stout

A type of beer. Stout is a very dark brew typified by the commonly available Guinness and Murphy's. The darkness of colour and richness of taste comes from the way the barley is treated. With amber beers the barley is watered and allowed to germinate to produce the malt. The germination is then halted by drying the grains over heat. The difference with stout is that the barley is allowed to burn slightly when being dried, carbonising the outside of the grains. Hence when the mash is made it creates a dark opaque mix and the final beer still has the bitter taste of the burnt barley. This is probably why some people think stout tastes of rich coffee, the beans of some coffee types are similarly roasted so they are partially carbonised.

A beer, midnight black and opaque. The head is rich and long-lasting. There is little hop aroma or flavour.

Stout is an ale, developed from the porter style of ale in Ireland by the Guinness brewery. Guinness remains the benchmark stout. Regardless of what you may have heard, the colour is so dark because of the malt used, not because they put dead rats in the fermentation vats.

Dry Stout is 4-5.5% ABV and can taste bitter. Coffee Stout is dry stout with a small amount of strong percolated coffee added.

Milk Stout tastes vastly different - it is sweet and chocolatey. It contains lactose, a sugar that yeast cannot ferment. This variety comes in at 3-6% ABV. Oatmeal Stout is milk stout with oats added to give more body without overly increasing the alcohol content.

Export Stout is full-bodied and has lots of hop bitterness. This, along with the 5-8% ABV allows it to gain condition with age. This is where the name comes from - it could withstand long journeys and the far-off drinkers would not find their current stocks stout getting too old before the next shipment arrived.

Imperial Stout is a bottle conditioned beer with 7-10% ABV. It develops complexity with age and tastes fairly harsh without at least a year of condition. Some people cellar it for five or six years. It is highly hopped and has a yummy chocolate malt and fruity flavour. Despite the high alcohol content it is terrible for getting pissed with your mates as it's really filling. It was originally developed by British brewers for the Russian court in the eighteenth century. This style is now more popular among American beer lovers.

Stout (?), a. [Compar. Stouter (?); superl. Stoutest.] [D. stout bold (or OF. estout bold, proud, of Teutonic origin); akin to AS. stolt, G. stolz, and perh. to E. stilt.]

1.

Strong; lusty; vigorous; robust; sinewy; muscular; hence, firm; resolute; dauntless.

With hearts stern and stout. Chaucer.

A stouter champion never handled sword. Shak.

He lost the character of a bold, stout, magnanimous man. Clarendon.

The lords all stand To clear their cause, most resolutely stout. Daniel.

2.

Proud; haughty; arrogant; hard.

[Archaic]

Your words have been stout against me. Mal. iii. 13.

Commonly . . . they that be rich are lofty and stout. Latimer.

3.

Firm; tough; materially strong; enduring; as, a stout vessel, stick, string, or cloth.

4.

Large; bulky; corpulent.

Syn. -- Stout, Corpulent, Portly. Corpulent has reference simply to a superabundance or excess of flesh. Portly implies a kind of stoutness or corpulence which gives a dignified or imposing appearance. Stout, in our early writers (as in the English Bible), was used chiefly or wholly in the sense of strong or bold; as, a stout champion; a stout heart; a stout resistance, etc. At a later period it was used for thickset or bulky, and more recently, especially in England, the idea has been carried still further, so that Taylor says in his Synonyms: "The stout man has the proportions of an ox; he is corpulent, fat, and fleshy in relation to his size." In America, stout is still commonly used in the original sense of strong as, a stout boy; a stout pole.

 

© Webster 1913.

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Stout, n.

A strong malt liquor; strong porter.

<-- Famous Guiness' stout. -->

Swift.

 

© Webster 1913.