The oldest proven records of brewing are about 6,000 years old and refer to the Sumerians. It is said that the Sumerians discovered the fermentation process by chance. A seal around 4,000 years old is a Sumerian "Hymn to Ninkasi", the goddess of brewing. This "hymn" is also a recipe for making beer.
It was suggested that porter (or at least the practice of calling a beer 'porter') came to Britain from the Netherlands, where a beer known as 'poorter' was being consumed as early as the 14th century.
Egerton Manuscripts which dated 1677 are known as the first to use the word stout. The word referred to strength. Owing to the similarity of the porters, they were brewed in a variety of strengths. In the 18th century, for example, the term stout porter was used to describe a porter, or dark beer, with alcohol content above 7 percent.
As long as a beer is strong the stout word was used to represent them. For example, the stout pale ale was found in the UK and stout was linked to the port only becoming related to dark beer. Stout still meant only "strong" and it could be related to any kind of beer, as long as it was strong.
Arthur Guinness, the founder of the brewery that makes the world’s most popular stout, began his operation near Dublin in 1755, the same year that Samuel Johnson published his famous dictionary. Johnson’s entry for stout reads: A cant name for strong beer.
History of stout
