3/14/2015 - History of Porter and Stout

Porter and Stout are some of the most recognizable beer styles in the world. This is in due in no small part to the role the Guinness brewery has played in the global beer market since its inception in 1759. However, while the names "Porter" and "Stout" have both changed meaning over time, originally referring to the alcohol strength of a beer and shifting to flavor profile, the styles and methods of brewing have remained relatively constant since their initial development.

Foster: Brewing Porters and Stouts

- "First recognizable style of beer"
- created by London commercial brewers
- despite long decline in London, continued to be brewed in several fashions in Ireland, USA, and Baltic area
- Originally made from a specific type of malt
- Anecdotal evidence for first porter recipe (1722) made as a mixture of different strength beers at the Old Blue Last pub in Shoreditch, East London by Ralph Harwood.
----Ale, beer, twopenny
---- dubbed "Entire"
---evidence disputed.
- Swiss visitor to London in 1726 spoke of porter as drunk mostly by the working class. Transportation of goods throughout the city executed by "porters," hence the name.
- Early to mid-eighteenth century brewers likely used a mixture of brown (darker color, less enzymes and fermentable sugars) and pale malts to create worts of optimum fermentability by yeast.
---Documented evidence of this as normal practice after 1780.
- 1759 Arthur Guiness begins brewing at St. James's gate, Dublin, Ireland
--begins with only brewing ales
-London-produced porter still dominates Irish market in 1770s.
-- Beamish & Crawford found Cork porter Brewery in Cork, Ireland in 1792, overtaking production of Guinness until 1833.
- Guinness begins brewing several variations of porter in 1799
-- Town Porter, Country Porter, Superior (later "Extra Stout") and West India Porter (Foreign Extra Stout) sold in the British West Indies
--Lesser porters (Small abv) known as "single stout" and Superior known as "double stout"
- invention of drum roaster in 1817 to produce black malt, eliminating the need for brown malt and porter colorings and setting the stage for stout style to be widely produced.
--Guinness uses black malt later that year
- By 1880, 53 percent of Guinness's production is exported to England and Scotland
--Bulk of that is Extra Superior Porter (What we would now call Double or "Extra Stout")
-Use of the term stout to denote a style of beer rather than its strength common by 1850
- By 1860, Guinness' annual production amounted to 140,000 Irish barrells (almost 175,000 USB)
- 1864, Guinness brews 53% of the total Dublin output of beer and accounts for 45.5% of Irish trade with England
- By 1914, Guinness Foreign Extra Stout (FES) is viewed as a tonic or nourishing health drink in the U.S. and accounts for 70 percent of total American beer imports.
- Outbreak of World War I in Europe causes restrictions on both raw materials and brewing supplies in the US and UK.
---No restrictions in Ireland
- By 1936, Guinness owns breweries in both NYC and Park Royal North London
- Tastes in beer consumption in England shift to lighter beers and porter brewing essentially dies in England by WWII.
- Stout continues to be produced in Ireland (Guinness, Murphy's, and Beamish) and by niche brewers in London.
- Revival of Porter and Stout styles in 2000s by micro brewers in the UK and North America.