# distilled stout? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 26, 2006, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilled-stout/362183 "2006-06-26T10:47:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![yelimS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/54ee81/32.png) [@yelimS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yelimS)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2006, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilled-stout/362183/1 "2006-06-26T10:47:22Z")
So they say whiskey is basically distilled beer. What about distilled stout? It’s got to kick ass! ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2006, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilled-stout/362183/2 "2006-06-26T10:58:41Z")
Stout **is** beer, just FYI; it’s a style of ale, which along with lagers make up the two big types of beers. They say that whiskey is beer because it’s made out of barley\* that’s been malted, and both are fermented. The difference is after fermentation - here, beer would typically be bottled or put into another fermenter to continue the process, while whiskey is distilled down to a colorless liquid that’s mostly ethanol. That liquid is then put into casks and aged for a while, and may be blended with others afterwards. Also, whiskey doesn’t contain hops, which are used in the vast majority of beers for bittering, aroma, and flavor. So I suspect if you used the grain formula for a stout in your whiskey - you might not be able to tell that much of a difference once all the distillation had happened. - OK, most beers and many/most whiskeys have this as their sole grain ingredient, while others may add corn or other fermentables. ---
**Author:** ![yelimS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/54ee81/32.png) [@yelimS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yelimS)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2006, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilled-stout/362183/3 "2006-06-26T12:45:53Z")
> [@Ferret Herder](#): > > Stout **is** beer, just FYI; it’s a style of ale, which along with lagers make up the two big types of beers. Waited for that one, really. Should have been “whiskey is distilled lager”. (As long as that was my assumption) But I’m dissapointed! There should be an eighty proof equivialent of stout. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2006, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilled-stout/362183/4 "2006-06-26T15:53:54Z")
> [@yelimS](#): > > Waited for that one, really. Should have been “whiskey is distilled lager”. (As long as that was my assumption) > But I’m dissapointed! There should be an eighty proof equivialent of stout. Stouts are lagers, aren’t they? I thought that porters were the dark ales. For as long as we’ve been distilling liquor, it’s probably safe to assume that anything you have in mind has been tried. If it’s not available, there’s probably a reason. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2006, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilled-stout/362183/5 "2006-06-26T16:30:55Z")
Yeesh. Whiskey is \*\*not \*\* “distilled lager,” fer cryin’ out loud! Stout is an ale! Listen to **Ferret Herder**. By the time you distilled stout, which by the way is usually _lower_ in alcohol than your regular pilsner, you would lose anything that tasted like a stout. Not to mention adding in all sorts of nasty flavors from the distilled hops. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2006, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilled-stout/362183/6 "2006-06-26T17:24:59Z")
Distilled Lager - what a nasty idea. NO, stouts are not lagers - stout is dark stuff, Guinnes being a well-known example. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2006, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilled-stout/362183/7 "2006-06-26T18:00:46Z")
There’s no direct correlation between the alcohol concentrate of the mash and the alcohol content of the distillate. It rather depends on how you distill it. Vodka can be made from the same barley that is made into whiskey. Everclear is made the same way. You can end up with any alcohol content you wish, as long as you’re carefull enough about the process. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilled-stout/362183/8 "2006-06-27T00:49:00Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Yeesh. Whiskey is \*\*not \*\* “distilled lager,” fer cryin’ out loud! Stout is an ale! > > Listen to **Ferret Herder**. By the time you distilled stout, which by the way is usually _lower_ in alcohol than your regular pilsner, you would lose anything that tasted like a stout. Not to mention adding in all sorts of nasty flavors from the distilled hops. I believe stout as a style is historically derived from porter. They are both ales, which can be any color from very light to pitch black. I seem to remember reading once in a homebrew magazine that if you tried to distill whiskey from homebrewed beer you wouldn’t get very good results. While the beer making process is fundamentally the same as the the beginning of the whiskey making process (in that you are fermenting a liquid derived from barley mash) there are enough differences in the details that you can’t just swap one for the other. Different types of barley, differences in the malt, etc, etc. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilled-stout/362183/9 "2006-06-27T05:43:44Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > Stouts are lagers, aren’t they? I thought that porters were the dark ales. Stouts and porters are both ales. The main difference between a stout and porter is that a stout uses roasted unmalted barley for its color & flavor, while a porter uses roasted malted barley. The dark lagers include bocks, schwarzbiers, and dunkels. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilled-stout/362183/10 "2006-06-27T05:44:57Z")
> [@Celyn](#): > > NO, stouts are not lagers - stout is dark stuff, Guinnes being a well-known example. Lagers can certainly be dark, as per my examples in the last post. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilled-stout/362183/11 "2006-06-27T11:36:25Z")
Yes, it’s worth noting that the color of beer is solely the result of the color of the ingredients, most typically the darkness of roast of the barley used. It has nothing to do with whether it’s an ale or a lager. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilled-stout/362183/12 "2006-06-27T11:48:19Z")
Oops, yes you are right. ☹