Porters: why bother?

Had a evil twin lil B for the first time the other day. Fucking amazing. Anyone hating on porters needs to give that a try.

 

Yup...but one brewery's stout (porter) could taste exactly like another brewery's (regular) porter.

 

You want us to convince you with words something that only your taste buds can agree with?

Someone can make the greatest argument of why you should love porters, but if you try Founders Porter and don't like it, then you just won't want to bother. Also, if you haven't tried Founders Porter before making this thread, you're a moron.

 

It's not that stouts have more of everything you like in porters, it's that the beers being labeled as stouts have more of everything that you like in porters. If those brewers called those stouts you love so much porters, then this thread wouldn't exist. Or, dare I say, the title would be "Stouts: why bother?"

 

This makes sense to me. A lot of people I know only like their porters/stouts one per sitting, whereas other styles they could drink all day. Their logic tends to be if I'm going to have one, make it big (Russian Imperial for example).

Personally porters/stouts are my preferred style so I'll drink them all day across the entire ABV spectrum.

 

All hail Edmund Fitz.

 

Honestly, that beer is a bit of a wreck.

 

non beer video deleted

It was Gordon Lightfoots favorite

 

I got your Gitche Gumee right here.

 

Don't drink any more porters. Please leave them for the rest of us.

 

For breweries that make a Stout and a Porter, the distinction is often the presence (or absence) of Roasted Barley in the grain bill.

Let’s consider Sierra Nevada for example. Their Stout uses Roasted Barley while there is no Roasted Barley in their Porter.

Now, let’s consider Deschutes. Their Stout includes Roasted Barley while their Porter does not use Roasted Barley.

A ‘quick’ conclusion based upon the above is that a Stout has Roasted Barley while a Porter doesn’t. Unfortunately it is not quite this simple since there are breweries who do use Roasted Barley to make their Porters. An example of this is Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter which has some Roasted Barley in its grain bill.

I think Pegli had a great statement of: “one brewery's stout (porter) could taste exactly like another brewery's (regular) porter.”

There really are no cut and dry rules about what distinguishes a modern day Porter from a Stout.

In another post you mentioned: “A long time ago, someone evidently felt that it was worth distinguishing a stout porter from a (regular?) porter by adding the adjective "stout" to the front.” Yup, in olden days in Britain a Stout Porter was a higher alcohol Porter. That was a very long time ago and no longer relevant to modern day Stouts/Porters.

Cheers!

 

i am usually not a porter fan, but last night i did find out one thing, a porter goes very well with smoked pork loin. it was like a match made in heaven. i usually don't look to pair my beer with the food i eat, but another person watching monday night football with us said to try it, i wouldn't be disappointed, man were they right.

 

No. They don't. There's nothing intrinsically different about porters over stouts. Thus, there can not be some intrinsic quality that they possess that stouts don't.

 

Apparently you woke up the Porter Appreciation Society.

 

All I can say is in a blind test, with no labels you never tell the difference is teh abv was equal, Just saying.
I am a certified porter/stout nut. at this point in time its just a label thing. History of this is been proven over and over and over. WE can argue a beer is better. but there is really no serious

ok you said it out loud, now we will open the big can of whoop ass on you. Leave all the porter to me I love it.
don FLAME SUIT. Ok you ready? I am happy for you. next topic
/thread.

 

Exactly!
I have had thin Stouts, and thick Porters, as well as, thick Stouts, and thin Porters.
Anyone would be very hard pressed to identify every Stout and every Porter in a blind test.

 

[Post deleted for saying the same thing everyone else who mentions blind tests is saying.]