OF THE COLOUR OF LONDON PORTER.
London porter has of late years become of nearly the same colour as Dantzic black beer, which is, perhaps, another improvement of the present day. This alteration in the colour is said to have been adopted merely to humour the public taste. It is very doubtful, however, if the public have been consulted upon the subject, or ever had any voice in the matter. Owing to the causes already mentioned, porter of a brilliant colour, as formerly, is seldom now to be seen; and the common porter, as generally drunk out of pewter pots, is often so muddy as to be complained of as being unpleasant to the eye. It is just possible, that, to please the public taste as to colour, it may become necessary to make it (the porter) as black as ink; and this may also be a means of preventing the public from judging whether that which they drink is muddy, or grey, or sometimes even both.
This opinion, however, is merely a surmise, which may or may not be the case. It cannot, however, be considered by the public as any very great improvement, inasmuch as it is even now occasionally called, in common parlance, black beer, or black strap.
