Irish porter?!
Answers: what are the irish refering to when they ask for a bottle of porter? is it beer or honey whiskey? if its beer what are the characteristics of a porter?
"Porter" is a dark beer with a strong taste. The term "porter" appeared after it evolved as the favorite drink for "porters", men carrying baggage, as at train stations.
The closest thing that I can compare a porter to that everyone should know is Guinness. But that's actually a stout. Dark, full beer with a lot of flavor. To me, porters seem to have a bit of a smoky flavor to them.
Both of these answers are good. Guinness, as mentioned above, was a porter at one time. They eventually decided to extend the product line, and invented a new drink, Stout Porter, which eventually just became Stout.
Porter started in England in the 1700s as a working-class drink, when transport workers (porters) enjoyed little more than a few bits of bread and a pint or two of a robust porter per day.
Porters are typically very roasty-tasting, with complex flavors such as smoke, chocolate, dark ripe fruit, caramel, earth, and more. They are actually quite light-bodied and easy to drink, despite their dark, imposing color.
Check out this link for more information and some great examples...
http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style12.h...
Cheers!