Porter vs Dark Mild

What's the difference?

.5% ABV?

I was reading http://beersmith.com/blog/2008/03/01/beer-styles-making-a-porter-recipe/

And it says Porters have 1.040 OG *and up*...(missed it the first time). So I guess that's the main difference between that and Dark Mild.

IMO, apart from the obvious alcohol/gravity dif., a porter would have a somewhat more pronounced dark malt (chocolate/black/roast) character.

Hmmm... Does a stout have a more pronounced dark roast taste than the porter?

...I've had dark mild and I've had stout but porter is a mystery to me. I'm kind of guessing it's just the in between at this point....

The key to brown porter is "a mild to moderate roastiness (frequently with a chocolate character) and often a significant caramel, nutty, and/or toffee character". Milds should have no roastiness, and darker milds should have very little, although some is acceptable.

iambeer said:

Hmmm... Does a stout have a more pronounced dark roast taste than the porter?

Click to expand...

Maybe! Some stouts, like sweet stout, have a mild roastiness while others (like dry stout or foreign extra stout) are very roasty.

Robust porter can have a very strong roast as well. So it's not just the amount of roastiness that separates them.

As porters are roastier, they are also more bitter.

It can certainly be difficult to describe the difference between a lighter bodied stout and a porter... I would say that where a stout, like a dry stout in particular, has a very focused and intense roast character, a porter (and I am talking about 'robust porter' here) will have a round, slightly malty-sweet and open roast character that is considerably less intense... perhaps a good analogy would be the difference between a dark chocolate candy bar and a regular hershey bar. Both are vey chocolatey, but the dark chocolate is more intense. Then, added to the mix, you have the presence of noticeable hop flavor in a porter.