Porter

Back in June Andy and I made a porter which we planned to bottle and mature for the winter. We tasted a bottle yesterday to see how it is coming along.

Porter is an interesting beer style, most notable because it was the first beer style to be “designed” (rather than just sort of come about over time). Let me take you back to London in 1722. Back then it was very common for the beer drinking working masses to mix fresh and stale beer – I’m not sure whether this was because it was cheaper or because they preferred the taste. Perhaps the stale beer added a pleasing tart edge to the brew (but you wouldn’t choose to drink it neat).

Anyway, enter George Harwood of Shoreditch Brewery. He came up with the idea of engineering a beer for the London workers that tasted like the mixed beer but saved the publican the time by allowing him to only dispense from one cask. Porter was born, reputedly named after the London porters that drank it. It was a massive hit and very soon was being brewed on an industrial scale.

My favourite tale from the story of porter is of the 1814 disaster at Meux. Porter used to be aged in huge vats, some of the largest of which contained approaching a million gallons (yes, really). On 16th October 1814 a 22 foot high vat of porter ruptured. The jet of beer ruptured a further vat and beer flooded the surrounding five block neighbourhood. At least eight people were killed (including women and children) and dozens were injured – crushed by the crowds attempting the consume the fine beer before it soaked into the streets.

Anyway, enough of the history lesson. What’s modern porter like? Well there are actually various different styles of porter: brown porter, robust porter, Baltic porter. We decided to make a London Porter, which I think is in essence a brown porter.

What should it be like? Well obviously colour-wise it is deep deep brown or black, and you’d expect a cream coloured head. It will be fairly strong – 5% – 6% ABV. Taste-wise, you’d expect rich dark malty flavours, giving slightly roasty flavours as well as coffee and chocolate. This is not a session beer, it’s a complex, rich, bold brew with a long lasting aftertaste.

And what was our porter like? Well there’s a bit of a story there, and you’ll just have to wait until the next post, because this one is already long enough! :-)