Quick History of Stouts and Porters

Come sit down and let me tell you a story

Originally back in my day a man who walked tall and protected his family, we called a stout man. Now back then the word Stout meant brave or proud.  Around the start of the 14th century the word stout transitioned to mean strong, but was not used in referring to beer till 1677. Written in Egertons 1677 manuscript he wrote about a strong beer, calling it a stout beer.  The expression stout porter was first applied in the 18th century, just meaning a strong porter. Later in 1820 Guinness used the term stout porter.

Now going back to the 1720's in London there was this brown beer that was real popular with the street and river Porters. Being so popular with the Porters, the beer got the name porter.  This beer had a strong flavor and took longer to spoil.  The beer would increase in alcohol as it aged and was one of the first beers that was aged at the brewery and shipped to pubs ready to drink.   In 1776 porters began to be brewed in Ireland. These porters were stronger in flavor. Shortly after  that in 1780 Guinness started brewing porters. .



Sit back down, this story is almost over.


  We are going to go back to modern times. In my young adult adventures in the 19th century I saw stouts and porters go from being brown beer to dark brown to black beer. This change in color was due to the introduction of Black Patent malt to the beer.

Moving to modern day. Are you still with me?....... Okay good. Now in the 21st century you can step in to your local tap house and order a porter and get a dark strong tasting beer, not always strong on alcohol but strong on flavor.  Or you can order a stout and get a even stronger tasting beer that will run most of the time stronger on alcohol than a porter.



Brew today, See you tomorrow