Beer with a stout heart

In the latest of our series on traditional beer styles, Roger Protz looks to porter and stout.

Beer is a convivial drink, yet sit a group of beer writers down to discuss the origins of porter and the fur will soon start to fly.

There are many arguments for how the beer style acquired its name, some of them fanciful, such as it being a corruption of either export or the Latin portare. Contemporary sources in London in the 18th century make it clear the name stems from the simple fact that it was popular with porters, a large army of workers – thought to number around 11,000 when the population of the city was tiny compared to today – who carried fruit, vegetables and meat from London’s many markets, unloaded ships in the docks and moved other assorted goods around the capital.

Their work was arduous. They needed refreshment and a new type of beer called ‘entire butt’ fitted the bill. Early in the 18th century there was a craze in London for a mix of beer called three threads, probably a corruption of three thirds. The beer was a blend of mild, pale and stale beer, stale meaning a wellmatured old ale. In the days before handpumps, mixing a pot of three threads meant a trip to the pub cellar to pour beer from three butts or casks.

According to a legend, disputed by some historians, a brewer named Ralph Harwood in Shoreditch in East London decided to brew a single beer around 1722 that replicated the colour and flavour of three threads. He was aided by the development of an improved type of brown malt produced in Hertfordshire and sent by river and canal boats to London.....

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By Roger Protz

Section : Beer styles

Page number : 62