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A World of Stout - March 2000To the uninitiated, stout can be an intimidating thing. It is black, pitch black, and that is itself enough to scare off timid drinkers weaned on golden lagers and the like. Yet within that fearsome darkness lies also an element of intrigue, and human nature being what it is, we are all drawn towards a good mystery. Arguably, it is in large part because of this peculiar combination of intimidation and attraction that stout is currently experiencing a tremendous surge in its global fortunes. Which is not to say that this is the first time that stout has enjoyed a high degree of world-wide popularity. Back in its nascent days in early 18th century London, stout was the hottest beer going and its fame quickly spread well beyond its city of origin to the far reaches of the British Empire. By the mid- to late-1700's, stout's admirers were legion.. Stout's original incarnation was as a beer called porter, reputedly named after the porters of the London docks with whom it first found favour. Its roots, however, may be found in a blended potation known as "three threads," for which the bartender would carefully mix equal parts of young and old brown ale and pale ale, the last also known as "twopenny" in deference to its high price. The drink became popular, marrying as it did the complexities of old ale, the cleaner taste of the pricier pale ale and the balance of the affordable young brown, but it was a complicated concoction for a busy bartender to prepare. The market veritably cried out for a single beer that would mimic the taste of the mix, and in 1722, a brewer named Ralph Harwood heeded that call and developed the world's first porter. The beer Harwood invented was called "entire," short for "entire butt" because the beer was brewed in one vessel instead of three. (At this time, there were beers being sold as stout, but these were the strongest, or "stoutest," ales brewed by a given brewery and not the dark delights we know today by that name.) Harwood's beer took off, and was soon so preferred among the working hands of the docks that it came to be nicknamed after them, or so the story goes. As porter's fame grew, so did the size of the breweries producing it. This led to strong competition and an interesting race for the bragging rights to the ownership of the largest porter aging vessel. These monstrous tanks, measuring up to 60 feet wide and 23 feet high, were inevitably launched with some sort of publicity-seeking event, such as the sit-down dinner for 200 once held inside of an enormous aging vat. Such lunacy came to a tragic end, however, when a huge tank burst at the Horse Show Brewery and eight people were killed in the resultant flood of beer. (But what a way to go!) Over time, stronger porters became known as stout porters, and eventually just stouts, and began to dominate first the export and then the domestic markets. (As higher alcohol beer travels better than weaker brews, stout porters were what British brewers mainly sent overseas to the colonies.) When the industrial revolution made paler barley malts and the pale ales they produced more affordable, however, the popularity of both stout and porter began to suffer. Later, when the British government imposed energy-conservation measures that served to restrict the malting and roasting of barley during World War I, it sounded the virtual death knell for black beer. What saved stout was politics. Because of the tense relationship between England and Ireland, British authorities were loath to place as strong restrictions upon beer and malt production there as they had at home, and so Irish stout and porter continued to thrive through two World Wars. Today, largely due to the aggressive promotional work of the world's largest drinks company, Diagio, itself parent to the world's largest stout producer, Guinness, stout has reclaimed its prominent place on the world stage. In addition to many fine Irish stouts, including the wonderfully rewarding D'Arcy's Dublin Stout from the Dublin Brewing Company, the black beer of Ralph Harwood is now brewed the world over, from Japan to Canada.
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