The Kernel Brewery’s Running Porter: Made for British Cheese

We worked with our friends at The Kernel to develop the ideal beer to drink with British territorial cheeses. 

Running Porter with a selection of British territorial cheeses.

Once a staple of the British diet, it fell out of production in the mid-20th century. Its flavours are not flashy. They are subtle; best enjoyed in generous quantities. In recent years, small-scale producers with an appreciation for its historical resonance and quiet complexity have revived it. We could be talking about British territorial cheese. We could just as easily be talking about porter, the bittersweet dark beer.  

 "Porter is the perfect match, not just in flavour but philosophically, with British territorial cheeses," says Bronwen Percival, our Technical Director. When we sat down with a selection of territorial cheeses and beers with our friends at The Kernel Brewery, it quickly became clear that porter was the best pairing. It's not just that the malty, hoppy drink is an ideal foil for bright, crumbly cheese. It's that their stories echo each other. 

Porter and British cheese's parallel histories 

Cheese and Porter on the menu of the Crystal Palace refreshment rooms, 1851. 

Newspaper classifieds of the 18th and 19th centuries are speckled with references to porter and cheese. They were served at workhouses. They were on the menu of the Crystal Palace third class dining room. They were part of the everyday diet of the working class. (Porter’s name may originate from the porters who delivered goods into, within, and across London. An 1802 account states porter is "a very hearty nourishing liquor… suitable for porters and other working people.") A 19th-century Londoner could have sat down to eat bread, butter, and Cheshire, with a pint of porter to wash it all down. 

"There was a time when porter was the drink of London," says Ben Landsberry, Brewer at The Kernel. The city’s famously hard water lent itself well to dark beer. Naturally occuring bicarbonates balance the acidity of the malt that gives porter its distinctive flavour and colour. Breweries popped up across London, and grew. "Breweries in the 1800s were in competition with each other over who could have the biggest vat," Ben says. Some were big enough to hold one hundred people, sitting down inside. 

Despite the scale of porter production in the mid-19th century, by World War II, it had petered out. It is difficult to say why some food and drink falls out of fashion while some endures, but wartime ingredient shortages and tax hikes took their toll. "[Porter] doesn't have a continuous line [of production] since its inception to now," Ben says. "It's a broken line of 40 or 50 years when nobody made it." (You could tell a similar story about most British styles of cheese. Farmhouse Wensleydale, for example, was essentially extinct by the mid-1950s before a small group of cheesemakers revived it.) 

 In the late 1990s, historic London brewery Fuller's released a porter; a few years later, Meantime followed; in 2010, The Kernel began brewing its porters, making Export India Porter an early mainstay of production. Today, dozens of small breweries produce something like the porters of old. It's not exactly the drink of London, or anywhere else in the United Kingdom, however. "There are degrees of engagement with beer," Ben says, from not drinking at all, to casually enjoying lager, to seeking out new and different varieties. It tends to be the most engaged who drink porter. 

Why porter and British cheese complement each other 

When you take a sip of porter, what do you taste? It depends on the recipe. The history of porter is rich and varied. Porter could be served fresh, kept for months, or mixed from a combination of the two. Different varieties of hops – imported and locally-grown – were used. A modern brewer can draw from any and all of these traditions when they make their own version. 

Generally, expect to find darkness, sweetness, and bitterness; notes of dried fruit, cocoa, and coffee. These flavours complement British territorial cheeses, which tend to be bright and juicy. When tasting Cheshire with porter, Ben says, "I found that the acidity of the cheese and the bittersweet balance of the beer really went well together." 

 There is not just the matter of flavour, but of feel. A combination of carefully balanced acidity and comparatively low carbonation give The Kernel's porters a "rounded, smooth" mouthfeel, Ben explains. They're easy to drink. You'll want a pint or two, not just a sip. It's the ideal accompaniment to a British territorial cheese, which is best enjoyed in big chunks, not tiny slivers. "I think you can very easily eat quite a lot of Cheshire without realising it," says Ben, whereas with "something like Brillat-Savarin, one or two pieces is probably quite enough."  

The Kernel Running Porter: made for British cheese 

Our conversation with the team at The Kernel Brewery inspired us to push further. Could they brew a porter made especially for pairing with British territorial cheese? 

Brewing Running Porter with The Kernel Brewery

Running Porter is the result. (Historically, running porter was fresh, as opposed to vatted porter, which was stored.) "Really, we're just trying to take the flavours that we have in our Export India Porter and turn them down a little bit," Ben says. The Running Porter is less strong, less bitter, and "lighter all round." The decreased intensity of the Running Porter is a quieter complement to British territorial cheeses, which tend to whisper, not shout. 

 Running Porter’s historical resonance is written in its recipe. Simpsons Malt, founded in 1862, provides the half-dozen varieties of barley in the ingredients list. Among them are Maris Otter, a 60-year-old heritage variety, and brown malt, a classic component of porter. Both hops are English: Bramling Cross, which is nearly a century old, and Goldings, which has been used in brewing since the 18th century. "English hops are quite underappreciated," Ben says. New World hops may taste dank, fruity, or piney. English hops can be floral, herbal, or spicy; they can evoke the earthy flavour of beetroot. The flavour of English hops is like the flavour of British territorial cheeses in that "it doesn't jump out at you right away," Ben says. "It's very solid and steady." 

This is a pairing that is ideal for sharing with friends, sitting at a table in a crowded pub. More cheese? Another round? 

You can order The Kernel Running Porter with our British territorial cheese selection. Better yet, pair them in person at select London pubs this summer.