SUDS: Stouts can be thick and creamy, easy-drinking

"Stout" is not one style of beer, but is available in many unique variations.

Stouts may be made of different grains, including oats. They can be sweet or dry, thick and creamy, or light and wet on the tongue. Some are easy-drinking, such as Murphy's Irish Stout, with only 4 percent alcohol; others can be downright hot to the throat, such as Bell's Expedition Stout, at 10.5 percent alcohol.

Ray Daniels, in Designing Great Beer, describes stout as " ... a sort of barroom black hole so intense that it might absorb everything around it." They weren't always so black, however.

According to Daniels, stouts are dark ales, closely related to the older English style of Porter. When they were first mentioned by name in the 18th century, "stout" simply meant a porter with a higher level of alcohol.

While porters were brown beers, stouts tended to be darker yet, because a higher concentration of barley to water was necessary to produce the extra alcohol. Still later, "black malt," or barley malt carbonized at almost 400 degrees, came into use and both styles took on the nearly black color and burnt flavor we associate with them today. Since people at that time associated a darker color with higher alcohol content, this was a great selling point. Although some black malt is usually used in stout, the larger proportion of malt is a mixture of paler varieties with differing degrees of toast.

It was around 1820 when Guinness brewery in Dublin first labeled one of its extra strong porters "Extra Stout."

Stouts usually carry a high level of bitterness, although it can be tamed greatly by sugars and roasted malt flavors inherent in the beer. To keep it exciting, they may be flavored with anything from licorice to coffee beans to chocolate or even oysters. Some of the more modern craft stouts brewed with the addition of anything from coffee beans to chocolates beans or cocoa are very much in vogue.

"Stouts are really popular right now," said Todd Walker of the Liquor Locker on Weinbach Avenue. "We sell a lot of them in the 22-ounce bomber bottles. I think the coffee stouts that are really brewed with coffee are the most popular right now, like the Founder's Breakfast Stout. I'm a coffee drinker and that is an amazing beer. The coffee in the brew is trendy."

We sampled three locally available stouts: Bell's Kalamazoo Stout, Left Hand Milk Stout and Founder's Breakfast Stout.

Bell's Kalamazoo Stout with Brewer's Licorice, Kalamazoo, Mich.

Licorice root is added to some stouts and porters not only for a hint of flavor, but also as a dark colorant and to build and retain a long-lasting head. Some brewer's licorices contain gelatin to help with this, but Bell's uses a variety that does not, so the beer is suitable for vegetarians. Licorice contains glycyrrhizin, a soap-like compound that is sweeter than sugar.

Appearance: Nearly opaque, dark brown to black.

Head: Creamy and tight, tan, long lasting.

Aroma: Roasty/herbal.

Flavor/Mouth feel: Bitter/acidic, some hops, burnt popcorn, wet on the tongue, not sweet, grainy.

Aftertaste: Lightly sweet, long.

Although neither tasted sweet nor licorice flavored to me, the lingering sweetish aftertaste does remind me of herbal tea containing licorice root. Aftertaste also a bit acidic.

Alcohol by volume: 6 percent

Left Hand Milk Stout, Longmont, Colo.

In a milk stout, lactose or milk sugar is added to the beer as a sweetener. As Lactose cannot be digested by brewer's yeast, it remains in the beer to lend a sweetness and heavy body. According to the Beer Judge Certification Program guidelines, milk stouts are sweeter in the United States than in England, where they were invented. In older times, milk stouts were thought to be very nutritious and given to nursing mothers. In England and sometimes in the United States, milk stouts are referred to as cream stouts.

Appearance: Dark, nearly opaque, black with the barest hint of mahogany light at the edge of the glass.

Head: Lighter tan, open bubbles.

Aroma: Roasty, sweet, chocolaty.

Flavor/Mouth feel: Very sweet, very heavy and creamy, tongue-coating mouth feel, sweetness/acid on the tongue, fruitiness, very little bitterness for a stout.

Aftertaste: Sweet, clingy.

Alcohol by volume: 6 percent

Founder's Breakfast Stout, Grand Rapids, Mich.

This interesting brew uses chocolate, Sumatra and kona coffee in the brewing process, along with flaked oats. It's only available from the brewer in the winter, although liquor store stocks may last longer.

Appearance: Totally opaque, black.

Head: Rich brown head, creamier than Left hand, more open than Bell's.

Aroma: Very strong dark-roasted coffee beans, vegetal, chocolate.

Flavor/Mouth feel: Overwhelming coffee flavor, bittersweet, distinctly acidic in the way of an acidic black coffee, creamy mouth feel.

Aftertaste: Acid, bitter, very slightly sweet.

Alcohol by volume: 8.3 percent

Aimee Blume is a food writer who has worked as a chef in Oregon, Wyoming and New Orleans. She is also a culinary instructor and food researcher.