Summer and its BBQs, beer gardens and festivals are long behind us.

With them too go the pale ales and lagers, and darker beers become flavour of the season. I love the idea of sitting in a pub on a Saturday afternoon with a pint of stout in hand and a fire blazing while the wind howls outside. This Thursday is International Stout day. What better way to celebrate this great style of beer?! Forget 'remember, remember the 5th of November', it's now all about the 6th (although the date changes every year so be careful).

In homage to this mighty day, I've outlined some of Scotland's finest stouts.

Deeside Brewery - Talorcan Chocolate Stout (4.5% ABV)

This beer is an interesting one. It smells very different to how it tastes. When you first put it to your nose, 'chocolate' is screaming back at you, however the taste is much less sweet than the initial smell suggests. In fact, I didn't really taste any chocolate. That aside, it's a really good stout. It was surprisingly fresh, like an iced coffee. Coffee was the main taste that shone through, but there were also hints of liquorice and a nice bitter finish. I wouldn't class Talorcan as a stereotypical winter warming type of stout, but I'd definitely recommend giving it a try.

Williams Bros - March of the Penguins (4.9% ABV)

Another 'not your average stout'. Williams Bros use coriander and orange zest to give their traditional stout recipe a twist. I don't think I'd be able to pick them out per se, but there's certainly a little something extra to it. The cocoa and coffee tastes are all still there as expected, but it's slightly sweeter than a lot of stouts which actually balances out quite well with the bitterness.

Cromarty Brewing Co - Brewed Awakening (4.7% ABV)

After our slightly off piste first couple of drinks I've decided to bring it back to the straight and narrow and Brewed Awakening will do just nicely for that. It's dark and shiny, with not very much head. It smells of coffee and cocoa which follows through into the taste. A very nice, light stout with medium carbonation.

Lerwick Brewery - Tushkar (5.5% ABV)

A 'tushkar' is a spade with a long blade that is used to cut peats so you'd expect this beer to have a deep, peaty taste, which it certainly delivers on. It's an oatmeal stout so there's a certain sweetness which balances well with the deep, smoky peat flavours and also gives it a lovely smooth finish. Tushkar has the highest alcohol content of all the beers I've mentioned but it comes in 330ml bottles so you can still have a couple.

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