Happy Stout Month!
February may be cold and gloomy, but it happens to be Stout Month, and there is nothing quite like a seasonal stout to beat the winter blues, bringing both warmth to your belly and life to your bones.
The Egerton Manuscript, written in 1677 by Francis Henry Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater, was the first written account using the word “stout” as more of an adjective and a synonym to describe “strong” beer. Stouts generally have a brown to black coloration, have a thicker, full body, and tend to be rich. They have a bit of a bitterness about them, which comes both from the hops and unmalted roasted barley. Popular hops used for stouts include Cascade, Fuggle, Centennial, and East Kent Goldings, but you will never truly taste hops in a stout, as compared to other beers like an IPA, because they are only utilized as a bittering agent during the boil. A base stout, on its own without any additions, will have aromas of ground coffee, dark fruits (plum/prune/black currants/other dark-skinned fruits), wood and earth, while the flavors consist of roasted malt, chocolate, coffee, toast/grains/oatmeal, caramel, nuttiness and sometimes even char. The best temperature to drink a stout is right around 50°F, so that the flavors ripen in complexity and character – therefore, take that beer out of the fridge and let it sit for a bit before drinking!
Types of Stouts
Milk Stouts – This stout contains lactose, a sugar found in milk, that adds a sweetness to the brew and is not fermented or broken down during the brewing process. The beer “mouthfeel” tends to be creamy and ever-so-slightly thick. Because the beer contains a milk derivative, during the late 1910s into the 1920s, after World War I, stouts were touted to be “nutritious,” “healthy,” with new mothers even being encouraged to drink stouts after giving birth to increase their breast milk production – which actually does hold some truth – barley contains a polysaccharide that stimulates secretion of prolactin and prolactin is the hormone responsible for milk production. Fun Fact: Guinness jumped on this trend using the marketing slogan, “Guinness is good for you,” and promoted stout-drinking amongst not only nursing mothers, but postoperative hospital patients and blood donors due to the stout’s high iron content.
Oatmeal Stouts – This is a stout that is typically quite smooth and has a variable sweetness that comes from the addition of oats to the mash in the brewing process. The addition of oats to brew beer has origins dating back to the medieval period and were mainly used in ales. Later in history during the late 19th century and into the early 20th century, porridge, (which is basically a fancy word for breakfast oatmeal), was considered the ultimate health-food and therefore oatmeal stouts were guilty-by-association and were also considered to be healthy and teeming with medicinal properties. Today, while oatmeal itself ranks high in the heart-healthy category, oatmeal stouts are not exactly placed into a health-food category. Regardless, they are a popular stout for brewers to produce and beer-lovers to consume.
Dry Stouts/Irish Stouts – These brews lack any further additives like lactose or oatmeal; hence the word “dry.” This is the stout that has predominant roots in Ireland and it truly starts and ends with Guinness. Dry Irish stouts contain less carbonation by using nitrogen instead of carbon dioxide, have a lower ABV than other stouts, and contain noticeable notes of roasted barley.
Imperial Stouts – Also known as Russian Imperial Stouts, these stouts were brewed in England in the 18th century and shipped directly to Russia’s Empress, Catherine II, AKA Catherine the Great, who became enamored with the beer. Our current 21st century, Imperial Stouts (or sometimes referred to as American Double or American Imperial Stouts because, well, ‘Merica) refer mainly to stouts with high alcohol content – over 9% – rich and with character complexity. In the brewing process, hops and malts are added in larger quantities, giving the brew both added flavor and upping the ABV ante.
Coffee Stouts – There are several ways that brewers incorporate coffee into their stouts. They may combine coffee grounds or whole roasted beans with their grains and let them steep together during the mash or in fermentation tanks, or they may blend actual cold-brewed coffee directly into their beer after fermentation. The resulting beer, no matter which way it was created, will have a distinct coffee aroma and notes. Also, while there is a small amount of caffeine present in the beer, there is never going to be enough caffeine to keep you awake. Fun Fact: In some cases, a “coffee” stout will not actually contain coffee at all! This is because some brewers utilize specific types of roasted grains that will mimic the same complexities, notes, and flavors of brewed coffee.
Chocolate Stouts – These may be brewed with malted or roasted barley and/or chocolate malt, although these may not be the only ingredients to give a chocolate stout its richness and depth, as brewers also have the option to add in caramel malt, cacao nibs, cocoa, vanilla beans, and oats.
Pastry Stouts – a more recently concocted stout of the 21st century, these are beers that are purposefully brewed to be very sweet, bold, thick, and typically mimic a variety of baked goods and sugary treats but in liquid form – think cakes, cookies, mint chocolate chip ice cream, toasted marshmallows, donuts, etc. ABVs tend to be quite high and you may also see these brews referred to as dessert beers or dessert stouts.
Oyster Stouts – Yes, you read that correctly. There really are stouts brewed with oysters! The history behind this type of stout is murky at best, but it appears to have started back in the late 1800s, in England, but also as far away as New Zealand, and was quite popular through the 1930s, both brewing with the shells and/or meat of the oysters and marketing oyster stouts as a perfect accompaniment to your fish or shellfish dinner. Fun Fact: In Colorado, you can even find stouts brewed with “rocky mountain oysters!” Yup, bull testicles. No joke, and these stouts actually taste pretty fantastical if done right.
Bourbon-Barrel Stouts fall into an all-encompassing sub-category of their own because any of the aforementioned stouts can be utilized as the base beer that is used to produce the final product; a stout is brewed, the beer is transferred into oak barrels that once held bourbon, sealed, and left to sit. Length of the aging is variable, from months, to years, and at the discretion of the brewers themselves. What results is a boozy infused stout containing all the rich and complex qualities and flavors of the bourbon and oak, that may include notes of vanilla, caramel, toasted coconut, char, and spice. Additionally, the alcohol content also tends to be elevated as a result of the aging process.
Perhaps make it a personal mission this February to turn our dragging winter season into something a bit more palatable by drinking a stout from every category in celebration of Stout Month! Cheers!
