PORTER    6.4% Alc/vol

A dark ale that has been described by drinkers as having notes of chocolate, plum, ripe berryish characters, dark toffee, molasses and liquorice. We just say that its a dark and rich, with intense malt flavours.

But what is it? Is it a stout? Technically, yes, our porter is a brown stout, but most of the beers out there that call themselves stout are porters, so not to get caught up in current perceptions, we called our dark ale: porter.

Background
Before Burton-on-Trent pale ales and bitters, before there was the dark and popular ale made by Arthur Guinness (who actually started make regular coloured ales), the most popular beer in England was commonly referred to as Porter. There was regular porter, stout porter, robust porter, strong porter, robust porter ale, strong ale, stout ale and any other combination you can think of.

And before Porter there was ale. Strong ale made from the first run of the mash, which was generally consumed by those more well-off, and there was weak beer, made from the second run of the mash. Lower in alcohol, flavour and price, it was the beer of the masses.

The market porters, on low wages, but needing more calories in their diet due to the physical nature of their work, would drink the “bin ends” (or barrel left overs) of the strong ales, for a fraction of the cost. This could mean that the ale preferred by porters could have been anything - dark, medium, light, strong, weak, off or fresh - all mixed together at the end of the week from any left overs. They couldn’t afford to be fussy.

But word got around, and soon others were drinking Porters’ ales, and the landlords didn’t have enough, so they asked the brewers to make an ale which ended up being called Porter, or Stout Porter, or Robust Porter, or Robust Stout, or....

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