Porter is a type of ale that has a malting aroma and Hop bitterness. It is generally strong and dark and brewed with soft rather than hard water.
In the 18th century, London a beverage was made consisting of a third of a pint of ale, beer, and twopenny (the strongest beer, costing twopence a quart). Harwood, a brewer, brewed a beer called Entire which blended all three in about 1720.
It started to be called Porter because it was especially popular among the porters of 18th century London. Extra-strong porter was called Stout-Porter and eventually became stout.
No other type of beer arouses so many questions as to its origin. What the hell is it? Is it British or Irish? How does it vary from the Stout style? What does the name mean?
Porter is said to have been popular with transportation workers of Central London, hence the name. Most traditional British brewing documentation from the 1700s state that Porter was a blend of three different styles: an old ale (stale or soured), a new ale (brown or pale ale), and a weak one (mild ale), with various combinations of blending and staleness. The end result was also commonly known as “Entire Butt” or “Three Threads” and had a pleasing taste of neither new nor old. It was the first truly engineered beer, catering to the public taste, playing a critical role in quenching the thirst of the UK’s Industrial Revolution and lending an arm in building the mega-breweries of today.
Porters of the late 1700s were quite strong compared to today’s standards, easily surpassing 7% alcohol by volume. Some brewers made a stronger, more robust version, to be shipped across the North Sea, dubbed a Baltic Porter. In general, the style’s dark brown color covered up cloudiness, and the smoky/roasted brown malts and bitter tastes masked brewing imperfections. The addition of stale ale also lent a pleasant acidic flavor to the style, which made it quite popular. These issues were quite important given that most breweries were getting away from pub brewing and opening up breweries that could ship beer across the world.
Due to the necessity to age the Porter for several months, sometimes over a year, the brewers needed to invest in huge storage casks chiefly made out of wood. Porter brewers prided themselves on having the biggest maturation vats and were always trying to build bigger ones. Half-million-gallon vats were not infrequent. One of these vats, owned by Richard Meux’s brewery, erupted back in 1814 releasing 320,000 gallons of Porter which demolished part of the brewery, a line of small homes, and killed eight people in the wave of beer.
In the 1770s, well before the birth of his world-renowned Guinness Stout, Sir Arthur Guinness’ focus was on the mass production of Porter. There were two strengths of Porter at that time, either marked with a single or a double “X.” Soon to follow was a more robust third version, for export to the Caribbean. In 1820, the XX was renamed Guinness Extra Stout Porter, and soon after, the XXX gained the soubriquet Foreign Extra Stout (Guinness dropped the X Porter in 1974). During this period in the 19th century, “stout” referred to a strong or robust ale, but with the advent of coffee roasters, many maltsters found that they could blacken grain, imparting a black color and mild-roasted flavor to the beer. The use of these highly roasted malts eventually spawned Stout as a style unto its own. Yes, Porter is the father of Stout, and without it there’d be no creamy Guinness, Murphy’s or Beamish as we know them today.
Even with the mass production of Porter, some breweries could not keep up with the demand for the unique blending of old and new ales, since a portion of the blend could only be derived from patience and maturation. Many learned to keep a stash of aged ale on hand, however as malt prices and taxation on alcohol increased, corners were cut. It’s been documented that breweries used molasses and burnt sugar to artificially color their ale. Others even introduced deadly narcotics to produce intoxicating effects, such as exotic poison berries, opium, Indian hemp, strychnine, tobacco, darnel seed, logwood, and salts of zinc, lead, and alum. Many fell ill and even died as a result. This begat new brewing laws against adding poisons to beer and penalized any brewer or druggist associated in doing so.
With consumers lusting for clearer beer, the strength of Porter’s rule over the brewing industry diminished. The popularity of the Pale Ale style in the mid-1800s, and Lagers in the 1900s, forced Porter to become more or less nonexistent.
Porter saw a comeback during the homebrewing and micro-brewery revolution of the late 1970s and early 80s, in the US. Modern-day Porters are typically brewed using a pale malt base with the addition of black malt, crystal, chocolate or smoked brown malt. The addition of roasted malt is uncommon but used occasionally. Some brewers will also age their beers after inoculation with live bacteria to create an authentic taste. Hop bitterness is moderate on the whole and color ranges from brown to black. Overall they remain very complex and interesting beers.
The recent fall of Sam Adams Honey Porter (sigh), and other breweries around the country dropping their Porter or darker style of brews, shows that Porter remains a well-respected yet very misunderstood beer. Everyone should at least try one in their lifetime in owed to a style that helped to build so much.