Encyclopedia
Stout and porter are dark
beers made using roasted
malts or roast
barley. There are a number of variations including Baltic porter, sweet stout and Imperial stout.
History
Porter was first recorded as being made and sold in London in the 1730s. It became very popular in the
British Isles, and was responsible for the trend toward large regional breweries with tied pubs. With the advent of
pale ale the popularity of dark beers decreased, apart from
Ireland where the breweries of
Guinness, Murphy's and
Beamish grew in size with international interest in Irish stout.
"Nourishing" and sweet "milk" stouts became popular in
Great Britain in the years following the
Second World War, though their popularity declined towards the end of the
20th century – apart from pockets of local interest, such as Glasgow with Sweetheart Stout, and Jamaica with Dragon Stout.
With beer writers such as
Michael Jackson writing about stouts and porters in the 1970s, there has been a moderate interest in the global speciality beer market.
Originally, the adjective "stout" meant "proud" or "brave", but later, after the
fourteenth century, "stout" came to mean "strong." The first known use of the word
stout about beer was in 1677, the sense being that a stout beer was a strong beer. The expression
stout porter was applied during the 1700s to strong versions of porter, and was used by
Guinness of Ireland in 1820 – although Guinness had been brewing porters since about 1780, having originally been an ale brewer from its foundation in 1759. "Stout" still meant only "strong" and it could be related to any kind of beer, as long as it was strong: in the
UK it was possible to find "stout pale ale", for example. Later, "stout" was eventually to be associated only with porter, becoming a synonym of dark beer. During the end of the
nineteenth century, stout porter beer gained the reputation of being a healthy strengthening drink, so that it was used by athletes and nursing mothers, while doctors often recommended it to help recovery
Types of stout
Stouts can be classed into two main categories, sweet and bitter, and there are several kinds of each:
- Irish stout or dry stout is the original product. It is very dark in colour and it often has a "toast" or coffee-like taste.
- Imperial stout was originally brewed in England for export to the court of the Tsar of Russia. It is highly hopped, very dark and has a very high alcohol content.
Milk stout
Milk stout is a stout containing
lactose, a
sugar derived from
milk. Because lactose is unfermentable by
Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a species [i] of budding [i] yeast [i]. ...
, it adds sweetness, body, and calories to the finished beer. Contemporary labelling standards prevent the use of the term in the UK.
Milk stout was supposed to be very nutritious, and was given to nursing mothers. In 1875, John Henry Johnson first sought a patent for a milk beer, based on whey, lactose, and
hops.
Milk stout was not very widely distributed before Mackeson's Brewery acquired the patents to produce it in 1910. Since then its production has been licensed to other brewers.
Oatmeal stout
Oatmeal stout has oats added to it during the brewing process; this causes the beer to be even sweeter and smoother than milk stout.
Chocolate stout
Chocolate stout is a name brewers sometimes give to certain stouts. This may be because the beers have a very noticeable dark chocolate flavour through the use of chocolate malts, or because the beers are brewed with a small amount of real chocolate.
Coffee stout
Dark roasted
malts, such as black patent malt , can lend a bitter coffee flavour to dark beer. Some brewers like to emphasize the coffee flavour and add ground coffee. Brewers will then give the beer a name such as "Guatemalan Coffee Stout", "Espresso Stout", "Breakfast Coffee Stout", etc.
The ABV of these coffee flavoured stouts will vary from under 4% to over 8%. Most examples will be dry and bitter, though others add milk sugar to create a sweet stout which may then be given a name such as "Coffee & Cream Stout" or just "Coffee Cream Stout". Other flavours such as mint or chocolate may also be added in various combinations.
Oyster stout
Oysters have had a long association with stout. When stouts were emerging in the 1700s oysters were a commonplace food often served in
pubs and taverns.
Benjamin Disraeli is said to have enjoyed a meal of oysters and
Guinness in the 1800s, though by the 1900s oyster beds were in decline, and stout had given way to
pale ale.
The first known use of oysters as part of the brewing process of stout was in 1929 in
New Zealand, followed by the Hammerton Brewery in London, UK, in 1928. Several British brewers used oysters in stouts during the "nourishing stout" and "milk stout" period just after the second world war.
Modern oyster stouts may be made with a handful of oysters in the barrel or, as with
Marston's Oyster Stout, just use the name with the implication that the beer would be suitable for drinking with oysters.
Examples
Examples of stout are:
- Super Bock stout - from Portugal, a black beer, rated as a "light stout" by connoisseurs.
- Guinness - from Ireland, its alcoholic content and "dry" flavour are both characterized as light, although it varies from country to country.
- Murphy's - another classic dry Irish stout, more popular in southern regions of Ireland; less bitter than Guinness.
- Beamish - an Irish stout, slightly less dry than Guinness or Murphy's.
- Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout - from Samuel Smith, Tadcaster, England.
- Carbine Stout.
- Cerveza negra - from the Philippines.
- Mackeson's XXX - a typical English "sweet" stout.
- Kalamazoo Stout, brewed by Bell's Brewery, Inc. in Michigan.
- Shakespeare Stout - brewed by Rogue Ales in Oregon.
- Ellezelloise Hercule Stout - a Russian Imperial stout, brewed in Belgium.
- Dragon Stout - from Jamaica.
- Dragonstooth Stout - brewed by The Elysian Brewing Company, in Seattle, WA. Gold Medal 2006 World Beer Cup.
- Storm King Imperial Stout - an Imperial stout brewed by the Victory Brewing Company.
- Sheaf Stout - from Australia.
- Sierra Nevada stout - from California.
- Gillespie's Malt Stout.
- Baden Baden Stout - from Brazil.
- World Wide Stout - a very malty, high-alcohol chocolate stout from Delaware's Dogfish Head Brewing.
- Pike Street XXXXX Stout - a coffee stout from Washington's Pike Brewery.
- Special Double Cream Stout - from Bell's Brewery, Inc..
- Young's Double Chocolate Stout.
- Young's Oatmeal Stout.
- Rogue Chocolate Stout.
- Black Chocolate Stout - brewed by Brooklyn Brewery.
- Pyramid Espresso Stout - an espresso stout from the Pacific Northwest.
- - brewed by McAuslan Brewery in Quebec, Canada.
- - brewed by St Peter's Brewery in Suffolk, UK.
- Coopers Best Extra Stout - brewed in Adelaide, South Australia.
- Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout.
- .
- Samuel Adams - a cream stout.
- - brewed by in Ashland, Wisconsin.
- McNally's Extra Reserve - Brewed by Big Rock Brewery of Calgary Canada.
