The Handbook of Porters & Stouts

Book excerpt: The handbook of stouts and porters is the ultimate, complete, and definitive guide to some of the most complex and original beers available in the market today. It has an extensive history of the two styles, has all the up-to-do info on the current brewing trends, and has hundreds of reviews, along with profiles and other food and tasting tips. Some of the leading edges of the new craft beer revolution have found their expression in unique stouts and porters. Big, round, and roasty, these are huge, brawny beers that have gathered a following. Imperial stouts in porters barrel aged, highly hopped, or aged in bourbon, whiskey, and wine barrels. The history and development of stout and porter and intertwined. Porter was originally an English dark beer style, made popular by street and river porters of London in the 18th century. Because of its huge popularity, London brewers made them in a variety of strengths, and the term “stout” was used for the stronger, fuller bodied porters. They were labeled as “stout porters” but eventually, porter was dropped from the label and stout became its own unique dark brew, distinctively made with roasted barley. Porters are conceived as sweeter on the nose and palate and remain firmly in the brown spectrum.