Previously, I alluded to the fact that I would write about Stout.  Well, here it is.  We just drank a Stout as our past beer, so let’s have some info about it.  To understand Stout as a beer, it is necessary to understand a Porter.  For those who have not sipped a Porter…sip one!  It’s a real treat.

Porter beers florished in a time when it was harder to kiln (i.e., roast grains).  Most grains were roasted darker, so beers were darker (but that does not mean stronger in alcohol).  Depending on the source, Porters were named after a working class in England among whom the beer was popular.  Purportedly, Ralph Harwood was the one who invented the drink.  The drink was also known as three threads.  The “three threads” consisted of a new ale, an old ale, and a stale ale.  Given that the new ale was too harsh and the old (aged ale) was too expensive, Porter was a happy median.  But do not assume that this means that this was only a beer that appealed to the working man.  As a side note, maybe the Porter and not the Lager (or Pilsner) is truly the working man’s beer. 

Among those who thought Porter was the best style of beer was someone (I don’t really recognize him) named George Washington.  Maybe the wood flavor imparted from his teeth was particularly good.  Yet, Porters evolved.  A Stout is simply a stout version/stouter version of a Porter.  Simply put, the beer was made darker and thicker by added grain content.  The alcohol jump was not great because highly burnt grains do not add much more fermentable sugar.  Stouts are certainly big on flavor, but it does not follow that they are high on alcohol.  For instance, Guinness is actually less ABV than the average American Lager.  Incidentally, Guinness was the father of the modern Stout.