Jen’s

One of our flagship ales, Jen’s Porter is almost always on draft. This was one of the first beers that Mike brewed for Jen. She loves porter and wanted to have a dark beer that could be served all year round. This beer is light and well rounded, not too high abv. Often described as a campfire beer.

So just what the heck is a Porter anyways? By Definition a Porter is a dark beer made with malted barley. Not to be confused with a Stout which is a dark beer made with UN-malted ROASTED barley. If someone asks you the difference, that is the technical definition, but truly there is not that much to differentiate, and anyone that says there is a major difference in flavor, aroma or style, is full of it. Porters and stouts get much of their rich flavor profile (nutty, caramel, vanilla, coffee, etc) from how the grain is roasted before being added to the mash.

Porter originated in the 1700’s in East London. Some say it was “invented’ by Bell Brewhouse in 1722. It was allegedly developed for the pubs most frequented by “porters”, the strongmen that worked on docks and doing various odd-jobs hauling heavy things. The exact history is a bit murky (as was this beer back then). It has also been credited in coming along a little later in the 18th century. Porter probably started as a stale version of “brown beer” that the brewers simply just kept messing with, batch by batch to suit their tastes. 

Porter was imported to the American colonies from England until tensions rose in the 1760s. At that point we started brewing our own. A notable example came from Robert Hare’s brewery in Philadelphia, which George Washington cited as his favorite porter.

It probably did not taste very much like anything we have today, but the name and muddled history lives on. The style is the foundation of all modern dark beers. 

Experimentation and further understanding of brewing has developed with the style. By the late 1800’s “porter” meant any dark malt liquor made partly from brown or black malt, which gave it a “caramel” or “syrupy” flavor and clocks in at about 4-5%ABV. A stout used to be the same description  with a higher 6%+ abv because it was “stout” or “strong”. The styles have morphed from there but you get the idea. Stouts and Porters are generally interchangeable, and technically only defined by the difference in the roasted barley. Don’t get too hung up on it.

“I taste milk chocolate with hints of dark chocolate, with coffee and roast flavors as well. I smell milk chocolate and a bit of caramel and coffee. “

-Mike Onofray, Head Brewer/Owner