Doing the CAMRA Nottingham stroll. Beers on offer are either the proverbial plum porter or unknown to Ratebeer. As a porter drinker, I worry that the style may die between the variety of stout and the plethora of pales. Anyone seen a porter revival out there?
In the last 6 months porter and stout are my 3rd and 4th highest rated styles. So no shortage of them for me.
My porter rates seem to be more or less steady. I think itâs still a long way from disappearing. A lot of them are fruit/coffee/chocolate/chilli porters but Iâve had quite a few âregularâ porters lately that were very impressive.
My UK ratings of cask Stouts and Porters has never been heavy, just steady; not noticed a change in availability. I usually only have a half as a nightcap if there is one in the pub and I have never searched them out on my travels.
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Iâm drinking a porter right now. Just sayinâ
Lots of porters in the Netherlands still, even traditional ones.
I love stouts and porters, and my ratings of them have increased slightly over the last 2-3 years as Iâve tried to keep the total Iâve rated of each of them ahead of the ubiquitous APAs in my stats. So far Iâve been just about successful, although I fear itâs a losing battle.
On a separate note, arenât the terms porter and stout essentially interchangeable anyway nowadays? Originally a stout was a strong porter, but I think that has fallen by the wayside in recent years, and itâs mainly determined by whatever the brewer names it (having said that, I do always tend to think of stouts as roastier and porters as fruitier, so maybe there is a difference⊠albeit with a huge overlap).
Well, I have been looking at my March ratings and the stand out porters appear to be Welbeck Abbeyâs Out of the Blue and Totally Brewedâs Date and Walnut Porter. Both certainly reflect the styleâs tendency for a fruity gloss. But I still think the stouts are winning the battle of the dark ales because of their international appeal and high abv capacity. Yes, there are imperial porters but far fewer. The East Midlands seems to have a few porters, but this trail I have supped a lot of familiar ones that somehow didnât taste as great as I remembered. And it is scant consolation that the very idea of a stand-out bitter seems a distant memory.
From a book I read, strength at one time was the only difference. Then the difference is using malted vs. unmalted barley. It would be interesting to know whether brewers still follow this rule.
The age old debate about where does a Stout start and a Porter finish! So many different takes on it. Add Milk Stouts, Oyster Stouts and Imperial/Baltic Porters plus whatever your take on things is and all hell breaks loose.
I will not tell you my thoughts and definitions because I seem to change them more often than a âWhores Drawsâ.
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So back to the original question. Founders Porter drinks quite well in my area.
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In the last 3 months I have managed 17 Stouts and 14 Porters, let alone the other derivatives of the style, a pretty decent return, but it is the darker months at present. 2 of my mates plus my wife seek out the dark beers above anything else. I would say that the styles are in healthy condition.
It will also depend on where you go. Of the three pubs near work that I frequent, one always has a dark beer on (today it was two stouts on cask, plus a porter, sweet Stout and two foreign extras in bottles). The other two have 4 or so guest beers on at any time but rarely if ever a stout or porter other than Guinness being on permanently. The barman in one told me that the dark beers donât sell.
Similarly when Iâve been coming back from London recently the Waterloo Tap always has stouts and porters on, whereas the Hop Locker seems to not favour them.
One thing Iâve noticed recently us that sweet stouts seem to be taking over the dark beer space, especially in craft beer bars. âNormalâ stouts and porters are getting harder to find as a result.
I have also noticed that a lot of people add stouts and porters and miss the fact that itâs a Sweet Stour or such like.
agreed lots of Milk Stouts out there
Did the Nottingham CAMRA crawl include The Plough (the Nottingham brewery tap)? Sooty stout is good. Rock Bitter is better though 
There seems to be a lot of dark beers around this Spring, not so much of the standard bitters though.
Style definitions are a fluid concept. The average drinkers understanding of stout and porter, as well as IPA and pale ale (which were originally amber bitters and just paler than standard dark ales) have changed a lot over time.
Cant say ive seen a reduction in porters and stouts, plenty about and its also good to see brewers like Mills and Nevel putting out original aged vatted brett porters as they wouldâve tasted in the 1800s.
Come across âDark Alesâ every now and then. A style on Untappd but theyâre all porters a d stouts on here. Presume brewers donât want to scare potential punters off by labelling a beer as a porter or whatever.
