Stouts vs. Porters - A History and Debate

I was standing in the beer aisle the other day trying to find some stouts and porters to profile for the months of October and November. All the labels reached out to me, wanting to get selected like a kid for a baseball team. I must say that I’m not disappointed by the amount of choice. If anything, I’m spoiled by it. But as I started picking up cans and reading descriptions, I began to wonder: What is the difference between a Stout and a Porter?

This simple question baffled me. I was always under the impression that stouts were … well, stout. Meaning that they had a higher alcohol content, but that didn’t necessarily ring true. Some stouts had a higher percent alcohol than the porters I looked at, and some of the porters had higher percent alcohol than some of the stouts.

Flavoring, maybe? There certainly was no lack of flavor combinations. From peanut butter pretzel stouts to pecan porters, and Mexican chocolate stouts to vanilla porters, there was no distinguishing difference in flavors between the two styles. They were both diverse, extravagant, and somewhat excessive, as is expected in our modern beer culture.

So, what did I do? I grabbed a pack of Guinness and went home to do more research.

The dark and deceptively smooth Guinness stout kickstarted my research into the world of Stouts and Porters. Where do these longstanding and malty varieties get their starts?

Stout and Porter History

Well, the truth of the story begins with porters. The English Porter was originally made by mixing older beer with fresher beer to get a more complex and pleasing body. This practice was widely received, and with it being man’s nature to advance things, this gave birth to the stout—a beer with a higher alcohol content, known then as “Stout Porter.” At the time, the greatest limiting factor for stouts and porters was the limited amount of ingredients. Essentially, what came about were beers that had similar ingredients but different alcohol contents.

Modern Influence on Stouts and Porters

Strangely enough, stouts and porters lost popularity in Europe, but were resurrected by the American craft brew industry, where there is no limit to ingredients. Now we have milk stouts, oatmeal stouts, imperial stouts, and porters of all types.

Milk stouts have added lactose that adds sweetness and body because the yeast can’t ferment the sugar. And oatmeal stouts obviously use oatmeal to create a smooth finish. Those are easy to categorize. But like many categories in American beer culture, the differentiating lines are as blurry as they appear. Thankfully, there is still one component that some (but not all) brewers believe separate a Stout from a Porter. 

Difference between Stout and Porter

The malt. Porters are traditionally made with malted roasted barley compared to the unmalted roasted barley for Stouts. The malted roasted barley adds sweetness to porters. The unmalted roasted barley adds the coffee and burnt flavors we often associate with stouts while adding the dry finish we taste in beers like Guinness.

American craft brewing has taken many liberties with beer traditions and recipes. Some good, some bad. But that really is the American way, and it has brought some interesting things to the tap that have inspired many and changed the world of beer drinking.

In the end, as always, the flavor is what counts. While the lines between stout and porter have been blurred, the varieties have abounded. And for that, I am glad.

Cheers!

Mr. Brew