Porter

porter. (por'-d:er)

    A moderately bitter, very dark, almost black, and mildly alcoholic top-fermented beer first brewed in Shoreditch, London, in 1730 by a man named Ralph Harwood as a substitute for a then-popular mix of ale, beer, and twopenny called three-heads. It was then called entire and was advertised as being richer and more nourishing than ale and was intended for porters, carters, and other heavy laborers who would find in it the strength to accomplish tasks that no spirit drinker could perform. It was nicknamed porter's ale and, eventually, simply porter. Its dark color was derived from roasted, unmalted barley and sometimes a dash of licorice. In the British Isles, porter was overtaken in popularity by bitter stout in the nineteenth century, and the last porter was brewed in Dublin in 1973. Porter is still brewed today, mostly by bottom fermentation, in Germany, North and South America, Africa, China, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, and Russia. Its alcohol content varies between 5 and 7.5 percent by volume.