Stout beer is a rich, dark ale known for its robust flavors, often featuring notes of coffee, chocolate, and caramel. This article explores the history, brewing process, and various styles of stout, from dry to sweet and imperial. It also highlights some of the best stouts to try, making it a comprehensive guide for beer enthusiasts.
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- What Is The History Of Stout Beer?
- What Are The Different Types Of Stout Beer?
- How Much Stout Beer Is Consumed Worldwide?
- Who Drinks The Most Stout Beer?
- How Is Stout Beer Made?
- What Is The Difference Between Stout Beer And Regular Beer?
- Is Stout The Healthiest Beer?
- What Does Stout Beer Taste Like?
- What Kind Of Glass Should You Serve Stout Beer In?
- Which Breweries Make The Best Stout Beer?
- What Is The Most Popular Stout Beer Brand In The World?
- What Foods Can You Pair With Stout Beer?
What Is The History Of Stout Beer?
Stout beer originated in London, England in the middle of the 16th century. This type of beer quickly became a popular and go-to drink for consumers. The cheap price of stout beer also factored in its popularity and huge demand.
What Are The Different Types Of Stout Beer?
Not all types of stout beer — which is a style that is marked by the usage of roasted malts and barley — are created equally, with alcohol levels, recipes, flavourings and textures being quite different from beer to beer.
From the traditional stouts which emerged after porter gained popularity in England in the 1800s to today’s myriad of craft variations, the characteristics found within the category are countless. To assist with what differentiates stouts from one another, here are a couple of the most common types which are available today.
Russian Imperial Stout
Russian Imperial Stout, which was first made in England for Emperor Peter the Great of Russia, is much higher in alcohol as opposed to traditional English Stouts. The best examples of this type of beer are full-bodied, rich, and complex. These will often have flavours and aromas of dried fruit, coffee, and dark chocolate.
Irish Dry Stout
Irish dry stout is black beer that has a dry-roasted character thanks to the usage of roasted barley. The highlighting of coffee-like roasted barley and a mild degree of roasted malt aromas define much of the character of Irish dry stout. Hop bitterness is medium to medium high in this Irish beer.
American Stout
The American stout beer style blends liberal amounts of dark malts with American hops. The result is an adventurous experience that is unmatched by other styles of beer. American stout is a very distinctive variant of a European stout beer.
American stouts display generous quantities of American hops. Much like other types of stout beer, American stout can be enjoyed year-round but is commonly considered a beer for the autumn or winter months.
This stout type is a great companion to bold, hearty foods such as game meats, soups and strong cheeses in addition to a variety of after-dinner desserts.
Export Stout
This is a special style of stout that is brewed bigger than normal for a long journey. The more traditional export stouts are to be found in the world’s tropical regions. These are higher in alcohol and have a very pronounced roasted character.
American Imperial Stout
The American-style imperial stout is the most robust in alcohol and body of the stouts. Black in colour, these beers usually have an extremely rich malty flavour and an aroma with a full, sweet malt character. Bitterness may be derived from roasted malts or hop additions.
English Stout
A traditional English Stout recipe relies quite heavily on the use of roasted barley. This ingredient adds a dry character, bitterness and flavour to the beer which ranges from chocolate to burnt coffee. The beer is usually dark brown to pitch black in colour and has little hop characteristics.
How Much Stout Beer Is Consumed Worldwide?
The global stout beer market size was valued at USD 10.64 billion in 2019. This market is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.4% between 2020 and 2027.
The increasing demand for premium drinks that have a rich taste and texture among consumers is fuelling the market growth. In addition, this fermented black beer is a good source of antioxidants, vitamins, and iron. This is another factor that promotes its popularity among health-conscious customers. These health properties have provided new growth opportunities for the stout market.
Who Drinks The Most Stout Beer?
Guinness, which is probably the world’s most famous stout beer, compiled a list of the countries which consume the most stout beer:
- The United Kingdom
- Nigeria
- Ireland
- United States
- Cameroon
How Is Stout Beer Made?
Stout is a dark beer that is often considered to be healthier than other beers. It is made by utilising roasted malt or roasted barley, hops, water and yeast. Traditionally speaking, stouts was the generic term for the strongest or stoutest porters, typically 7% or 8%, which were produced by a brewery.
What Is The Difference Between Stout Beer And Regular Beer?
Regular beer (such as some German beers) are lighter and translucent. Stouts are darker and opaque in appearance. Usually, regular beers are made from malted barley and stouts are generally made from roasted malts. The alcohol content in stouts is more than that in ales which makes them stronger than ales although regular beers are bitter in taste as opposed to stouts.
Is Stout The Healthiest Beer?
Stout beers are loaded with antioxidants and, on average, contain nearly twice the amount found in light-coloured lagers. It is said that the antioxidants in beer are better at reacting with toxic free radicals as opposed to the ones in antioxidant vitamin pills.
According to researchers, stout has been found to lower your risk of blood clots. In addition, the high temperature used in the roasting process to create the smooth finish of dark malts fuels the formation of antioxidants, which can assist in reducing the occurrence of atherosclerosis and cataracts by as much as 50%.
What Does Stout Beer Taste Like?
There is now a very broad range of different stouts on the market. What these all have in common is their rich, dark brown colour. The darkest stouts can appear almost black.
In addition to the shade, stout beers are distinguishable from porters by their predominant flavours. Porters use roast malted barley. On the other hand, stouts are made from black patent malt. These give the beer its dark Color, sharp flavour, and unique ashy aroma.
The milk stout is sweetened with lactose that is derived from milk. The lactose isn’t fermented by the yeast so this gives the beer a fuller, sweeter flavour. It was once marketed as a nutritious drink, and even recommended for breastfeeding mothers!
While milk stout was first made in the United Kingdom, dry stout is mainly made in Ireland. That explains its alternative name, which is Irish stout. The unsweetened flavour is what most drinkers readily associate with stout.
What Kind Of Glass Should You Serve Stout Beer In?
The majority of stout beers are served up in glasses that resemble a contoured version of your average pint glass or, alternatively, a snifter-like goblet (which is what a number of domestic/microbrew stouts are served in).
Which Breweries Make The Best Stout Beer?
The best answer to this actually depends on which part of the world that you find yourself in. But here are a number of our favourites in the United States:
- Founders Brewing (Grand Rapids, Michigan),
- AleSmith Brewing Company (San Diego, California),
- Cigar City Brewing (Tampa, Florida),
- TreeHouse Brewing Company (Charlton, Massachusetts)
- Side Project Brewing (Maplewood, Missouri), and
- Hill Farmstead Brewery (Greensboro, Vermont).
What Is The Most Popular Stout Beer Brand In The World?
Without a shadow of a doubt, the most celebrated and bestselling stout beer brand is Guinness. This amazing stout beer company has been around since 1789!
What Foods Can You Pair With Stout Beer?
The best foods to pair stout beer with are:
- Roasted foods
- Smoked foods
- Barbecued/grilled foods
- Salty foods
- Oysters
- Rich stews
- Braised dishes
- Chocolate
- Desserts (where ideally the beer is sweeter than the dish)
Of all the flavours which you might reasonably anticipate from a roasty stout, oyster probably isn’t the first one you will think of. The tradition of oyster stout arose in England, where it’s said that bar patrons would eat oysters out of the half-shell while they tossed back their beer and found a nice complimentary taste between the briny oyster flavour and the rich, strong stout.
That someone in fact thought to put oysters — first the shells and then eventually the whole creature — into the beer itself is just a testament to the somewhat mad creative genius of brewers. Oyster stouts are now quite a regular style, but not as prominent as other stouts. However, it’s likely enough that you’ll likely encounter at least one.
However, don’t worry too much about drinking something that is fishy. The oysters tend to add just a bit of body and brininess which can be more or less tasted in the stout, depending on the brewery that the beer comes out of.
Jake has been a craft beer and homebrew enthusiast since his college days. He loves scouring Europe for unique and unusual hops to add to his beers.
Founder of Jake’s Brew Haven – he currently hosts beer-tasting sessions at select local pubs in Baltimore.