This weekend saw the 3rd King of Ohio competition happen at Thirsty Dog in Akron. The first year Hoof Hearted’s Musk of the Minotaur won King of the Ohio IPA, the second year Streetside’s Raspberry Beret won King of the Ohio Session Beer. For the third year, we searched for the King of the Ohio Stout. I teamed up with Rick Armon, from the Akron Beacon Journal and author of 50 Must-Try Craft Beers of Ohio, again but unfortunately, our third conspirator, Patrick Woodward of Pat’s Pints, was unable to partake this year.

Rick and I opened the competition to all Ohio breweries and ended up with nearly 80 entries. We broke those entries down into 7 categories: oatmeal stout, imperial stout, “normal” stout, fruit/vegetable stout, coffee/milk/breakfast stout, barrel-aged stout, and specialty stout. Imperial stout entries led the competition with 14 entries, 13 entries for barrel-aged, and 12 specialty stouts.

King of Ohio Stout Category Winners

Best oatmeal: Three Tigers Brewing Company – Brothers Sam

Best imperial: Elevator Brewing Company – Gravity 2.0

Best “normal” stout: Yellow Springs Brewery – Maxxdout

Best fruit/vegetable stout: Flatrock Brewery & Distillery – Pagan Pumpkin

Best coffee/milk/breakfast: Lockport Brewery – Big Debbie

Best barrel-aged stout: FigLeaf Brewing Company – BA Black Solstice

Best specialty stout: Listermann Brewing Company – Freedom Toast

King of Ohio (best of show): Yellow Springs – Maxxdout



Three Tigers and Elevator came in second and third respectively.

How to try them

Unfortunately, most of the category winners are draft only and you’d have to venture to their breweries to try them. Elevator’s Gravity 2.0 is available in bottles, though you’ll have to travel to Columbus. Listermann Freedom Toast was a limited Black Friday release, some bottles did go out to stores and you might, very small might, be able to find them. FigLeaf’s BA Black Solstice is available many bottleshops and is still on tap at the brewery. Though it was also a limited Black Friday release and won’t last long, especially after this win. Yellow Springs Maxxdout isn’t being bottled this year, but there are plans for last year’s batch to go on tap at the brewery soon, follow them on Facebook for more info.