Look for dark beer in most supermarkets and you’re faced with a stark choice between Guinness in a bottle and Guinness in a can – or great-granny’s favourite Mackeson if you’re lucky. It’s a shame, because the murky world of dark beers such as porter, stout and mild includes some of the most flavoursome and exciting beers you’re ever likely to come across.

For an area of the market that even some professed beer lovers find difficult, good dark beers are accessible and, in many cases, moreish. As with, say, sweet wine, the issue is how they’re made and who’s making them, rather than any fundamental flaw in the nature of the product.

Although Europe is best-known for producing pilsner-style golden lagers, a tradition of brewing bottom-fermented dark beers goes back beyond this. Most breweries still produce some excellent dark variations, but even within their local markets they’re lucky to scrape together more than a few per cent of the market between them.

.Stouts were brewed stronger so they could make the 

 journey to Russia, where they became a favourite of the tsars 

In the UK, the beer styles now recognised as porter, stout and mild have their roots in the 18th century. Porter acquired its name because its refreshing properties were appreciated by the porters of London’s famous markets, though the first beers were a blend of pale and brown ales with old ale matured in oak vats – the oak providing much of the colour.

It wasn’t until the onset of malt-kilning in the 19th century that porter became a brew in its own right, using dark and chocolate malts for colour and flavour. Heavy-hopped, it became the fashionable beer on which most of the famous British brewing dynasties were subsequently built.

Stout was originally merely a stronger version of porter, though the term took over from porter as a preferred term for dark beer after being adopted by Irish brewers as its popularity in Britain declined. The stoutest of stouts were those brewed stronger to make the journey to the Baltic States and Russia where they became a favourite of the tsars and took on the generic description of Imperial Russian stout. Milk stout, such as the aforementioned Mackeson, contains lactose for sweetness.

Among the modern revivalist brands, there’s a fluidity of style between porter and stout as the boundaries have blurred, though as a general rule porter has come to embrace more strong ale-like qualities such as fruit and richness, while stout errs towards the drier, more mineral end of the flavour spectrum.

Mild evolved from porter and stout in response to a demand for a more refreshing, less bitter brew to be drunk by workers in the industrial north and Midlands knocking off from the factories. An extra sweetness that took the edge off at the end of the working day was derived from the addition of brewing sugar. As unfashionable as the wind-up gramophone, mild is currently enjoying its own revival of sorts through the championing efforts of CAMRA and passionate microbrewers, such as Hobsons in Shropshire, whose Hobsons Mild was Champion Beer of Britain at this year’s Great British Beer Festival.

The classic food match is stout with oysters, though you’ve got to be careful not to choose a beer with too much bitterness or so much spice that it masks the delicacy of the shellfish. More flavoursome dark beers should be steered towards juicy and spicy meat dishes, smoked meats and fish, rich desserts and even cheese.

.Flinty, dry stouts 

Key tasting terms: bitter, minerally, salty, malty.

If it were a wine it would be: Not quite a bone dry Chablis, but well on the way.

What it tastes like: The combination of natural minerals in the water with the sharpness of the roasted malt and the bitterness of the hops gives classic stouts a stony edge. You can sometimes draw in the aroma of sea salt as you take the first sip – it’s a wonder no aspiring microbrewer has spotted the potential for a boutique stout produced in Whitstable.

WHY NOT TRY…

Titanic Stout

4.5% abv, 50cl bottle

Titanic Brewery

This flagship stout from Staffordshire’s Titanic microbrewery has a distinct vegetal character of
green peppers and asparagus along with a relatively high hop bitterness. Probably too flavoursome for the classic stout and seafood option but a strong alternative to pale ales and bitters as a match for a hearty meat stew or pie.

Guinness Foreign Extra Stout

7.5% abv, 33cl bottle

Diageo GB

The Nigerian-brewed version of the famous stout is a little rough around the edges but no less rewarding for that. It has a foamy head rather than nitrogenated cream, high levels of hoppy bitterness, a smoky quality and enough of the salty authenticity of the Irish stuff to make the match with oysters for flavour and authenticity.

Key tasting terms: body, fruit, spice, smoke.

If it were a wine it would be: Full-bodied Spanish or Tuscan red.

What it tastes like: The job of the heavily-roasted malts used to make dark beers is principally to provide colour, meaning stouts and porters can offer contrasting styles of flavour through the other variables such as mineral content of the source water or hop variety and quantity. As the flavours become richer, with more fruit and spice, then the food matches need to move away from seafood and into something more meaty, particularly spiced up dishes and weighty sauces.

WHY NOT TRY…

Dark Star Imperial Stout

10.5% abv, 33cl bottles

Dark Star Brewing Co

The Imperial style of stout was in danger of extinction when Courage stopped brewing its famous version. But it has enjoyed a mini-revival through the good work of a select band of regional and microbrewers. Labelled with its vintage, this beer from Sussex is a fabulously complex concoction, with a luscious malty, leathery aroma and grapefruit, bonfire and toffee flavours, with some authentic stout saltiness. This is versatile enough to provide the briney match for oysters or to match up to a rich meaty gravy. The high bitterness levels of the Target hop variety leave a lingering smokiness that could also survive smoky cheeses, a problem area for most wine.

Meantime London Porter

6.5% abv, 75cl bottles

Meantime Brewing Co

Brewer Alastair Hook has dedicated himself to rekindling the original essence of London Porter at his Greenwich microbrewery, resulting in this deep ruby beer made with copious amounts of Fuggles hops and seven different malts. It has a sweet and floral malt-hop aroma, a beguiling smoothness and flavour notes of green tea, wood smoke, spices and dried fruit. This can cope with big flavours such as beef and venison because it’s got big flavours of its own. Imbibe contributor Fiona Beckett also recommends this bitter beer as a foil for sweet fruit puddings in her new book
An Appetite for Ale (£19.99, CAMRA books).

.Sweeter old-school continental 

Suppliers

Dark star brewing co 01444 412311, www.darkstarbrewing.co.uk

Das beerman 01530 563009

Diageo GB 020 8978 6000, www.diageo.com

Meantime brewing co 020 8293 1111, www.meantimebrewing.com

Titanic brewery 01782 823447, www.titanicbrewery.co.uk