On June 25th, we explored stouts and vegan brewing!
We started by discussing the difference between stouts and porters (as stouts evolved from porters), explored different types of stouts, then focused in on milk stouts and milk-stouts-taken-to-the-extreme… aka pastry stouts.
From here, Natasha Wolf took over to lead the conversation about vegan brewing. How do you make a vegan milk stout? And what other adaptations are needed in vegan brewing?
If you’d like to listen back, you’ll find the recommended reading and a recording of the session below.
Session recording:
Recommended reading:
What is the difference between a porter and a stout?
I’ve included a short excerpt from my book to give us a bit of background:
So, how many different types of stout are there?
While not all of the below sub-styles are recognised by the Beer Judge Certification Program, I thought this was a pretty good rundown from Imbibe Magazine of the different stouts you may see ‘out in the wild’:
https://imbibemagazine.com/decoding-stout-beer-styles/
In Focus: Sweet Stout (aka Milk Stout)
We’re going to focus in on one style in particular, the milk or sweet stout. Here’s what to expect from the style, according to the Beer Judge Certification Program’s Style Guidelines:
https://dev.bjcp.org/style/2015/16/16A/sweet-stout/
Extreme Milk Stouts… aka Pastry Stouts
Beyond the inclusion of lactose, or milk sugar, pastry stouts have all kinds of crazy flavourings added in to make them taste like your favourite desserts. This is a relatively modern – and not formally defined – sub-style, but it’s a very popular one. Here’s an article from The Takeout that explains what to expect and how they got started:
https://thetakeout.com/what-are-pastry-stouts-beer-1830292916
Vegan brewing:
So, how do you make a milk stout – or its more extreme cousin, the pastry stout – without the milk sugar? And what other adaptations are needed to make beers vegan?
From Tasha:
“They’re short & light reading as I appreciate not everyone in the group is veggie/vegan. I think it’s worthwhile to appreciate especially since Veganuary has grown strongly as a movement, there are increasingly more really fantastic beers which everyone can drink! I’m a massive advocate that beer should bring people together and so making beer everyone can drink is integral to that.“
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/is-alcohol-vegan
https://thirstybastards.com/vegan-beer/
https://homebrew.stackexchange.com/questions/6020/vegan-option-for-lactose
Natalya Watson, Beer Sommelier 