Hmmm...anybody else have some ideas on this?
Limiting myself to stouts which aren't overly hoppy, are sweet-ish, aren't overly high in alcohol (ala Guinness), and are available locally, Id say:
Bells Double Cream Stout or Bells Kalamazoo Stout
Rogue Chocolate Stout or Rogue Shakespeare Stout
or maybe even a porter, like
Founders Porter
Smuttynose Robust Porter
or, sticking within geographic proximity to Guinness
Sam Smith Oatmeal Stout
Young's Double Chocolate Stout
Heck, even Stockyard Stout at $5.99/ sic pack from Trader Joes (actually brewed by Goose Island I think) is pretty good.
I prefer a thick creamy and sweet stout when going dark. Which would you suggest? I've had a few others but tend to go back to Guinness providing it's on draft. The cans and bottles are barely even worth cooking with. Shame they can't properly preserve that quality in a packaged good.