional Scottish Ales Glencoe Wild Oat Stout
75The label says full bodied, but it drinks quite light for such a dark, malty beer. Very tasty though.

Utenos Porter
78An unusual porter – there are no coffee or pronounced chocolate flavours and the body is rather full. Lithuanian beers clearly state whether or not they are pasteurised (which this one is), so full ...

Ventnor Brewery Oyster Stout
70An unusual twist on the stout theme, but lacks a little carbonation.

Wells & Youngs Bombardier Satanic Mills
78A very pleasant stout that is not too bitter or heavy. Along with Burning Gold (reviewed in a previous issue), it's the latest extension to the Bombardier brand.

Wells & Youngs Double Chocolate Stout
73A touch light in the body for its strength and not as thick and luxurious as the packaging promises. Quite a bitter stout on the whole.

Wickwar Mr Perrett's
78A smooth, flavoursome stout. Full bodied and good value.

Wickwar Station Porter

Williams Brothers Midnight Sun
75A strange porter, laced with root ginger. Don't expect fiery gingery flavours: it's more of a cool, almost minty, effect. For me, it doesn't really work, but this is a Tesco award winner, so I must be...

Windsor Castle Sadler's Mud City Stout
76A West Midlands beer incorporating raw cocoa powder and vanilla, delivering interesting flavours and a great texture.

Wolf Grandma's Rich Porter
75A porter from Norfolk, infused with cloves, which are not particularly noticeable. It develops into a good, bitter drink with a dryness that draws you back for more.

Wolf Stout
75A light-bodied stout with a pronounced roasted aftertaste.

Wychwood Blackwych
70A nicely balanced beer sadly spoiled by light pervading the clear glass bottle.

Wye Valley Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout
80An uncompromisingly bitter and roasted stout. A good alternative to Guinness, now that the latter is not conditioned in the bottle.

Zywiec Porter
84One of the last surviving Baltic porters, brewed in the south of Poland. A chunky but smooth beer.