FASHION IN DRINK.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3241, 19 November 1881, Page 4

FASHION IN DRINK.

There is a fashion in drink as in dress. Everybody knows that black beer, in its several varities of porter, stout, and cooper, has for generations been the popular drink of the Londoner. The foreigner who respected the maxim which enjoins the use of ' the drink of the country,' swallowed it, although often with a wry face ; the countryman called for it because it was the drink of the Londoner ; and the genuine Cockney would consume no other malt liquor. All this is changed. Beer, we are credibly informed, has fallen into desuetude, and the light ales are succeeding it. The porter, after whom the beverage was named, no longer sails for his pot of ' porter,' but for 'fourale.' And it is the same with the general public. This fact is recognised by the great brewery establishments, those of them who formerly brewed black beer now producing ale. Enterprising caterers at one time thought that in the struggle for supremacy lager beer might have a chance of the second place, if not the first; but from a return of the total quantities of foreign beer retained for home consumption in the last three years, it would appear that the foreign article has not the slightest chance of getting a footing here. The fight is between black beer and our own alos, and the victory seems already more than half won by the latter.