Dark beers to get you excited for winter

Dark beers aren’t for the faint-hearted, but oh boy are we glad brewers are continuing to release more, bringing them to the mainstream palate.Featuring a heavily roasted flavour profile and often starring flavours of chocolate, liquorice and coffee, dark beers are perfect for winter.Whether it’s stout, Black IPA,  or porter, we’ve listed our favourite dark beers to get you excited for winter and keen to join the dark side. Robust Porter, 5.2% - Bridge RoadPorter is full of flavour and body, and the Robust Porter from Bridge Road is no exception. Bridge Road uses plenty of roast barley and chocolate malt to give you a big porter that will leave you very satisfied.Make no mistake, the Robust Porter is big and bold, yet its smooth roasty texture makes it one to convert the non-dark drinker. Match it with rich chocolate desserts, cold winter nights or freshly shucked oysters. Nitro Coffee Brown Ale, 5.7% - Burnley Brewing What better way to warm yourself up this winter than adding coffee to your beer. Burnley Brewing teamed up with Richmond based These Days Coffee Roasting to create the Nitro Coffee Brown Ale. A distinctly ‘Melbourne’ beer, it’s surprisingly fruity with berry and currant notes that work well against the rich body of brown ale. Empress Imperial Mocha Porter, 10% - HolgateEmpress Imperial Mocha Porter is the younger sister of Holgate’s cult classic, Temptress Chocolate Porter, but this time with a coffee twist. The rich malt character works in tandem with premium cold brewed coffee to produce an exceptional Imperial Porter that’s perfect for whiling away long winter nights by the fire.With a luscious palate and a full, silky body that oozes with dark fruits and toasty, chocolate malt flavours, Empress is a must try for any porter lover. Handsome Elvis Nitro Stout, 6.5% - BalterWith the hazelnut, espresso, chocolate and berry notes, plus a kick of bitterness and ultra-creamy mouthfeel, this sweet and velvety milk stout sure does put on a show.One talking point of Handsome Elvis is the challenging process of Balter adding drops of liquid nitrogen during canning. The technique creates creamy bubbles which rise up in a cascading cloud when poured. Golden Stout Time, 5.4% - Big ShedA hearty stout infused with toffee and honeycomb and light on hops, taking you back to childhood summers spent enjoying Golden Gaytime ice-creams.Despite its origins in the iconic summer treat, Big Shed suggests Golden Stout Time is best enjoyed in the depths of winter. Cthulhu on the Moon Black IPA, 6.6% - KAIJU!The Cthulhu on the Moon Black IPA from KAIJU! is rich in speciality malts, delivering a beautiful malty, coffee flavour, offset by a herbaceous hop profile. The palate is full and satisfying, with the perfect balance of flavour intensity and bitterness, making it a winter must.  Have we missed one a dark beer that you’re obsessing over? Send us a message and let us know!