It was famously enjoyed by Ena Sharples in the snug of the Rovers Return – the Coronation Street battle-axe often shared a glass of milk stout with her friend Minnie Caldwell.

Now bottled British stout is making a comeback as a popular tipple with a new generation of drinkers, thanks to new products from burgeoning craft and regional brewers.

Irish stout – notably Guinness – has dominated the market for well over a century, but in recent years the whole stout market has been in decline.

Now supermarkets are reporting strong sales of specialist bottled stout with eye-catching and quirky names being created by craft and micro-breweries. In March the Office for National Statistics gave stout new credibility by adding it to the "basket" of goods and services it monitors regularly to gauge living costs.

Stout is made using roasted malt or barley, hops, water and yeast. It originated in the early 18th century as porter – a blend of brown ale, mild ale and "well matured ale". It got its name because it was popular with London street market workers: the strongest variety was known as stout porter, which was eventually shortened to just stout.

A spokesman for the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) said: "The interest in different beer styles is on the increase and there are now more than 5,500 different real ales on the market. Camra members feel that the range of stouts now available offer a lot more flavour than the famous Irish keg version, and that great stouts are now produced all over Britain by our 850-plus breweries."

Tesco launched a new range of eight British bottled stouts last August and reports it has enjoyed strong sales. It now expects to sell 1m bottles of the new lines within a year of their launch, with three more due to be launched in early May.

The supermarket giant's stout buyer, Peter Bexton, said: "We are seeing stout sales increase week by week. More brewers are taking notice of the trend and are starting to add a stout to their beer portfolio – something that wouldn't have happened just a few years ago."

He said in the past five years or so, the retailer had spotted that "a new, younger drinker of ale and stout has emerged, looking for beers with great character and exceptional flavour to challenge the taste buds – perhaps to have at the dinner table as an accompaniment to food, much the same as wine".

At Asda, sales of bottled stout are up by more than a quarter in the past year. An Asda spokeswoman said: "Stouts have long been associated with older drinkers but they have seen a resurgence with all age groups as shoppers look for more unusual tipples to drink at home. The importance of local products also plays a part too, with a quarter of shoppers saying they looked to support local breweries."

Marks & Spencer said stout was a versatile drink in the changeable weather. M&S drink developer Jenny Rea said: "Although traditionally seen as a male drink, more and more women are moving over to beer. Our Irish Stout is becoming more and more popular with our female customers, who are increasingly enjoying the smooth coffee and chocolate flavour. We expect good sales to continue as the unique blend of roasted malt and bittersweet hops in our stout make it the perfect comforting drink in the changeable weather."

The definition of a stout is far from straightforward. Camra, for example, does not include Guinness because it is mass-produced.

Camra explained its own strict definition of "real" stout as: "Live products which have yeast in the cask and therefore go through a secondary fermentation which adds more flavour. Keg stouts like Guinness are pasteurised and then nitrogen is added to the flat beer in the keg to give it its creamy head in the pub … ie, this is not a traditional way of brewing a stout in Camra's eyes."

• This article was amended to include Camra's definition of stout.