Craft beer continues to evolve and currently there is a strong movement to making beer sweet. And I’m not referring to malt sweetness that has been found in beers for centuries but rather the kind of sweetness you’d expect in candy or dessert. From sweet tart flavored sour beers to tropical fruit IPAs, there really isn’t a style that is safe from this trend. And the pastry stout is taking the sweetness to a whole new level.
Haven’t tried a pastry stout yet? These beers are quite polarizing so keep reading to see if they are for you.
What Is A Pastry Stout?
Stout is a style that craft beer fans often elevate above other styles. The deep flavors are full of roast, coffee, and can often have a touch of sweetness when there is high alcohol levels. There is a strong love for this style.
The robust base of this beer makes it a great candidate for adding in new flavors. Breweries have been adding items like vanilla and coffee to stouts for years. These additions were meant to accentuate the characteristics already found in this style. Eventually, the flavors being added became bigger, more aggressive, and extreme. From fruit flavors to peppers, there hasn’t been a flavor that is off limits when it comes to stouts.
This continual trend to bigger flavors is where the pastry stout comes into the beer world with sweetness on a much higher level. These beers have a few common characteristics. They are high ABV and are loaded with sugary additions.
Typical Characteristics Of A Pastry Stout:
- 10% ABV or Higher
- Candy or Dessert Flavors
- Extreme Sweetness
- Little To No Bitterness
These additions can be everything from maple syrup to candy to cakes to donuts. These beers have actual candy and dessert items added to the beer as well as syrups or powdered flavors. Adding these elements after fermentation allows the the flavors to not be altered by the brewing process. A pastry stout will take on the literal flavor of the items that have been added to it.
Common Flavors Found In A Pastry Stout
- Candy
- Peanut butter cups, chocolate, candy bars
- Dessert
- Cake, Oreo, cookies, brownies
- Breakfast
- French toast, waffles, maple syrup, coffee, donuts
And as you may have guessed, many of these flavors are mixed and matched to come up with new versions of the same beer. Vanilla and lactose are both common additions to this style as they add even more sweetness as well as body.
Why Are Pastry Stouts Popular?
Craft beer fans love chasing trends especially when it comes to extreme styles. To keep people coming back for more, the intensity of the beers keep getting pushed. Stronger, more flavorful beers are what die-hard beer fans are looking to try.
So as breweries started making sweet stouts, beer fans couldn’t get enough so brewers responded and kept ratcheting up the sugary flavors.
And this isn’t just with stouts. As mentioned earlier, there’s a strong shift towards all styles being sweet. IPAs have entered into a new world thanks to the New England IPA. Now even standard IPAs have a more fruit forward profile while others are closer to fruit juice than an IPA.
Berliner weisse and gose sour beers are also in on this trend with fruit flavors. In most cases, actual fruit is being added to these beers which makes these beers taste more natural than the pastry stouts but still have that sugary profile.
Beer fans are buying up sweet beers so breweries are making more and more of them. While there will always be demand for traditional beer flavors, there doesn’t seems to be any sign this trend is going away.
Learn More: Do Milk Stouts Have Milk In Them?
Are Sweet Beers Good For Craft Beer?
It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that craft beer fans are in love with pastry stouts. This industry is built on bigger and stronger flavors in beer. From the early days of adding fruit to a wheat beer to the pastry stout, time has proven that we never settle for the status quo.
Craft beer enthusiasts are always on the hunt for the next flashy beer to catch their eye. This desire keeps brewers on their toes and re-inventing beer. So we can only expect that flavors will continue to get bigger and bigger as well as more extreme.
And we can’t deny that sweet beers are a great way to introduce “non-beer” people into our world. Offering someone a peanut butter cup flavor beer could be just what it takes help them realize that beer can be so much more than the standard light lager.
Bottom Line: If you like sweet foods then you’ll probably love a pastry stout. These rich beers may be too much for some but their popularity is undeniable.
Have you tried a pastry stout? If not, at least you know what to expect. This style is a must try for anyone with a sweet tooth so get out to your local breweries and seek out this style.
