h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Great article, but I'm a little confused over one point. Are you trying to tell us that Porters are bottom fermentation beers? All the recipes for Porter that I've ever seen have used top fermentation.

Porters are ales, at least that's what I've always thought. I haven't come across any 'mass market' porters, all the ones I've seen have been real ales from small breweries - hence top fermentation as you say, whisky.

I don't think the Whitbreads of this world bother with porters (thank goodness) - they probably don't see them as attracting the 'yoof' market.

Porters are definatley classed as ales. They are brewed almost exclusively with op fermenting yeast and always have been. My article on them... http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A266924 tells where they came from.

They are not stouts, as the article suggests, but rather the other way around. Stouts are a type of Porter!

There are plenty of bottom-fermented porters. As a leftover of the 18th century British export trade, porters are still brewed in most of the countries around the Baltic. With a couple of exceptions (Carnegie Porter from Sweden, for example) just about all of them are bottom-fermented.

You've got Carlsberg Porter (about the only drinkable beer Carlsberg make) from Denmark. Koff porter from Finland, Aldaris porter from Latvia, Okocim porter from Poland, Lausitzer Porter from what used to be East Germany and Hoepfner Porter from Karlsruhe. These are all bottom-fermented beers and mostly pretty good.