I TASTE YOUR BEER | Discovering New Beer Daily

First stout of the year and I’m drinking it with the CEO of Sebago Brewing Company, Kai Adams. Lucky me to be learning all about how it’s made as I’m drinking it. Plus, my name rhymes with trout and stout. My freestyle trying to rhyme more than those three words didn’t work too well on camera.

Now we get to talk about the history of stouts! Not too many more times can I rely on this for the blog post, plus, the last post in which I tried to talk about Pilsners, some dude commented that I didn’t have all my facts straight. You can only search on so many websites for information, but I am standing fast on my claim that the word Pilsner comes from the town where it was first brewed, Plzen. It just makes too much sense.

Now stouts… stouts were given to man by the Troll King of Ozamen 200 years after the Great Orc takeover of Behenion. They were first made with pixie wings, but when they were banned by the Reinheitsgebot, all that stopped. I kid, I kid. Wikipedia says Stout has been the term given to the strongest porter made by a brewery. The history and development of stout and porter are intertwined. Some guy says that stout was introduced by Guinness in 1759. I thought that had to be wrong, so I looked around a bit more, and there’s actually a book dedicated to the history of stout that said the first mentions of the style were in 1677.

In 1721, there was a “Stout Butt Beer.” He said butt. Heh heh. heh.

According to Beer Advocate, there are eight different styles of stout (and three styles of porter). Sebago makes their Lake Trout Stout with Oatmeal (making it an oatmeal stout) which makes it a sweeter than many traditional stouts. You still get the roasty, smoky characteristics, but the sweetness shines through in this beer.

Just The Facts

Appearance: Deep, dark brown – opaque. Beige head
Smell: Malty coffee (excuse me, espresso)
Taste: Roasty, sweet, cocoa
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied, medium carbonation
Drinkability: Easy Drinker, hides the ABV