Porter is a fantastic beer style. Dark, tasty... and never far away from a story (many of which may not be accurate!). Even the name itself - Porter - is often misunderstood (listen to the episode to understand why).

Joining me on this episode is beer writer Martyn Cornell who has written many excellent books on beer, plus is the creative force behind the incredible Zythophile blog (where you will get happily lost in hours and hours of beer knowledge, history and research).

Martyn knows his Porter. In fact in June he's publishing a new book all about it! In this episode he shares his vast knowledge. For example, did you know that at one stage Porter was as popular as lager is today?

Martyn is a very effective beer historian and researcher and he loves to find out the real truth behind what we might think are well-known beer facts from history... but often don't add up.

This episode focuses on Porter as a style, and reveals so many fascinating stories from its history, but we also talk more widely about beer writing, beer history and home brewing.

Buy a Porter and enjoy it while you listen!

Check out Martyn's amazing blog:

zythophile.co.uk

...and also his brilliant books:

Around The World in 80 Beers

and

Amber, Gold & Black

A concept episode. Can an interesting beer lead you to discover an interesting bit music you otherwise would not have found? What about the other way around?

Former guest Ransom (a musician, author and podcaster) joins me to find out.

This is Brews n Tunes #1 (yep, it worked so well, we're definitely doing it again at some point).

Here's the concept. Ransom picks a bit of music to inspire me. I pick a beer to inspire him. Using his choice of music as a starting point I go on the search for a new beer for us both to try that relates back to it. Ransom does the same, but he's hunting for music somehow related to the beer I chose him.

Go with it. It works, I promise.

And boy, do we end up in some interesting places. Abraham Lincoln, a musician who pretended to attend a university to teach himself music, a brewery in a fake castle... and an absolutely astonishing revelation about San Miguel that I bet you don't know... yet.

Grab a beer - with or without alcohol - give yourself 36 mins, find somewhere comfy and join our fascinating conversation...

Jack Baber is a fellow Cardiff homebrewer and he helps run the long-established and highly regarded Rebel Homebrewers club in Cardiff which I myself am an occasional attendee of (not as much as I'd like, but hey, family diary clashes and all that).

In this episode Jack kindly welcomes me into his incredible bar and brewery set up in his garage. We hear the secrets on how to make such a great set-up, plus the story of how he got started on home brewing and why we both agree that it's an incredibly fun and rewarding hobby that really doesn't take much effort to get started with.

I should warn you, listening to this episode will significantly raise the chances of you going online and buying your first brew kit immediately afterwards... and that's a very good thing!