California Porter & Three Friends' British Porter

Similar to my previous Dakota Porter!

These beers were brewed by Peter Chocholak, Fred Tonsing and myself for our Homebrewing Club Competition called "One Brew for All" in February 2005. We are trying to defend our title from our win last year with our Wartberg Weizenbock #42. The previous year's winner decides the next competition style. At last count, there were at least 5 others vying for the cup and promising to bring a porter on Feb. 15th!

We split the batch and added different yeasts and a touch of flavoring at bottling to make two very different tasting beers. We only wanted some subdued flavoring for one beer so we used a neutral ale yeast like Whitelabs Californai Ale. It starts fast and has a clean finish that would allow other flavors to come through. The Burton Ale yeast has a slightly salty finish that is balanced by the sweetness and body from the oats. Maybe not an ingredient in a traditional porter, but makes for a fine CA Porter (#50) or 3 Friends' British Porter (#51). Cheers!

Porter Recipes:

• 12 lbs. of 2-row UK pale malt
• 1 lb. chocolate malt.
• 2 lb. crystal malt--75 degrees Lovibond (medium)
• 1.5 lb. Quaker Quick Oats (for body)

• 2 lb. Amber Dry Malt Extract (for a gravity boost ;-)

• 2.5 oz. Fuggles hops (4.2 % AAUs) boiled for 60 min.
• 2 oz. Mt. Hood hops (4.9 % AAUs) boiled for 60 min.
• 1 oz. Cascade hops last 15 min. finishing

BREWING SPECIFICATIONS:

• Whitelabs California Ale Yeast (batch one)
• Whitelabs Burton Ale Yeast (batch two)
• 7 days primary fermentation at 65 degrees
• 7 days secondary fermentation at 65 degrees
• Original Gravity=1.056
• Terminal Gravity=1.015
• Bottled on Jan. 29, 2005 with 1 cup DME boiled in 4 cups water (for each batch) and a vial of Mocha in batch one.

Here are a few photos from our Brewing Session (Fred was behind the camera):