{"id":3510,"date":"2026-10-19T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hophelden.nl\/?p=3510"},"modified":"2026-10-26T11:51:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T10:51:39","slug":"de-vele-gezichten-van-stout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hophelden.nl\/en\/de-vele-gezichten-van-stout\/","title":{"rendered":"The many faces of stout: from Irish classic to beer for an empress"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why is a jet-black glass of beer actually called stout, and what does that have to do with a Russian empress? The answer lies in a few centuries of coincidence, trade routes, and skillful brewing, resulting in one of the most versatile beer families there is.<\/p>\n

A robust porter with a name of its own<\/h2>\n

Stout did not start as a distinct beer style, but as a nickname. In 18th-century London, porter was the beer of dockworkers and market traders: dark, robust, and available everywhere. Brewers also produced heavier versions of it, and as early as 1677 these were called stout porters, literally a robust, powerful porter. Over time, the word porter dropped out, leaving only stout as a style in its own right.<\/p>\n

Guinness and the dry Irish style<\/h2>\n

The most famous stout comes from Ireland. Arthur Guinness started his brewery in Dublin in 1759 and built upon the London porter recipe. The secret to that typically dry, slightly coffee-like finish lies in roasted malt: dark roasted, without a single coffee bean ever being used. In the photo below, you can see exactly that kind of roasted grain next to a glass of the same dark style. You can taste that same dry finish in the Rolo1977 Pigs in Space<\/a>, a stout that shows you don't need Ireland for a good glass.<\/p>\n

\"Houten
Roasted malt gives dry stout its dark color and slightly coffee-like finish.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A beer for an empress<\/h2>\n

The heaviest branch of the family literally owes its name to the Russian court. Tsar Peter the Great became addicted to stout during a visit to England in 1698 and had the beer shipped to Russia. To survive the long, cold sea voyage, those beers had to become stronger and more alcoholic, and thus the Imperial Stout was born. Empress Catherine the Great and her court drank the beer alongside champagne and Burgundy, and when Russia excluded porter and stout from a new trade embargo in 1822, that trade could only grow. Today, that style, typically between eight and fifteen percent, can also be found on our shelves: the Gulden Triomfator Hafgufa Imperial Stout<\/a> is a strong example of that, and even the ROEM Stout<\/a> With 8.5 percent and layers of coffee and chocolate, it simply calls itself a Russian Imperial Stout.<\/p>\n

\"Geschilderd
Catherine the Great, painted by Alexey Antropov. Source: World History Encyclopedia, public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From oats to dessert<\/h2>\n

Not every stout is this heavy. Oatmeal stout incorporates a portion of oats into the brewing process, resulting in a rounder, creamier body without making the flavor heavier. Milk stout, also known as sweet stout, takes the opposite approach and adds lactose: a sugar that yeast cannot ferment, thus continuing to provide sweetness and a fuller finish. The newest addition to the family is the pastry stout, in which brewers freely add chocolate, vanilla, caramel, or fruit until it becomes just like a dessert in a glass, such as the Leidse Goud Zwarte Woud Pastry Stout<\/a>. Below you see the Yeasterday Fortress of the Knight<\/a>, a ten percent smoked stout with almond and salt: proof that the family is still expanding in new directions after three and a half centuries.<\/p>\n

\"Yeasterday
Yeasterday Fortress of the Knight: a ten percent smoked stout with almond and salt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stout is much more than just one heavy, dark beer: the style ranges from the dry Irish classic to a leaden Imperial Stout that was once brewed for a Russian Empress. We list the most important branches of the family, with examples from our own shop.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3511,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_hh_post_views":75,"_hh_post_hearts":0,"footnotes":"","rank_math_title":"Stout uitgelegd: van Ierse stijl tot Imperial | Hophelden","rank_math_description":"Van droge Ierse klassieker tot loodzware Imperial Stout voor een Russische keizerin: stout is een hele bierfamilie. Ontdek de stijlen en proef ze zelf.","rank_math_focus_keyword":"stout bier","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_robots":[]},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bierbrouwen"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hophelden.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hophelden.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hophelden.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hophelden.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hophelden.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3510"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/hophelden.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3714,"href":"https:\/\/hophelden.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3510\/revisions\/3714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hophelden.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hophelden.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hophelden.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hophelden.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}