Benny Blanco
Well-Known Member
Someone asked me this the other day and I had no idea...
cubbies said:According to the BJCP, the styles have some overlap. There are going to be different definitions from everyone. One way some people distinguish between the two is with the addition of roasted barley. i.e. stouts have it, porters dont. Ray Daniels, author of Designing Great Beers typically agrees with this method. However, he also states that it is perfectly acceptable to use roasted barley in a porter; just in very minuscule amounts. My own interpretation is, in a 5 gallon batch .5lb or more of roasted barley, and you got yourself a stout. Less than that, depending on the other grains of course, and you could realistically define it as a porter.
the_bird said:The most widely-cited theory is that the term "stout" derived from requests for "a stout porter," but given that the most widely-known example of a stout (Guiness) is really a pretty small beer, that doesn't really hold true for all contexts.
My definition has to do with drinkability - I tend to think that porters can be consumed any time of day, usually after a work shift. This comes from many days of drinking pints of Edmund Fitzgerald with habanero beans and rice every day after work in Ohio.
All of my porters are designed to be flavorful, medium bodied, and deliciously drinkable. Somewhat arbitrary, but I see it as the antithesis to stouts, which are definitely after-dinner pints. There are exceptions, of course, but thats just where my tastes lie.
I also agree about the absence of roasted barley in porter, even though my great shining beacon, Edmund Fitzgerald, has a little roasted character. I usually answer the question about the difference between the two with "Well, USUALLY porter doesn't have a significant roasted flavor..." and then go from there.
My very broad definition is that a stout is like a porter, but more so, and a porter is like a stout, but to a lesser degree. This is about intensity of roast/color, and has nothing to do with ABV, or whether you used roasted barley or black patent.
Porter = wimpy stout
My G/F hates them both and they both remind her of "Chinese cough syrup".
Thanks for the link. This seems to take Pattison's research a little differently that brewt00l's post #8, but it makes sense that stout would mean strong, since it still does today. I have not heard the roast barely theory before. I don't really like the taste of it so I'll be brewing porters from now on. LOL.
I was thinking more to the original use of the word stout. I don't think the Irish Stouts we know where brewed before the term started to be use.Irish Stout is 4 - 4.5 ABV.
It is not too strong.
i have never had a porter that was lighter in body than a dry stout
i can drink a dry stout any time of the day as is custmary in ireland
"stout butt beer is mentioned as a feature of London breweries of those times".
How many fairies can dance on the head of a pin?
Seems to me much like the difference between Pale Ale and India Pale Ale historically- there really isn't one. At least not in any absolute terms.
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