Stout is a dark beer made using roasted malts or roast barley. It was originally a variant of porter beer. Porter was first recorded as being made and sold in London in the 1730s. It became very popular in Great Britain and Ireland. It has also been moderately popular in Canada and Australia especially, and has been gaining popularity in the United States, with many microbrew varieties now available. Generally, current or former British Commonwealth nations can each have their own local interpretations of the style. Stout from England is generally sweeter in flavor.

 

History

Originally, the adjective "stout" meant "proud" or "brave", but later, after the fourteenth century, "stout" came to mean "strong." The first use of the word stout about beer was the Stout-Porter brewed by Guinness of Ireland in 1820, although Guinness had been brewing porters since 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 associated only to porter, becoming a synonym of dark beer. During the end of the nineteenth century, stout porter beer got the reputation of being a healthy strengthening drink, so it was used by athletes and nursing women, while doctors often recommended it to help recovery.

Stout differs from porter in being darker and richer through the use of more roasted malt, with a higher alcoholic content. As such the two beers are considered distinct, although sometimes it is difficult to distinguish what some breweries market as porter from a stout without looking at the label.

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 color 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 or Sweet stout or Cream stout has an increased sweetness due to the addition of lactose before fermentation.
• Oatmeal stout has oats added to it during the brewing process; this causes the beer to be even sweeter and smoother than the Milk stout.
• Chocolate stout uses malts that give a "dark chocolate" (though not necessarily sweet) flavour to the beer. A few beers are brewed with a small amount of real chocolate, though this may be regarded as something of a gimmick.
• Coffee stout is the darkest and most bitter type of Imperial stout; and typically brewed with the darkest malt roasts. A few, sometimes known as espresso stouts, are brewed with real coffee added, which can also be seen as a gimmick.
• Oyster stout is a stout related to oysters: this can mean that parts of oysters are added to the brewing process or simply that the taste is matching with oysters.

Examples of Stout

Examples of Stout are:

• Guinness - From Ireland, its alcoholic content and "dry" flavor are both characterized as light, although it varies from country to country.
• Murphy's - Another classic dry Irish Stout.
• Beamish - Slightly less dry than Guinness or Murphy's.
• Carbine Stout
• Mackeson's XXX - A typical English "sweet" Stout.
• Shakespeare Stout, brewed by Rogue Ales in Oregon.
• Snowplow, a seasonal milk stout created in collaboration between the Oregon Brew Crew and Widmer Brothers brewery in Portland, Oregon.
• Obsidian Stout, From Deschutes Brewery (also hailing from the Pacific Northwest).
• Ellezelloise Hercule Stout - a Russian Stout, brewed in Belgium.
• Dragon Stout - From Jamaica.
• Storm King Imperial Stout - an imperial Stout brewed by Victory Brewing Company.
• Sheaf Stout - From Australia.
• Sierra Nevada Stout - From California.
• Gillespie's Malt Stout
• Cornish Cream - a Stout produced in Cornwall.
• 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.
• Bell's Double Cream Stout
• Young's Double Chocolate Stout
• Rogue Chocolate Stout
• Black Chocolate Stout brewed by Brooklyn Brewery
• Pyramid Espresso Stout - An espresso Stout from the Pacific Northwest.
• Heart of Darkness, an Oatmeal Stout brewed by Magic Hat Brewery
• Bare Knuckle Stout, brewed by Anheuser-Busch
• St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout, brewed by McAuslan Brewery in Quebec, Canada
• St. Peter's Cream Stout, brewed by St. Peter's Brewery in Suffolk, UK
• Midnight Sun Espresso Stout, by Yukon Brewing, Canada
• Selkirk Stout (cherry Stout), by Mount Begbie Brewing, Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada.
• Coopers Best Extra Stout - brewed in Adelaide, South Australia
• Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout

 

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