Porter (beer)

[5][6][7] Porter became the first beer style brewed around the world, being produced in Ireland, North America, Sweden, and Russia by the end of the 18th century.

[9] Today, the terms stout and porter are used by different breweries almost interchangeably to describe dark beers, and have more in common than in distinction.

[10] Porter was first mentioned in 1721, as a development of the brown beer already being produced across London, and delivered to publicans to age and blend to their customers' tastes;[11] the term had become common in print by the 1760s but was often not used by the brewers themselves before then.

[15] According to Martyn Cornell, "London-brewed Porter was the first beer to be widely exported, reaching Ireland by the 1730s, North America and the Baltic lands by the 1740s, Northern Europe by the 1760s, and India around the same time".

Early trials with the hydrometer in the 1770s recorded porter as having an original gravity (OG) of 1.071 and 6.6% alcohol by volume (ABV).

When a law was passed in 1816 allowing only malt and hops to be used in the production of beer (a sort of British Reinheitsgebot), they were left in a quandary.

[19] Until about 1800, all London porter was matured in large vats, often holding several hundred barrels, for six to 18 months before being racked into smaller casks to be delivered to pubs.

Less strict rules were applied in Ireland, allowing Irish brewers such as Guinness to continue to brew beers closer to pre-war strengths.

[23][24][25] Many breweries brew porters in wide varieties, including pumpkin,[26] honey, vanilla, plum,[27] and chocolate.

The letter was reprinted in various journals, including The Gentleman's Magazine and The Gazetteer, and has since been used by beer historians for the basis of information about porter.

[29][30] Obadiah Poundage was also used as a pen-name by the author of a long-running diary column in What's Brewing, the monthly newsletter of the Campaign for Real Ale.

Roger Protz has argued that the move from porter to stout was made when Arthur Guinness realised that he would pay less tax if he used unmalted and roasted barley in his beer,[32] but brewing historian Martyn Cornell has disputed the historical accuracy of this claim.

[citation needed] Today, porter remains an important style in the burgeoning Irish craft-beer scene.

A number of notable Irish craft breweries such as Trouble Brewing in Kildare produce highly regarded interpretations of the style.

[37] Porterine was developed in America as a brewer's tool, added in the wort of lighter beers, to add colour and flavour to emulate that of a porter.

[38] With the advent of the craft brewing movement, many microbreweries produce porters and stouts with traditional methods, as well as the American techniques.

[39] They are produced in Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Denmark, Sweden, and the United States.

[44] Baltic Porter Day, started in Poland in 2016 by Marcin Chmielarz, is celebrated annually on the third Saturday of January.