Difference between Porter and Stout?

[philrose]

This thread is beginning to take on troll like characteristics. Exit, Stage left.

 

[rockfish42]

Depending on the maltster in question, roast malt is generally slightly less dark than black patent. Hugh Baird's black patent is 560L and their roast is 500L. That's really just splitting hairs as they taste fairly similar, my personal preference is for the roast over the patent.

 

[remilard]

There can be a substantial difference as proteolysis during malting affects maillard reactions down the line. It's just that neither makes something a porter or a stout.

The archetype american stout, Sierra Nevada, is late hopped and there are English stouts late hopped as well. Rogue's stout which has done well in international competitions as a stout has late hopping and tons of chocolate malt.

If you have a beer and want to enter it into a BJCP (or BA) competition, there is usually a best place to put it. That doesn't mean that calling it the other thing is wrong.

 

[shanecb]

I already said earlier in the thread that there was no difference between
black malt and roast barley, and the head brewer at Guiness said so. If you
substitute black malt for roast barley in the second recipe that's fine, but
the two recipes are different and make completely different beers.

Ray

Wait I just need to verify here... are you saying that black malt (you mean black patent I assume?) and roasted barley have no difference? Have you tasted them side by side? There is a marked difference between the two.

 

[rayg]

Wait I just need to verify here... are you saying that black malt (you mean black patent I assume?) and roasted barley have no difference? Have you tasted them side by side? There is a marked difference between the two.

The head brewer at Guiness says there is no difference in taste *in their
recipe*. I imagine if you make a beer with small amounts of either, there
is a difference. But if you use the huge amount typical of stouts, the basic
dark roast flavor overwhelms everything. I assume they use roasted barley
because it's cheaper than black malt (since it didn't go through the malting
process).

Ray

 

[rayg]

There can be a substantial difference as proteolysis during malting affects maillard reactions down the line. It's just that neither makes something a porter or a stout.

The archetype american stout, Sierra Nevada, is late hopped and there are English stouts late hopped as well. Rogue's stout which has done well in international competitions as a stout has late hopping and tons of chocolate malt.

If you have a beer and want to enter it into a BJCP (or BA) competition, there is usually a best place to put it. That doesn't mean that calling it the other thing is wrong.

If Sierra Nevada wants to call their beer a stout, they can, there is
no law regarding beer style names. If Saranac wants to call one of
their beers an IPA, even if it is indistinguishable from their pale ale,
they can do it.

What do you want to do, abolish beer style names altogether? Just
list the ingredients?
"Hey Bob, great beer! What is it?"
"Thanks Ray, why that's just a a 6poundoflightliquidmaltextracthalfpound10Lcrystal2ouncesofchocolatemalt1ozofgoldings60minhalfoznorthernbrewer10min."

Seems a little cumbersome to me.

Ray

 

[porter1974]

Just came across this thread. It’s great. I am more mixed up than ever on the difference.

 

[gunhaus]

How many fairies can dance on the head of a pin?

 

[grampamark]

Hmm. It appears that my go to Porter recipe (loosely based on Deschute's Black Butte) may be a Stout. Unless it isn't.

Which raises the question: Should I call it "Fred" or "Wilma"?

 

[AkTom]

Oh, I like Wilma...

 

[Turkeyshot]

How many fairies can dance on the head of a pin?

That depends. Are they porter fairies or stout fairies? I heard there was a difference in size.

 

[grampamark]

Oh, I like Wilma...

Yabba dabba doo.