Poll: Stouts or Porters?

I like both but since it's easier to find stouts on store shelves than porters I drink more stouts. Also, stouts almost always have some flavoring added which make them more curious to me and I HAVE to try them.

 

Copycat. ;-D

 

Yes. There are distinct porter/stout sub-styles. Unfortunately the OP didn't specify any sub-styles, so the question is nonsense. It's like being asked if I prefer the color blue or blue.

Over 200 years of Guinness beer says your stout definition needs some work... just for starters.

The irony is letting go of the notion that stouts and porters are different makes things less confusing. When porter = stout, all of the overlapping/fuzzy lines, arbitrary rules, and exceptions disappear. If you're afraid combining these loses details or nuance, fear not! Because as @Glider points out specific sub-styles of porter/stout are distinct (e.g. milk stout, russian imperial stout, baltic porter, dry irish stout, etc.) and you can dive as deeply into their nuances as you want.

 

Maybe like asking if you like blue or navy?

 

Porters and stouts are definitely different styles, they have just evolved to be more similar to each other through the years, especially in the US. It’s not my definition, but the styles posted here in beer advocate that say a porter should have no roasted barley, and little roasted malts, and that is the main distinguishing factors between a regular stout and porter. If a stout has roasted barley and more roasted malts, it will be darker and more roasty, making the porter less dark and roasted. Like I said, brewers do what they want to do, i.e. Guinness, and every sub style has it’s own characteristics, Guinness not representing every stout.

 

I prefer ambiguity with my porters.


"English Porter (Robsahms English Imperial) since long in demand is now ready to be sent out. This so called Extra Double English Imperial Stout is made according to a completed method, after studies of the brands ale cog [sic] and Barcklay Perkins & Co," (refering to Estonian A Le Coq)

 

You should consider the possibility that the BA guide is just one opinion that is pretty dated at this point, and goes against current historical understanding by most respected beer experts. The roasted barley thing in particular is based almost entirely on homebrewers cloning Guinness.

I think the easiest way to understand it is as one family that encompasses stout and porter. There are recognizable styles within the family, but there is no objective way to separate out stouts and porters into two distinctively different groups within the family. That any sub-style uses one term or the other is mostly arbitrary, though individual brewers will often have somewhat consistent internal frameworks for why they use each term.

 

I agree, just read the can/bottle/keg or ask the brewer which name he chooses. Easy peasy.

 

You can refer to google.

Another thing that needs to be considered is that the meaning of “stout” evolved too over the years, from meaning any type of strong beer, to eventually a strong dark beer, and eventually including roasted malts at a higher percentage.

 

People have to get their information from somewhere. It’s either that or make things up and believe what you want, which seems too easy. I suggest reading as many articles as possible to learn about the topic before arguing about it. There are some historical facts, believe it or not.

 

I know... but that takes effort... too many just go with wikipedia or whatever else is on the first page...

 

Or just go by taste, ABV and mouthfeel.....?

 

Which would make Guinness Draught Stout a....

 

I would recommend Amber Gold & Black by Martyn Cornell as an authoritative source on Porter and Stout.

Yes, some stouts have roasted malts at higher percentages, but some don't. How do you explain milk stouts, oatmeal stouts, and dry stouts that have less roast than many porters? My larger point was that the sub-styles are just all over the place. If you wanted to do a statistical analysis on roast level across all porters and stouts, I think you might find stout to be heavier on roast on average, but it's far from a distinct split.

 

.... nother exception (one of too many to list).

 

Well, c'mon, Google does have the correct answer.

It's right there (somewhere, mixed in among the other 99.9% of the search results that are wrong answers, myths, repeated erroneous beliefs, etc.)

 

So, you judge it that way and your taste matches up with what brewers call their own beers? Or do you find that brewers give their own beers the wrong name sometimes?

 

How many people seriously go beyond the first page?

 

A friend of mine once described the World Wide Web (back when we still called it that) the largest library in the history of mankind... only with all the books in one big pile in the center of the room!