When we hear the word stout our minds immediately conjure an image of that midnight black liquid capped with a biscuit coloured head, brewed in the Emerald Isle. Guinness did huge things for creating awareness about vegan beer when it originally announced, in late 2015, that they were planning to go vegan. Many beer lovers suddenly began to consider that what they drinking may not be vegan. There was a noticeable rise in drinkers questioning their choices and coverage of vegan beer in the media. As of April this year, Guinness confirmed in the FAQs of their website that draught kegs of Guinness — those pints served via flick switch — are now vegan, with cans and bottles to follow later this year.
Contrary to popular belief, there are more to stouts than this Irish icon. In fact, stouts are a direct descendant of the porter style of beer. Stout received its name because it was a stronger version of the porter and often displayed more roasted malt character from dark chocolate to heady espresso. Stout essentially means “strong” and is an umbrella term that has many styles of beer beneath it. Irish dry stout is the most famous, but you will also find American stouts (see Arbor’s The Devil Made Me Brew It), imperial stouts (see Samuel Smith’s Imperial Stout) and chocolate stouts (see Brooklyn Brewery’s Black Chocolate Stout). There are even white stouts such as the one brewed by The Durham Brewery which harnesses the original meaning of the word with a 7.2% pale coloured, strong beer.