Porter has always carried weight.

The style emerged in London in the early 1700s and became closely associated with the working porters who moved goods through the city: across wharves, markets, warehouses, streets, and cellars. It was a beer tied to labour, trade, industry, and the growth of London itself.

Dark, sustaining, and full of malt character, porter became one of the great beer styles of its time.

There is also an old story that porter may have developed from a blended beer known as “three threads”, where drinkers were served a mix of beers from different casks. Whether that story is literal history or part of porter mythology, it still points to something important about the style: porter has always been connected to depth, balance, blending, and the careful shaping of dark malt flavour.

Jake Porter follows that thread.

It is a blend of two Epic beers: Coming of Age Imperial Stout and Bass Solo.

The result is a porter with dark malt richness, chocolate and roast character, and a smooth, clean finish. It carries the depth of an imperial stout, balanced by the softer malt structure of Bass Solo.

The Beers Behind Jake Porter

Coming of Age is Epic’s 10% Imperial Stout, brewed for our 21st year.

It brings weight, depth, roast, dark chocolate, and richness to the blend. This is the beer that gives Jake Porter its darker core and its connection to the bigger imperial stout project currently resting in Jack Daniel’s barrels for release later in the year.

Bass Solo brings a different kind of malt character.

Inspired by the smooth malt profile of a Munich-style beer, Bass Solo is malt-led, rounded, and clean. It contributes toast, soft malt structure, and drinkability. In the blend, it keeps Jake Porter from becoming too heavy, too sweet, or simply a smaller version of Coming of Age.

Coming of Age provides the depth.

Bass Solo provides the balance.

Jake Porter sits between them.

A Porter With Historical Roots

By the early 1800s, porter had become one of London’s defining beer styles. It was produced by large breweries in enormous wooden vats, aged for depth and consistency, and distributed through a city that was rapidly expanding.

That scale also produced one of the most dramatic events in beer history.

In 1814, at Meux’s Horse Shoe Brewery near Tottenham Court Road, a vast vat of porter ruptured. The force damaged other vessels, breached the brewery wall, and sent porter flooding into the surrounding streets and homes. Eight people died.

The London Beer Flood is a tragic reminder that porter was not simply a style in a glass. It was part of the industrial life of London: large-scale production, wooden vats, brick breweries, workers, trade, and risk.

Jake Porter is not trying to recreate the past, but it does take inspiration from porter’s history: its working origins, its connection to blending, and its place as a dark beer built for substance rather than spectacle.

What To Expect

Jake Porter pours dark, with a smooth malt body and a restrained roast character.

Expect notes of:

Chocolate malt
Light coffee roast
Toasted bread crust
Cocoa
Soft caramel
Gentle dried fruit
Clean malt finish

The Coming of Age portion gives the beer dark chocolate, roast, and imperial stout depth.

Bass Solo brings smooth malt structure, toast, and clean drinkability.

Together, they create a porter that is rich without being heavy, dark without being harsh, and smooth without losing character.

Final Pour

Jake Porter is a modern porter made through blending.

It brings together the dark richness of Coming of Age Imperial Stout and the clean malt balance of Bass Solo to create a beer with depth, structure, and drinkability.

A nod to porter’s London origins.

A nod to the old idea of blended beer.

A dark beer built with purpose.