{"id":30537,"date":"2026-06-29T18:39:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T06:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=30537"},"modified":"2026-06-29T18:47:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T06:47:47","slug":"session-150-porter-and-stout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2026\/06\/29\/session-150-porter-and-stout\/","title":{"rendered":"Porter and Stout<\/i> \u2014 an incomplete review and Antipodean response"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Martyn<\/a>
If you ask me, every day is Take Your Book To The Pub Day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For a special\u00a0edition of The Session<\/em>, Boak & Bailey suggested<\/a> that people take the time to respond to the work of the late Martyn Cornell, prompted by his final work, Porter and Stout<\/em><\/a>. That convinced me to finally get a copy, and I did as I often do with sprawling reference books: I turned first to the section that deals with things close to (my) home on the far side of the world, to get an initial impression. Fair to say it’s an asset, an achievement, and perhaps surprisngly accessible. But it’s\u00a0not<\/em> the last word on its subject, nor should anyone wish it was.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It’s a formidable book at over four hundred large-format pages, nicely illustrated but mostly filled with dense two-column text, followed by forty pages of footnotes.<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> This isn’t a pop history with scene-setting vignettes and quirky character portraits, but neither is it dry, tedious, or obscure; the relatively tight and clearly-titled sections are helpful to hold focus and maintain momentum, or enable a lighter browse.<\/p>\n

Like a lot of people<\/a>, I first encountered Martyn’s work in his ‘mythbusting’ mode and here it seems most of that has been collected into a few appendices. The longest is on ‘The Three-Threads Myth’<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> concerning the origins of porter, and if you ever doubt the unending need for these things, a New Zealand brewery was passing along the old story<\/a> (with a half-assed ‘maybe it’s folklore’ shrug) just a few weeks ago. Such nonsense takes a long time to eradicate.<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> This structure keeps the debunkings in an easy-to-point-to place and prevents distractions about correcting misunderstandings from cluttering the actual history.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The c-word will inevitably prove problematic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The cover pitches the book as “a complete history” and of course it can’t be \u2014 not in ‘just’ four hundred pages. That’s inevitable, not a failing. But when his very first sentence describes the project as telling “a 300-year story in three acts: rise to world conquest; long decline almost to vanishing; and sudden, triumphant rebirth and resurgence” it’s hard for me not to notice that New Zealand and Australia get short shrift indeed on that final third part of the story.<\/p>\n

Chapter 47 is dedicated to Australasia, closing out a section describing porter’s dispersal around the world. Cornell describes its arrival with the English colonists in both countries, and early efforts to brew it locally rather than have this working-class favourite available only as a premium-priced import. Several still-familiar names like Tooheys and Tooth’s make early appearances.<\/p>\n

In the context of increasingly vocal economic nationalism in Australia \u2014 as craft \/ indie breweries emphasise the “foreign-owned” nature of their large multinational competitors over every other difference<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> \u2014 it’s amusing for me to see him describe early newspapers “berat[ing] colonists for failing to support local brewers” and quote an 1829 editorial “declaring that ‘Colonists cannot better display their amor patriae<\/em>\u2019 than by buying locally brewed beer rather than ‘sending so much of ‘the best of Capital’ out of the Colony for Porter, etc.\u2019” That thread apparently runs deep in the national psyche.<\/p>\n

In the more-recent past, from the mid-1900s or so, the narrative shifts to largely focus on Guinness, both as an import and something brewed locally under license \u2014 seeming lurch between breweries as contracts expired, success varied, and strategy changed. The citations also conspicuously shift from primary sources to secondary ones as if his attention is being dragged away,<\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and each thread peters out; Australia gets two small notes about the 1990s and 2010s, NZ’s section closes in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A throwback<\/a> (from 2012) to a throwback (first brewed 1972)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The main ‘resurgence’ treatment, that “third act” foreshadowed in the introduction, is Part Ten of the book. Chapter 56 (‘The Return’) begins with Anchor Porter and chapter 57 (‘Pushing the Envelope’) continues the story into modern “craft” reviving various substyles and evolving new ones.<\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Every brewery, every beer, every example of a trend considered worthy of a mention, is American or British.<\/p>\n

Which is a shame, and particularly striking as I’d just<\/em> read the account (chapter 55, ‘Other Odd Ingredients’) of oyster stout’s 1938 invention in New Zealand. That section had confirmed the general truth of something I’d already heard, while correcting errors (both big and small) I’d read in previous tellings from less-careful writers; an ideal experience with a book like this. But more to the present point, there’s a famous and beloved oyster stout<\/a> in current production<\/em> back home, and it has inspired several others. A small thing, sure. But it feels deserving of a brief “and they’re back at it, too” note \u2014 for completeness, since that was the goal.<\/p>\n

It’s like how the New Zealand section of the ‘Australasia’ chapter closes by noting that local Guinness production ended in 1977, without ever returning to point out that\u00a0it came back<\/em>. It’s currently brewed (by Lion) in Auckland, and the fact it was previously produced in Christchurch was newsworthy after the devastating 2011 earthquake; I recall it being moderately controversial that the company got special permission to enter the cordoned-off part of the city to extract kegs in time for Saint Patrick’s Day distribution.<\/span>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cover<\/a>
It should’ve been a pint of porter in his hand<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And porter specifically<\/em> played a surprisingly pivotal role at two key moments in the history of New Zealand beer during those decades after this book turns its gaze away. When Richard Emerson arguably started the country’s first “craft” brewery in the early 1990s his first beer was a London Porter, a decision that surprised many but seems to have paid off, as Michael Donaldson recounts in his biography<\/a> of the man and his namesake company. Later, in the early stages of the pre-pandemic boomtime when contract brewing was such a core part of the local industry, one of the most influential operations, Yeastie Boys, also<\/em> launched with a porter. Neither story is\u00a0lost<\/em>, obviously (indeed, one of them takes up a good chunk of a book) but their omission made me curious what other absences seemed similarly obvious to other readers from different contexts.<\/p>\n

I have no idea if Martyn sought input from local writers beyond the authors he cited directly.<\/span>8<\/sup><\/a><\/span> But the gaps they might’ve filled \u2014 and anyway there were always<\/em> going to be gaps \u2014 are a nice reminder that the rest of us have work to do in continuing to document the industry and the subculture as best we can. He already did much more than his fair share of the heavy lifting.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a special\u00a0edition of The Session, Boak & Bailey suggested that people take the time to respond to the work of the late Martyn Cornell, prompted by his final work, Porter and Stout. That convinced me to finally get a copy, and I did as I often do with sprawling reference books: I turned first … Continue reading Porter and Stout<\/i> \u2014 an incomplete review and Antipodean response<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[55,77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interesting-finds","category-session"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":561,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2008\/11\/05\/invercargill-pitch-black-stout\/","url_meta":{"origin":30537,"position":0},"title":"Invercargill ‘Pitch Black’ Stout","author":"Phil","date":"November 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Verbatim: Invercargill Brewery 'Pitch Black' Stout. Again from the hand pumps at Old Malty, and in many ways one step further down Black Beer Boulevard from the aforementioned (and aforedrunken) Tuatara Porter. Bigger, darker, and stouty, basically. But still (I think) fairly accessible. Something of a favourite for a few\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Invercargill 'Pitch Black', handpulled","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Invercargill-Pitch-Black-handpulled-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1028,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/11\/10\/emersons-brewers-reserve-grace-jones-porter\/","url_meta":{"origin":30537,"position":1},"title":"Emerson’s Brewers’ Reserve: ‘Grace Jones’ Porter","author":"Phil","date":"November 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The Emerson's brewers are here doing their own version of the Barry White joke I made in reference to their Oatmeal Stout. Not that I'm claiming credit, of course. But it's nice to have a \"thinking alike\" moment now and then. Much like the recent Southern Clam Stout, 'Grace' does\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Emerson's 'Grace Jones'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-2034-Emersons-Grace-Jones-300x243.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1936,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/03\/11\/flying-dog-gonzo\/","url_meta":{"origin":30537,"position":2},"title":"Flying Dog ‘Gonzo’","author":"Phil","date":"March 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Good people drink good beer. So sayeth Hunter S. Thompson on the label, and for what it's worth I concur.1 I bloody loves this beer. I loves it for its intrinsic goodness and for the circumstances in which I've had it -- and I'm a mad keen Hunter S. fan,2\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Flying Dog 'Gonzo'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Flying-Dog-Gonzo-again-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":906,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/10\/10\/beer-101-tasting-session\/","url_meta":{"origin":30537,"position":3},"title":"Beer 101 Tasting Session","author":"Phil","date":"October 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"George (the gifter of the original Diary) organised a little tasting session at his house for a few friends of ours, with me playing the Informative Nerd. I'll be the first to admit that I made them all run a bit of a marathon, but we hit most of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Beer 101 tasting session empties","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Beer-101-1-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1155,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/12\/16\/townshend-%e2%80%98j-c-%e2%80%99-ipa\/","url_meta":{"origin":30537,"position":4},"title":"Townshend \u2018J.C.\u2019 IPA","author":"Phil","date":"December 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"So yeah, our Christmas Offerings at work included a beer which had burnt pohutakawa1 as part of the process, and a beer named after Jesus for no readily-apparent reason. I just loved the irreverence of that. Of course, it didn't hurt that both beers were really rather lovely, in their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Townshend 'J.C.' IPA","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Townshend-J.C.-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2778,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/05\/07\/yeastie-boys-pot-kettle-black-2010-u-s-remix\/","url_meta":{"origin":30537,"position":5},"title":"Yeastie Boys ‘Pot Kettle Black: 2010 U.S. Remix’","author":"Phil","date":"May 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"And so then I followed the unknown with something more familiar -- as the Tragically Hip once advised,1 seemingly referring to those times when the unknown is a disappointment. It's also fitting that Diary II would celebrate its Hundred with a Yeastie Boys beer, since their 'Her Majesty' was there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Yeastie Boys \u2018PKB Remix 2010\u2019","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Yeastie-Boys-PKB-Remix-2010-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30537"}],"version-history":[{"count":99,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30678,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30537\/revisions\/30678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}