PORTER

is a malt liquor, so called from being the favourite beverage of the porters and workpeople of the metropolis and other large towns of the British empire; it is characterized by its dark-brown colour, its transparency, its moderately bitter taste, and peculiar aromatic flavour, which, along with its tonic and intoxicating qualities, make it be keenly relished by thirsty palates accustomed to its use. At first the e ential distinction of porter arose from its wort being made with highly-kilned brown malt, while other kinds of beer and ale were brewed from a paler article; but of late years, the taste of the public having run in favour of sweeter and lighter beverages, the actual porter is brewed with a le proportion of brown malt, is le strongly hopped, and not allowed to get hard by long keeping in huge ripening tuns. Some brewers colour the porter with burnt sugar; but in general the most respectable concentrate a quantity of their first and best wort to an extract, in an iron pan, and burn this into a colouring stuff, whereby they can lay claim to the merit of using nothing in their manufacture but malt and hops. The singular flavour of good London porter seems to proceed, in a great degree, from that of the old casks and fermenting tuns in which it is prepared. Though not much addicted to vinous potations of any kind, I feel warranted by long experience to opine, that the porter brewed by the eminent London houses, when drunk in moderation, is a far wholesomer beverage for the people than the thin acidulous wines of France and Germany. See Beer .