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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 (or Dry) Stout. "Nourishing" and sweet "milk" stouts became popular in Great Britain in the years following the Second World War, though declined toward 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 for strong versions of Porter, and was used 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.

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 (also called Sweet Stout or Cream Stout) is a stout containing lactose, a sugar derived from milk. Because lactose is unfermentable by Saccharomyces cerevisiae, it adds sweetness, body, and calories to the finished beer. Contemporary labeling 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 until Mackeson's Brewery acquired the patents to produce it in 1910. Since then the 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 the Milk stout.

Chocolate stout

Chocolate stout is a name some brewers may give to some stouts. This may be because the beers have a very noticeable dark chocolate flavour through the use of chocolate malts, or the beers are brewed with a small amount of real chocolate.

Coffee stout

Dark roasted malts, such as black patent malt (the darkest roast), can lend a bitter coffee flavour to dark beer. Some brewers like to emphasise 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 will 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:

Beer styles

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Stout".

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