Rye Stout a delicous style of Stout
While I have never been one to focus on particular beer styles due to the season, I know it’s pretty popular to do so. Hey, any excuse to drink a good beer works for me!
As we are in December and it’s definitely cold out there, it’s apropos to think about darker beer styles like stouts and porters. There are some good stories to tell about these beers and some fun rituals associated with them. Let’s go.
The “Perfect Pint”?
There is some controversy about the style names – as they are some of the word’s original commercial beers, and we are talking about some 300 years or so of history. But the legend I like most is that the original brown dark common beer consumed by dock workers in colonial times was called “porter” because that is what the porters who moved packages and equipment around the river ports drank. It was typically the cheapest beer, and often was a blend of new, aged and stale beer (so called “three threads”).
Sweeter Milk Stout is another sub style of stout – Lancaster’s is “utterly tasty”… (Sorry)
Stout was apparently really derived from the phrase “stout porter” meaning stronger than usual porter. From an ingredients perspective, both have plenty of barley, but typically stout’s have “unmalted” barley – (ungerminated kernels) giving it more of a “roasted coffee” flavor. Stouts also tend to have a somewhat higher alcohol content, though that is not a requirement of the style.
Irish stout’s tend to be drier than the sweeter British styles, and are sometimes referred to as “dry stouts”. “Milk Stout” is sweetened with lactose (milk sugar). “Imperial Stout” is stronger and more alcoholic – supposedly developed for safer shipping on longer voyages and favored by the Russian Czars. My favorite stout related historical tidbit is that due to the soil and weather conditions the Irish had to get their hops for bittering their beer from England, and were taxed by their colonialist neighbors for it. So, the Irish amped up the bitterness in their porter using the unmalted barley instead of paying the British for as much hops.
It Floats
The thing about most stouts and porters is that usually they are pretty light bodied beverages, their dark and somewhat thick mouthfeel ironically masks lower alcohol, less calories and a less dense beer. Guinness stout has about 25 more calories than a Miller Lite for example.
One cool thing you can do with a stout is adding to a lager or pale ale, without really blending it. If do it right, you can actually float the lighter density stout over the more dense but lighter colored beer. The reason it floats is that stout is less dense, but the particulars are about as clear as the beer. Some say it’s the nitro (nitrogen) used in carbonating Guinness and other pub stouts – as nitro is lighter than C02 which is typically used for carbonation. They say it’s the smaller denser bubbles in nitrogen that not only give it the creamy mouthfeel, but also helps the float. Others say it’s simply a lighter weight beer, so if you pour it carefully is stays on the top.
Note the special pouring spoon hanging from the Tap, makes the float easier to do
These beers are often called the “Black and Tan” or “Half and Half”, but there is some controversy there are well. During colonial times, British troops sent to Ireland to quell unrest (often in some pretty nasty ways) had black and khaki uniforms, and were referred to as “black and tan’s” – so don’t order that in a true Irish pub unless you want risk a sneer from the publican. Half and Half is safer, though most believe that it refers specifically to half Guinness and half Harp Lager – (which Guinness used to brew). The black and tan is usually considered to be half Guinness and half Bass Pale Ale – the first British IPA.
You an even make a Zero Alcohol Half and Half
The fun thing about these floated beers is that they look cool, taste really good (drinking the pale ale or lager through the creamy dark stout) and you can use any combination of stout’s and beers to do it. I actually once made one for a friend using the alcohol free Guinness floating on zero alcohol Athletic pale ale.
And I would be remiss not to mention that it’s a dessert topping too! (Really). If you have never had a scoop of vanilla ice cream floating in a glass of sweet stout, you are in for a treat. I know it sounds strange, but it really works, though I have gotten some grief in some of the snootier beer bars when I have ordered it.
Some breweries actually reduce down their stouts and pour them over ice cream as a special brew based dessert. Adding cocoa or bakers chocolate to the stout during brewing also creates a great flavor – though technically you don’t have to add chocolate to stout to have a “chocolate stout” – as properly toasted barley can give the beer chocolate notes all on it’s own.
So, whether it’s stout or porter, a pint after the game or dessert after dinner, don’t be afraid of the dark and enjoy some brewing history this winter.
Yum – A classic Stout dessert at DogFIsh in Rohobeth DE
