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Brewing Porters and Stouts: Origins, History, and 60 Recipes for Brewing Them at Home Today
From the enduring global dominance of Guinness to exciting new craft porters to the resurgence of Russian imperial stouts, porters and stouts are among the most popular beer styles today among homebrewers and craft beer drinkers alike. In Brewing Porters and Stouts widely respected beer and brewing writer Terry Foster presents the history and development of these styles as well as the guidance and expertise necessary to successfully homebrew them yourself.
The book opens with the history of the styles, including the invention of porter in eighteenth-century England, how stouts were born from porters (stouts were originally bolder and stronger or stout porters), the development in the United Kingdom, and introduction to Ireland and eventually the United States, where they remained popular even as they fell out of favor in Britain and surged in popularity as the craft brewing revolution took hold. Foster then goes on to explore the many sub-styles of porters and stouts, providing commercial examples and showcasing some of the most exciting developments in craft brewing today, before breaking down the ingredients, including the various malts as well as special flavorings—such as vanilla, coffee, chocolate, and even bourbon—and finally the yeasts, hops, and waters that are well suited to brewing these styles. Finally, Foster provides a collection of sixty recipes—up to six for each sub-style—showcasing the variety and range of ingredients explored in the book and providing both extract and all-grain instructions.
Brewing Porters and Stouts belongs in the library of every craft beer drinker or homebrewer.
Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Good Books and Arcade imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of cookbooks, including books on juicing, grilling, baking, frying, home brewing and winemaking, slow cookers, and cast iron cooking. We’ve been successful with books on gluten-free cooking, vegetarian and vegan cooking, paleo, raw foods, and more. Our list includes French cooking, Swedish cooking, Austrian and German cooking, Cajun cooking, as well as books on jerky, canning and preserving, peanut butter, meatballs, oil and vinegar, bone broth, and more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
The book opens with the history of the styles, including the invention of porter in eighteenth-century England, how stouts were born from porters (stouts were originally bolder and stronger or stout porters), the development in the United Kingdom, and introduction to Ireland and eventually the United States, where they remained popular even as they fell out of favor in Britain and surged in popularity as the craft brewing revolution took hold. Foster then goes on to explore the many sub-styles of porters and stouts, providing commercial examples and showcasing some of the most exciting developments in craft brewing today, before breaking down the ingredients, including the various malts as well as special flavorings—such as vanilla, coffee, chocolate, and even bourbon—and finally the yeasts, hops, and waters that are well suited to brewing these styles. Finally, Foster provides a collection of sixty recipes—up to six for each sub-style—showcasing the variety and range of ingredients explored in the book and providing both extract and all-grain instructions.
Brewing Porters and Stouts belongs in the library of every craft beer drinker or homebrewer.
Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Good Books and Arcade imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of cookbooks, including books on juicing, grilling, baking, frying, home brewing and winemaking, slow cookers, and cast iron cooking. We’ve been successful with books on gluten-free cooking, vegetarian and vegan cooking, paleo, raw foods, and more. Our list includes French cooking, Swedish cooking, Austrian and German cooking, Cajun cooking, as well as books on jerky, canning and preserving, peanut butter, meatballs, oil and vinegar, bone broth, and more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
224 pages, Paperback
First published September 2, 2014
23 people are currently reading
48 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 2, 2020
There is a lot of information and the expected outcome of each recipe is described, which I appreciate. But good lord is it a painful read. There are entire pages that are one single paragraph listing commercially available beers and why they are or are not good representations of a certain type of beer. Painful. This is a book for people who are really, REALLY interested in this topic but I'm not sure anyone could enjoy reading it.
April 3, 2019
The information is solid but the writing is boring.
July 6, 2022
Debo aceptar que este libro fue el que me enseño a prepara Stouts y ahora ya hasta tengo un Bar.. osea!!
January 5, 2023
Decent recipes, but spends a lot of time grousing about the historical rise in lager popularity.
February 4, 2025
Solid book. I’ll definitely use it for recipe inspiration and go back to it when I have questions.
March 12, 2015
My god, the history of Porters and Stouts is incredibly dry and boring. The recipes seemed quite useful, but I strongly suspect this book is targeted more at the beer history buffs than the people who strictly speaking are interested in technique. Doesn't make it a bad book, it just wasn't what I was hoping for.
July 14, 2015
For those interested in brewing on the dark side, this is a really useful resource. There are thousands of recipes online as well as hints and tips, but this is a great place to access a lot of good ideas in one hit.
January 5, 2015
Good history on porter. Basic info on Ingredients along with recipes to illustrate. Helpful in designing my own porter recipe.
March 14, 2015
Finished a book about black beers on a black day. Good book. Missing a little detail for me.
January 18, 2016
Enjoyed the history and will follow up using the bibliography. I have yet to try the recipes, but this is not on my brew list.
July 21, 2016
Loved the pictures and the porter-specific rundown of the different malts, but I was disappointed in how dry the history sections were.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews