Stale Ale isn't a name you might normally choose for an attractive little cottage. Nevertheless, it was stale ale that enabled the original cottage dweller to lead such a comfortable life, for stale ale made him very well off indeed!
   At the beginning the the 18th century, porter was extremely popular among London's drinkers. So much so that taverns devoted to it -- called Porter Houses -- sprang up. With porter, a special cut of meat was often served, known as the porterhouse steak.
   Porter needed three ingredients -- pale, brown and stale (old) ale. The stale ale was produced by storing fresh brown ale in oak vats for at least a year. As the premises of the London brewers at the time were too cramped to accommodate such large vats, the storage -- and the vast profits -- were taken overy by country brewers such as the occupant of our Stale Ale cottage.