The distinctions between porter and stout can be as dark and obscure as the beers themselves. Unlike the chicken-and-egg conundrum, we know for certain that porter gave rise to stout, but while the histories of these beer styles are distinct, many of today’s versions straddle the very fine line that separates one from the other.

A Brief History of Porter

Many beers have fascinating histories, but porter has it all: dubious origins, international rise to fame, a gradual but steady downfall, and, finally, a renaissance. Malting processes in the eighteenth century were inconsistent and uneven, leaving some grains scorched, some green, but most brown, which then resulted in beers of varying quality. As a result, publicans often blended beers—then traditionally served out of casks—for patrons either upon request or to disguise a bad batch and still make a profit off of it. Porter most likely emerged as a blend of several beers, but the fabled story of the three threads—beer streamed out of casks in so-called threads, so three threads refers to a blend of beer from three different casks—is rather tenuous. Instead, porter was probably a brewhouse blend created through several infusions of the same mash, perhaps with a little fresh malt added to the tun every once in a while, and sometimes even the addition of fresh wort to an aged batch of porter deemed too mild, in order to maximize one’s grain and output volume of beer.



By the mid-18th century porter was the drink of choice not just for actual porters, strongmen who literally kept Britain’s enormous maritime commerce moving by loading and unloading ships and who likely gave the beer its name, but for pretty much everyone. Britain exported porter to its many colonies, including the United States, where George Washington’s taste buds were immediately smitten with the dark ale. While the United States developed its own porter-brewing industry along with its independent democracy, Britons across the globe enjoyed this beer until the late 19th century when popular tastes began to change. Pale ales and stouts became all the rage, but more of that below. In any case, porter has made a comeback not only in Great Britain, but especially in the United States, where craft brewers often make this chocolatey, caramelly, slightly roasted beer with a healthy dose of piney, resiny, American hops.

A Brief History of Stout

Stout is synonymous with one brewery in the world: Guinness. When Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease in 1759 for an old brewery in Dublin, Ireland, he first brewed porter—just like everyone else, except his version was stronger and roastier, thus acquiring the name “stout porter.” By 1818, British engineer Daniel Wheeler had invented a much more reliable method of kilning malt. His drum roaster ensured that malt could not only be kilned evenly, but also in a controllable manner. The drum roaster meant that the maltster could make uniform pale malt or uniform black patent malt rather than random brown malt. Hence, Guinness started using highly kilned unmalted barley in its stout porter and eventually the “porter” appellation was dropped, leaving us with Guinness stout.

Today’s Distinctions

We’re far removed from the days of the original porter and the original Irish stout. Granted, the BJCP Style Guide gives its due to every historical and modern interpretation of porter—brown, robust, and Baltic—and stout—dry, sweet, oatmeal, foreign extra, American, and imperial—but as homebrewers we can brew whatever we want and pretty much call it whatever we feel like it. However, I believe that history should be our guide when approaching styles—whether we seek to reinvent them entirely, pay homage to them, or replicate them according to tradition. As a result, I think roasted barley has no place in any porter recipe. Roasted barley distinguishes porter from stout, in my mind, sub-style variations included. Porters should have a smooth, chocolatey, somewhat roasty character, which a combination of chocolate and black patent malts amply provides. Stouts should have a sharp, roasty edge—coffee or even espresso-like—which only roasted barley can truly provide. Many craft beers seem to blur the line between porter and stout, generally favoring the latter, and oftentimes those brews serve as inspiration to the homebrewer. I’m guilty: I favor robust porters (sans roasted barley) and American stouts over their historically accurate variants, namely brown porter and dry stout. However, knowing the history of these two styles makes it easier to not only distinguish between the two when tasting them, but also approach them differently from a philosophical standpoint. Creating recipes is all about having a vision for a particular beer, and history should be your guide and inspiration. Porter and stout are fundamentally different, no matter how creative you get in brewing either one at home.