As an amateur of analytics and numbers, I often focus on such articles on such a large community: ratebeer.com. There you can find grades of beer of different styles, different countries and see the general top 50 for all styles.
I noticed that the trend has come to the fact that the top 50 beers with the best ratings are 64% stout.
The trend in the world (it is about the WORLD) of beer lovers is that people are starting to want to drink stouts and dark beer. However, in Russia, there is no such trend. Craft culture is slowly accustoming to good tasty dark beer, but to a greater extent, Russia drinks light lagers.
The trend is on - people are starting to show more interest in dark beer, namely the Stouts.
Background:
Initially, the stout appeared on the territory of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. In countries such as: England, Ireland and Scotland.
In principle, the UK can be considered the birthplace of the stout. The date of the first appearance dates back to 1677.
This is important to understand in order to choose and drink beer. It is Ireland, England and Scotland that the homeland and mother of all Stout brewing is.
Of course, stouts all over the world are already cooking on prescription.
What is a statute:
Stout (Stout) - a dense dark beer made from baked malt with increased density and characteristic coffee bitterness.
There are different types of stouts, but all of them are united by 4 things:
- burnt, caramel or chocolate malt - barley, which is very fried;
- high density and above-average alcohol;
- dark chocolate flavor and color;
- characteristic bitterness.
Types of stouts.
Dry stout is the very first and basic stout. His homeland is Ireland. It is there that he is cooked with soul and love. It is Ireland that lovers of dark beer and stouts in particular.
The features of this stout are the first and classic stouts.
Representatives and brands: Guinness Draught Stout, Murphy’s Stout.
Sweet Stout - Homeland England. Instead of burnt unmalted grain, the so-called "chocolate malt" is used.
Often this beer is called a “milk” or “creamy” stout. This is due to production technology when lactose (milk sugar) is added during cooking. Lactose is not broken down by yeast and remains in beer giving it milky and creamy notes.
Representatives and Brands: Marston’s Oyster Stout, St. Peter’s Cream Stout, Mackeson’s XXX Stout, Farsons Lacto Milk Stout.
Oat stout is the English seasonal version of the sweet stout, usually less sweet. It is based on oatmeal for the fullness and complexity of taste and gives such shades as nutty, grain, earthy shades.
Representative representatives and brands: Young’s Oatmeal Stout, Oatmeal Stout (from the craft Russian brewery Jaws).
Foreign Stout - A stout that is not made on the British Isles. Because Britain is considered the birthplace of the stout - everything that is produced outside it is foreign (foreign stout). Often it is also called the Tropical Stout. This has nothing to do with tropical fruits. This is just a name in honor of the market, namely: tropical countries. For some reason, they drink this beer there and outside of Britain they produce stouts specifically for these markets.
Representative representatives and brands: Guinness Extra Stout (bottle product from the USA), Lion Stout (Sri Lanka), ABC Stout, Dragon Stout, Jamaica Stout, Guinness Foreign Extra Stout (bottle, not sold in the USA), Birzieciu Stout (Lithuania).
This also includes all Russian craft produced in Russia.
Chocolate stout - the name was given in honor of "chocolate malt", which was fried to the color "chocolate". It gave a characteristic chocolate flavor to this beer. Personally, I think, with a stretch, you can distinguish this species as a separate one, because any stout is a chocolate taste to one degree or another.
Another thing is that some brands add real chocolate to their brewing (just a little bit). What makes this beer truly chocolate. This beer can be called chocolate - because there is chocolate!
Representative representatives and brands: Young’s Double Chocolate Stout (with the addition of real chocolate), Rogue Ales' Chocolate Stout (with the addition of real chocolate).
The Russian imperial stout - no, this is not a Russian type of beer. This beer was originally brewed in Britain since 1760. It got the name (according to legend) due to the fact that Catherine 2 loved him very much and this beer was delivered in liters for a long time to the imperial court from 1780 to 1914.
Properties of this beer:
strong: 8-12%;
very dense: 18-27% (for comparison, the most popular density is 9-14%);
very viscous, dense, the aroma of dark fruits is felt, with fried, burned, almost resinous sensations.
It is from the imperial stout that the top 50 on ratebeer.ru website consists of 64%. I was surprised by this and therefore decided to write this article.