Nonalcoholic stouts and porters have come a long way. Here are 6 of the best.

A decade ago, if you wanted a nonalcoholic stout or porter, you needed lowered expectations to actually appreciate it. Dark beer depends on things that alcohol usually helps deliver: body, depth, warmth. Take the alcohol away, and what’s left can often feel thin, bitter or overly sweet — a shadow of the real thing. But times have changed, and brewers have been closing that gap.

The overall quality of nonalcoholic beer has improved dramatically over the past few years, according to people who spend an awful lot of time drinking it. “The category in general is doing extremely well,” said Tyler McMahon, who tracks the growing NA beer world through his website, Reducaholic, and works with breweries entering the space. “Quality is leaps and bounds ahead of 2019 when I first found it.”

Dark beers are part of that progress — though they remain one of the trickier styles to pull off.

“They’ve come a long, long way from where they were just a few years ago,” McMahon said. “But within the category, they haven’t come quite as far.”

Part of the reason these beers feel like such a leap forward is that dark styles are inherently difficult to re-create without alcohol. Alcohol carries flavor and contributes to balance and mouthfeel. Remove it, and brewers have to rebuild those qualities through other techniques. Some brewers, such as NA market leader Athletic Brewing Company, create beer through specialized fermentation that never produces much alcohol in the first place. Others, such as Guinness, brew a full-strength beer and remove the alcohol afterward.

“Some believe alcohol removal from a full-strength beer is the best way to preserve mouthfeel,” McMahon said. “Others believe the opposite.” Either way, the goal is the same: avoiding the thin, watery texture that plagued earlier generations of nonalcoholic beer.

Ten years ago, a drinker might have been lucky to find one decent alcohol-free dark beer. Now there are enough good options to hold a serious tasting. Which means that if you’re craving a roasty stout or a cozy porter — but not the alcohol that usually comes with it — you’ve finally got options.

To see where things stand now, I gathered more than a dozen widely available nonalcoholic dark beers for a blind tasting. Six rose to the top. They ranged from dry, classic stout profiles to richer chocolate-forward brews — and together they show how far this once-struggling corner of NA beer has come.

The benchmark: Guinness 0

If there’s a single beer that convinced skeptics that nonalcoholic stout could work, it’s Guinness’ alcohol-free version of its iconic stout.

Even poured from a can, it looks and drinks remarkably like the original — dark, creamy and roasty with a soft bitterness at the finish.

“Guinness 0 is just excellent,” McMahon said. “It’s Guinness but without a hangover.”

Myles Faulkner, who reviews alcohol-free drinks in his newsletter the Modern Substitute, agrees that the beer, which is labeled 0.0 in Europe, has been a turning point for the category.

“Arguably, Guinness 0 is the best thing to happen to NA beer,” Faulkner said. The brewery has “perfected a nonalcoholic version of its stout that almost identically mirrors the original in both taste and mouthfeel.”

That level of familiarity has also made bars and restaurants more comfortable stocking NA beer. When the label on the tap handle says Guinness, people know what they’re getting.

Coffeehouse vibes: Go Brewing Chester’s Fresh Dark Brew

One of the more distinctive beers in the lineup came from Go Brewing, based in Naperville.

Chester’s Fresh Dark Brew leans into coffeelike bitterness, with a rich roasted aroma and a dark, slightly nutty flavor that makes it feel closer to a cold-brew coffee than a dessert stout.

The beer is bold but balanced — exactly what you want from a dark brew meant for slow sipping.

The craft standout: Deschutes Black Butte Non-Alcoholic

Among craft breweries, one of the most impressive entries comes from Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon, which in 2022 released a nonalcoholic version of its flagship Black Butte Porter.

Roasty and smooth with notes of cocoa and coffee, it manages to capture the comforting richness that porter fans expect.

“When the beer was first introduced, they sent out press packages containing both the regular Black Butte Porter and the new NA version,” Faulkner said. “Few could distinguish the roasty, chocolaty, coffee flavors and the lovely bitter finish of the alcohol-free version from the original.”

In the blind tasting, it was one of the beers that most convincingly felt like a traditional dark craft beer.

Creamy and nitro: Athletic Emerald Cliffs

Athletic Brewing Company has built its reputation on alcohol-free beer, and its Emerald Cliffs stout shows why. The nitro-infused version delivers the velvety body stout drinkers crave, along with roasted grain notes and a pleasantly dry finish.

McMahon said texture is one of the first things he looks for when tasting a nonalcoholic stout. “You want a smooth flavor that doesn’t taste thin and watered down,” he said. “A good consistent body and the flavors they advertise should come through.”

Emerald Cliffs does both.

Chocolate lover’s pick: Untitled Art Chocolate Dark Brew

If the previous beers lean traditional, the chocolate dark brew from Untitled Art takes things in a sweeter direction.

“For anyone of the dark beer persuasion, Untitled Art’s Chocolate Dark Brew is a must,” Faulkner said. “It’s full-bodied with a surprisingly strong chocolate flavor and a malty foundation … rounded out nicely with a gentle bitterness that offsets the sweetness.”

Think of it like Yoo-hoo with a little extra oomph.

The surprise: BrewDog Wake Up Call

The last standout in the tasting is a coffee-forward dark brew from BrewDog that delivers bold roasted flavors and a brisk finish. Wake Up Call is lighter in body than some of the others but still flavorful — proof that a dark NA beer doesn’t have to be heavy to work.