Well, I
thought it was today, but it appears it was yesterday, so apologies
for being a wee bit late, but I did drink a 'Porter' yesterday, so I
sort of got there... anyway, celebrate dark ales! Louise, the barmaid
and youngest daughter of the publicans at the Dolphin Inn
(website), asked me what the difference was between Porters and
Stouts, and I sort of knew, but thought I'd better do a bit of
research before publication.
Dolphin Inn
Stouts
appear to have developed from Porters, a dark ale favoured by London
market porters 300 years ago, though a blend of ales originally,
before brewers started brewing Porters themselves. Whereas 'Stout'
tended to be a term to describe stronger beers. Stout, as in Stout
Porter, was a strong, dark brew that London's brewers developed, and
the dark beer that we think of today as a typical Stout style.
Technically,
nowadays, Porters are brewed using dark malts, and are usually a very
deep, very dark, red in colour if you put your glass up to
the light, whereas Stouts are brewed using Roasted Barley and are black or very
dark brown, notably in the colour of the head. Of course, I've drunk
different brewers' Stouts, Porters and even strong dark Milds that
taste as you would expect one of the other styles to taste, but, for
me, I would define the Stout from the roasted barley taste, though no doubt
many would argue with me there!
Anyway, back to the Dolphin, and yesterday I drank the 5.2% Plum Porter from Nottinghamshire
brewer, Milestone (website), which does what it says on the
label. This was a very deep dark red in colour with a definite sour
plum fruitiness in the aroma. There was plenty of body, quite rich,
smooth and sweet at first taste, with hints of sour plum, and I even
got chocolate when well down the glass, also that hint of a 'stout'
with a slight roasted barley flavour; see what I said about telling
the difference between the styles, not so easy! The finish though was quite dry
and bitter, not bad, which is good coming from a 'hophead' like me,
cheers!
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