February 8, 1776

In September 1774, at the same time that the first Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia, there was a new beverage for sale in the city. Robert Hare’s American porter was first advertised by the bottle for locals and by the cask for exporting to other places. Over the next few years, this locally made beer became associated with the fight for liberty. In November 1775, when William Dibley advertised in the Pennsylvania Evening Post that he was opening a tap of “Mr. HARE’s best AMERICAN DRAUGHT PORTER” at the Fountain and White Horse Inn on Chestnut Street, he said he had “no doubt that the sturdy friends of American freedom” would “afford due honor to this new and glorious manufacture.” Soon after, the same newspaper had an advertisement to inform the “TRUE FRIENDS to LIBERTY” that a tap would be opening at the Harp and Crown in Southwark.

Jeremiah Baker began advertising his stock of Hare’s porter in the Pennsylvania Evening Post in late January 1776. He was located at the sign of Noah’s Ark on Front Street in Northern Liberties, and his tavern also served as a polling location for local elections. Unlike other sellers, Baker did not make any comments about the political meaning behind the American porter, but he did promise to serve it in “its greatest purity.” 

Pennsylvania Evening Post
Printed by Benjamin Towne

JEREMIAH BAKER, at the sign of Noah’s Ark, the upper end of Front-street, takes this opportunity of acquainting his friends and customers, that he has laid in a stock of HARE’s BEST AMERICAN DRAUGHT PORTER, which he intends serving in its greatest purity, and hopes for a continuance of the favours of his former customers, and the public in general, which shall be gratefully acknowledged.