The Porter

The Porter

Do you mean Stout?

The day old question whenever you say the word Porter, it’s met with this question almost every time “Do you mean stout?”. Then an argument ensues because they don’t believe you and it’s like the 2000’s all over again. Just to enlighten anyone who’s curious about it, Porter as a style came before Stout just as Ska came before Reggae, Porter is like The Sugarhill Gang and Stout is like Public Enemy. 

Historically the difference is Porter originated in the 1700’s as a hoppy, brown malted ale and when Stouts came about towards the end of the 1700’s they were called Stout Porters as the heavier and stronger brother of the two. Once upon a time before IPAs were a thing, there were even Stout (strong) Pales, but thats a story for another day.

To avoid confusion in the pubs back in the day, if they had both a Porter and a Stout Porter, limiting to either Porters or Stouts was enough of a descriptor to order one or the other. As the most exported beer from London Porters went far and wide, the higher strength of the Stout Porters lent them to travelling further. And in the same way that with familiarity you might call me Caspar, rather than Caspar Walsh, Stouts rather than Stout Porters became the colloquial term for dark beers across the globe.

As things evolved, recipes changed and places outside of London began to brew their own stouts, dropping the abv. In Ireland they developed the dry-stout, a brew that uses unmalted barley as well as malted barley. These days it’s turned into real a mix of styles and ABVs but Anspach & Hobday, as well as craft beer as whole, has made efforts to reinvigorate the recipes for Porters for which London was once famed.

Although in the great words of Pete Brown in his book ‘The Story of Craft Beer’ - “anyone who claims they know the difference between Porter and Stout is lying, it changes depending on where you go, what the history of the styles was there, and who you ask.”

Why Did Anspach & Hobday Choose Porter?

Porter has such a rich heritage in London, it was a no-brainer for Paul Anspach and Jack Hobday. The Porter is Anspach & Hobday’s flagship beer, the hero of the core range if you will. Paul and Jack entered into a competition of commercial brewers when they had just started out homebrewing, facing the likes of Young’s, Fuller’s, Five Points and many more big dogs in the industry and came 2nd out of everyone. This also helped secure funds for starting the brewery, a great story of fake it till you make it. 

Porter as a style needed a bit of CPR and Jack and Paul came at it with a car battery, keeping true to heritage but with modern techniques they created a beautiful Porter with strong aroma of sweet, malty coffee and tasting notes of coffee, chocolate and treacle. This award winning Porter is definitely for finishing off dinner or last beer at the pub but be warned it is dangerously sessionable, weighing in at 6.7% it sounds stronger than it tastes, which I would put to the hardness of London water making it incredibly silky smooth.

In addition to giving us the confidence to brew dark beers it also inspired us to develop dark beers such as; The Stout Porter, The Baltic Porter, The Crowdfunder Stout, The Sea Salt & Chili Stout, The Imperial Coffee & Cocoa Stout and lets not forget the best thing since sliced bread, London Black. London Black, a nitro-porter, is most notably directly influenced by the flavours of The Porter but at a more sessionable strength, but let’s save that for another day. It’s still a perfect season to pop down to the pub, taproom or webshop to bag yourself The Porter to keep you warm and happy throughout these brisk days.