A Short History Of The Stout

In recent years, many of the darker beers have come back into style as the micro-brew trend has brought back a number of once lost styles. This renewal in beer culture has also given beer drinkers the moxy to try more of the imported styles of beer. While the Lager has really been the only “American” style of beer made for years, even that was imported from Belgium and Germany.

Stouts have become one of the more popular styles of dark ales in United States today. Though originally Porter was the style of beer that would become stouts as we know them today. These beers were very popular amongst the local wharf porters of London in the 1730s and with England’s large number of breweries at the time, this drink was easily produced in large scale and sold by street vendors. As the pale ale style of beer grew in popularity, Porter fell out of vogue except for in Ireland where the classic Irish stouts (Guinness, Murphy’s and Beamish) were still very popular. After World War II, sweet milk stouts became a popular drink for its heartiness and its high calorie count during hard times, meant people used it as a food source when others were in short supply.

Originally, stouts beer denoted a brew masterts most potent reciepe of all the styles. In our modern times, several styles of stouts have remained and newer styles have emerged. Irish dry stout, Imperial stout, Porter, Baltic porter, Milk stout, Oatmeal stout, Coffee stout, Chocolate stout and Oyster.