Dear Replicator,

I used to live near Portland, Oregon and could not get enough of Bridgeport Brewing Co.’s Porter. Now that I live in Massachusetts, my only recourse is to bribe friends who travel there on business to bring me back a six-pack. It has a very unique taste and I would love to be able to reproduce a similar brew!

Dominick Pipitone
Watertown, Massachusetts

It’s no wonder that you requested this beer. Bridgeport Head Brewer Karl Ockert is one of the pioneers of the Oregon microbrewing community. Karl was the original brewer for Bridgeport when it opened in 1984, and brewed there for about 5 years. After a few brewing stints in other breweries, Karl has returned to his roots, and continues to brew award-winning beers. Karl received his Bachelors degree in "Fermentation Science" from University of California in Davis, in 1983, long before most people in America knew that beer was more than light American lager.

Karl says this beer is more of a robust porter, with strong dark malt flavors of roasted barley and chocolate malt. A robust porter is a bigger beer than a brown porter, with a bit more alcohol and more of the dark malt flavors. Bridgeport Porter finishes a little sweet, with balanced hop bitterness. Karl recommends that you avoid over-bittering this beer, so try to keep your IBUs below 40. The yeast you use should produce some fruitiness, with little to no diacetyl. Bridgeport’s Website also indicates that there are some mocha and nutty flavors. This beer is also bottle conditioned, so it is ideal for a homebrewer to try. For more information about Bridgeport’s beers, check out their website at www.bridgeportbrew.com, or call (503)241-3612.

Bridgeport Porter
(5 gallon, extract with grains)

OG = 1.056 FG = 1.015 IBUS = 35

Ingredients

• 6.6 lbs. Telford’s amber malt extract syrup
• 1 lb. Muntons amber dry malt extract
• 0.5 lb chocolate malt
• .75 lb. roasted black barley
• 8.7 AAU Magnum hops (0.67 oz. of 13% alpha acid) (bittering)
• 3.7 AAU Kent Golding hops (1.0 oz. of 3.7% alpha acid) (aroma)
• California V Ale yeast (White Labs WLP051) or London Ale III (Wyeast 1318)
• 3/4 cup of corn sugar for priming.

Step by Step

Steep crushed chocolate malt and roasted black barley in 3 gallons of water at 150º for 30 minutes. Remove grains from wort, add malt syrup and dry malt extract to wort, and return to a boil. Add Magnum hops and boil for 60 minutes. Add Golding hops for the last 5 minutes of the boil. When done boiling, strain out hops, and add wort to 2 gallons, pre-boiled, cooled water in a sanitary fermenter, and top off with pre-boiled cool water to 5.5 gallons. Cool the wort to 80º F, aerate the wort and pitch your yeast. Allow the beer to cool over the next few hours to 68º to 70º F, and ferment for 7 to 10 days or until specific gravity reading stays constant. Bottle your beer, age for at least 3 weeks for full flavor and enjoy!

All-Grain Option: Replace amber syrup and powder with 9 lbs. British pale malt, and mash your grains at 155º F for 45 minutes. Collect enough wort (approximately 7 gallons) to boil for 90 minutes and have a 5.5 gallon yield. Decrease bittering hops to 6.5 AAUs of Magnum hops (0.5 oz of 13.0 alpha acid) to account for increased hop extraction efficiency in a full boil. The remainder of the recipe is the same as the extract.