Admirers of single malt Scotches from the island of Islay might take note of smoked beers for their summer drinking. This idiosyncratic beer combines the ale and lager brewing processes, in that, it is a bottom fermenting beer fermented at temperatures that are normally utilized for top fermenting varieties. A broad subcategory of the meatiest, most complex, and darkest of top-fermented ales that includes Oatmeal, Cream, Dry, Sweet, and Imperial. More potent than Porter, Stouts are like a meal in themselves and in the past have been viewed as such. Stout is a beer category that one works up to rather than employs as a launching point.
Stouts range in taste from dry, velvety, and roasted to sweet, thick, creamy, and chocolatey.
Strong Ale, a.k.a. Usually quite bitter to the taste and low in hops influence. The majority of brewers believe that the malt made from barley grain makes the best beer. Others tout wheat beers as the best. Normally light to medium in body, these golden, extremely fizzy, lower in alcohol beers are made mostly from wheat malt with some measure of barley malt thrown in for balance.