Mar/101
Stout
With St.Patrick’s day festivities just around the corner, I cannot think of a more appropriate time to write a stout style guide. No other beer style is personified by a single beer, or rather a single brewery as much as stout.
Stout popularity was achieved nearly single handedly by one man, Arthur Guinness. The name Guinness, as relevant to the beer world, first emerged in 1759 when Arthur Guinness leased a defunct brewery in Dublin. Although Guinness attempted several ales in their early days, they soon decided to focus on one single type of ale most popular at the time and thus, began brewing porter. After decades of successful brewing, Guinness ales gained popularity in England and West Indies and expanded their product line to feature distinct types of porters that would be referred to as “stouts.” Even though the term “stout” was first recorded in the 1630s in reference to strong dark ales, the name was not truly popularized until the invention of Daniel Wheeler’s over malt and barley roasting process, thus allowing more precision when creating the beer’s roasted flavour.
Stouts are a close relative of porters. In fact the relationship is so close that at times it is difficult to tell where porter territory ends and stout begins. One of the more distinct differences between the two styles is that stouts, especially classic stouts commonly referred to as Irish Dry Stouts, are very dry and exhibit a distinct espresso-like bite achieved by roasting barley rather than using roasted malt. Stouts are always very dark, often pitch black with a roasted aroma of coffee beans, roasted barley and chocolate. On the other hand, classic stouts are, surprisingly enough, very light and frequently are the lightest beer you can order on tap.
Mar/101
How to Make Green Beer for St. Patty’s Day in 3 Easy Steps
Step 1:
Grab a case of your favourite light pilsner and some liquid blue food colour.
Note: You could attemt to make green beer with darker brews, but light beer results in a better green beer. Think back to your colour theory classes in high school 
Step 2:
Pick a mug of your choice for you and your buddies. Pop it in a freezer for an hour to make sure that the brew becomes nice and frosty after you pour it. If you are a bottle drinker, just make sure your brew is nice and cold. Check out the Beer Fridges and Coolers post to help you decide what fridge you’ll want for your birthday.
Step 3:
After you open your bottle of beer or pour it in your mug, squeeze a few drops of blue food colouring into the brew. Don’t worry the food colouring is vegetable based and does not affect the taste of the brew. Blue food coloring achieves a better green than green food coloring when making Irish Green beer. This happens because beer is yellow, so when you add blue food coloring you will get a greener color than if you use green food coloring.
Note: Don’t be to hasty with adding too much food colouring to your beer. You might find that the blue mixes in a lot quicker with the beer and you could end up with a very very dark green beer.
And remember!
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