
Freezing temperatures and snow showers have swept through our little Hartland community-- and this time of year, what could be better than cozying up with a rich, smoky porter? This refreshing beer style is a staple of the modern beer industry in the US, and features wonderful roasted flavors that pair perfectly with a cold winter day. To celebrate this magical time of year, Michelle shared some fantastic porters with us, along with some great stories and background information about this beer style.
Porters have a unique taste and aroma that invoke feelings of warmth and coziness during the colder months. This beer style is brewed with deeply roasted, smoked, or chocolate malts, resulting in a dark color and flavors of roasted malt, dark chocolate, coffee, and smoke. Adjuncts like chocolate, berries, stone fruit, coffee, vanilla, deserts, and even bourbon aging can also be added to enhance the deep flavors of this popular beer style. Varieties include American porters, English porters, smoked porters, and Baltic porters (which are lagers). Each variety puts its own unique twist on this reliably cozy beer style.
We decided to learn about American-style porters with hands-on experience, sampling the wonderful Proud Lake Porter from Drafting Table Brewing Company in Wixom. This porter comes in at 6% alcohol by volume (ABV), and is a smooth beer featuring roasted, oak, earthy, and chocolate flavors.
So what is the origin story behind roasty, toasty porters? In eighteenth century London, local public houses made a blend of mild beer (a hopped style), common ale, and a strong beer (an aged style). This beer blend was known as the Three Threads, and was adored by local porter workers who stopped in for a drink after their shifts. As a response to this interest in the Three Threads style, porter beer was brewed to mimic the style, and it quickly became a common drink of the London working class. The early porter style was flavorful, moderate in ABV, and full of nutrients.
Next, we tried Taddy Porter from Samuel Smith's Brewery in Yorkshire, England. At 5.0% ABV, this beer features an intense dry, almost tangy character.
An offshoot porter style also developed in eighteenth-century London, called a "stout porter". This beer style was darker, sweeter, and stronger than the original porter style, coming in at 7.0-8.0% ABV. At the same time, porters grew in popularity in Ireland, and Guinness Brewery made a stronger "stouter" porter beer with Irish-grown ingredients like pale malt, black malt, and flaked barley. Later on in London, during the nineteenth century, sweet stouts were brewed, featuring milk, cream, and/or lactose added to the beer. This style was often advertised as creamier and more nutritious than the original stout style.
Our next beer sample was Edmund Fitzgerald from Great Lakes Brewing Company in Cleveland, OH. This beer is 6.0% ABV, and has wonderful flavors of roasted barley and bittersweet chocolate and coffee.
As porters and stouts gained popularity in Europe, they were also commonly brewed in eighteenth-century New England, mirroring the London fashion. By the twentieth century, Fritz Maytag (who founded Anchor Brewing in 1972) was fascinated by traditional European brewing styles. He pursued this style in the 1980s, and at the same time many homebrewers enjoyed brewing English styles, like porters, as well. In the twenty-first century, porters became the blank canvas with which brewers could test out different adjuncts. Smoked porters became popular as a way to accentuate the smoky flavors of this dark beer style, and coffee, chocolate, stone fruit, nuts, berries, dessert foods, candy, and peanut butter have all been added to porters as a way to try out new flavors and aromas. Porter beers have changed over time as brewers continue to experiment with the style, and beer lovers everywhere still love the comforting, warming flavors and aromas of porters.
We sampled Hazelnut Birch Bark from Kickstand Brewing Company in Commerce, which is a fun porter with a hint of hazelnut sweetness.
Porters are one of the greatest beers for the winter season, complimenting cozy days by the fireplace or a walk through the snowy woods. Smoky and roasted flavors make this beer style wonderfully unique, though it has seen some changes over time as imaginative brewers put their own spin on the porter style. Thank you to everyone who joined us for this interesting (and very delicious) program. We hope to see you at next month's Ale Together Now session!