Flag Porter
1825 Original, 5% ABV

Flag Porter is brewed from a traditional 19th century British recipe using yeast salvaged from a vessel which sank in the English Channel in 1825.

In 1988, several bottles of the brew were raised from their resting place 60 feet deep in the Channel. They were in their original containers, with their wood stoppers and wax seals intact. When opened, however, they "tasted like old, wet boots" according to Dr. Keith Thomas, renowned brewer and microbiologist.

When he examined the beer under a microscope, he found a small percentage of the yeast to be still living! After months of growing this yeast, he brewed a porter using an 1850 recipe.

Porter

According to legend an innkeeper named Ralph Harwood invented porter in the year 1730. He had begun to mix ales from three different barrels kept behind the bar, calling the blend "three threads" or "three thirds."  When this became a tiresome chore for the publican to keep up with, Harwood asked the brewery to pre-blend these beers in the barrel for convenience.

This resulting mixture, which Harwood called "Entire", became very popular with the working men at the docks of London (or "porters" as they were known). Harwood's lunch-time trade became so busy that he would send lads into the streets bearing buckets of brew balanced on a long pole advertising Harwoods' brew and crying out "Porter" - "Porter".

Within a few years, porter had become the most popular style of beer in Britain. Saloons would offer accommodations to working men with cheap cuts of beef (the porter house steak) and, of course porter by the pint.

For all its popularity, porter all but vanished from production by the early 20th century to the extent that today, no one is sure exactly what the famous brew tasted like.

Awards:
Gold medal - 1998 - World Beer Championships conducted by the Beverage Testing Institute in Chicago.

Complements to Flag Porter:
Red meat, oysters, venison, strong cheese, cigars

Quotes:
"very aromatic, with lots of rounded fruitiness and maltiness; and a very long finish"
~ Michael Jackson

"enormously complex...dark, tangy, slightly smoky and nutty aroma...the finish is rich in fruit, hops and bitter chocolate and becomes intensely dry"
~ Roger Protz

We recommend you drink Flag Porter slightly chilled in a pint glass.