Home Brew Diaries: New Porter

New Porter gushing away in my sink.

I call my latest attempt at brewing a Porter "New Porter" as a play on word inspired by my empoyer Newport.  Unfortunately, given the obscene levels of carbonation created in the bottle conditioning, I should have called this one "Old Faithful".  The idea was to hand out a few bottles to my beer drinking co-worker friends in town in early February for a big trade show in San Francisco's Moscone Center Newport exhibits each year.  Problem was, once I realized I had effectively created a bunch of explosive beer bombs, it did not seem prudent in further creating a sense of  teamwork and cameraderie to hand out bottles that would almost literally explode upon opening.  Too bad, because once of the carbonation died down, the Porter was actually pretty good if I say so myself.  The recipe:

New Porter

2.5 lbs Maris Otter
0.5 lbs 40L Crystal
0.5 lbs Black Patent Malt
0.5 lbs Chocolate Malt
British Ale Yeast

0.8 ounces Fuggles 60 minutes
0.5 ounces Cascade 5 minutes

Sparge with 1 Gallon of Water
Brew with 1 1/2 Gallons of Water
Makes about 1 1/2 Gallons Porter

OG: 1.06
FG: ???  (Hydrometer broke when I cleaned it and didn't get it replaced before bottling.)

A couple ounces of vodka infused with 3/4 of an organic orange peel for 24 hours was added at bottling.


The idea behind infusing vodka with orange peel was a nod to Newport's Irvine, CA headquarters in Orange County.  The orange oils and flavors were a bit buried in this porter, which leaned heavily on the roasted side of the style.  The end brew was very roasty, with coffee-like flavors but toffee flavors peaking through.  I gathered just a few, slight fruity notes from the Cascade hops and orange peel. 


Not a bad effort.  I just got to cut way down on the priming sugar next time.

The final brew tasted pretty good once all the
initial excitement of opening the bottle died down.