(Two-cents Plain is another matter. It refers to soda water with nothing in it for flavoring, common in immigrant New York when people could not afford the five cents flavored drink. See Leo Rosten's Joys of yiddish for more).

Until about the 1970’s porter was ignored in the U. S. It probably is not possible to find out the exact time and place that porter began to be made in America to a degree that it became an important commodity. Some suggest that the Anchor Brewery in San Francisco, famous for its Anchor Steam Beer started the trend in the early 1970’s with its Anchor porter which spread to the burgeoning microbreweries which now dot the landscape in profusion. It is usual now for a microbrewery to offer its own version of a porter.

Examples:

XXXX Porter from the Ringwood Brewery in Hampshire, England.

Alaskan Smoked Porter from Alaskan Brewing Company in Juneau, Alaska

Anchor Porter from Anchor Brewing Company in San Francisco, California

Bell's Porter from Bell's in Kalamazoo, Michigan

Black Butte Porter from Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon

Blackhook Porter from Redhook in Woodinville, Washington

Bully! Porter from Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas City, Missouri

Carnegie Porter brewed by Carlsberg in Sweden

Edmund Fitzgerald Porter from Great Lakes in Cleveland, Ohio.

Flag Porter from Elgoods in Wisbech, England

Fuller's London Porter from Fuller, Smith and Turner in Chiswick, England