head to head | DARK VS LIGHT
REPRO OP SUBS
According to the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA), stout and porter have replaced golden bitter as the most commonly produced beer styles. Would you choose a stout over a golden bitter, and why?
ART
I’d always choose a dark beer (I’d include dark milds with stout and porter) over a golden bitter. I prefer their generally more subtle hop flavours and rich maltiness. Alexander Wright
PRODUCTION CLIENT
I love the flavour of stouts and porters and would choose them every time. Having said that, I probably drink more lighter beers. Two reasons: good stouts and porters tend to be high ABV, so I have to avoid them if driving, plus there is a limit to how much dark, heavy beer most people can drink in one session. Personally, I never have more than three and often less. Jim Reddihough Yes, most certainly, but that may be a function of being on the Isle of Man where dark beers remain rare, so a change is good when I find one. I do travel the country very widely and anecdotally have noticed an increase in stout and porter availability recently, particularly but not exclusively in the north of England. When I say an increase, I do mean despite the usual winter increase of these beers that we always see.
David Halliwell I have never drunk golden beers – dark beers are my preference. Stephen Dann
It seems to be that the answer to the initial question is clearly “no”.
John Clarke On stouts and porters, it’s not a beer style I seek out, but will drink Hooky Double Stout [4.8 per cent ABV] if available and if the mood takes me. Richard Palmer
I don’t see them as interchangeable. I’ll choose a hoppy pale or a golden with ambers and bitters as a fallback and would never opt for heavy, dark beers as sessionable, no matter how great they taste. I enjoy the occasional whisky, but I wouldn’t want four pints of it. I can’t imagine that gold drinkers are defecting en masse to stout and porter. They’re different populations. Do you want an ale like a square meal, or an ale like a refreshing drink? Richard Gray One of the wonders of real ale (or craft beer more widely) is that there are so many styles, so I’m not sure that I would consciously make such a choice. Trying something different would usually be where I would start in a pub with a good reputation for beer quality (except in a Bathams house, obviously…). However, opting for a big-brand beer likely to have the quickest turnover would usually be my default in a pub where quality is unknown or unreliable.
Richard Adam I particularly like stouts and porters, so I drink them often. But I also like traditional bitters. I think it’s true that bitters (golden ales) are unfashionable at the moment – partly because of the ubiquitous popularity of heavily hopped US-style pale ales. James Williams
All comments are taken from a discussion on CAMRA’s online forum at discourse.camra.org.uk 46 BEER SUMMER 2022
BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN
SHUTTERSTOCK
VERSION
Stout and porter or a golden bitter?
