Like porters, stouts are dark, roasted ales. Stouts taste less sweet than porters and often feature a bitter coffee taste, which comes from unmalted roasted barley that is added to the wort. They are characterized by a thick, creamy head. Ireland's Guinness may be one of the world's best-known stouts.

Stouts are stronger versions of mild ale. There are various types, including oatmeal stout, milk stout, and imperial stout. Popular stouts have included the so-called dry Irish stouts, notably Guinness. Historically, the term stout was used in reference to strongly alcoholic beers.

Most stouts rely on their rich, roasted barley malt to create their flavors and have very few hops in comparison to IPA beers. IPAs are almost overloaded with hops that give it's bitter, edgy flavor over other types of pale ales. That's why black IPAs are IPAs and not stouts; because they're hopping mad!

Compared to other ales, stouts and porters also use larger amounts of more heavily roasted malts, which gives stouts their inky appearance and more pronounced “roasty” flavor. Dark Lagers, by comparison, incorporate similar roasted malts but are fermented much more slowly at cooler temps.