What are the origins of porter?
Porter can trace its origins back to the brewer Ralph Harwood, a London brewer in 1722. This new drink, porter, used roasted barley for the first time and became so popular with the working class porters of Covent Garden and Billingsgate, that it adopted their name – ‘Porter’. Porter quickly established itself as the working class man’s drink in England and soon began to be brewed in Ireland. Arthur GUINNESS® began brewing this new drink in the 1770s as did many other Dublin brewers. However, he was the first Dublin brewer to cease brewing ale altogether in order to concentrate on brewing porter.
