From Driveway to Tap Room: Hwy 50’s In The Ditch English Style Porter

Hwy 50 Brewery Gary Ritz brewer, smiling, glass of porter on table.

Pint of dark beer on a table top with view of sky and trees.

From My Driveway to Hwy 50's Tap Room: Our In The Ditch English Style Porter

by Gary Ritz
4/27/21

I n The Ditch Porter (formerly named Black Ice Porter) is from an old recipe I used to make out on my driveway during my home brewing days. I called it “Cats and Dogs Porter” because it seemed like every time I brewed it, regardless of the time of year, it would rain cats and dogs! And this is a surprisingly year-round beer for when you want something with dark and rich flavors.

Here at the brewery, we have an imperial stout and an Irish dry stout, but I had been wanting to make something more like a traditional English style porter. Some guests had called for it, and it just seemed the time was right to craft a good English porter. I was waiting for my Scotch ale to age and happened to have an empty tank, so it seemed like a good time to play a little.

I took out that old homebrew recipe and ramped it up from 10 gallons to 310 and crossed my fingers. I used an English style malt and English ale yeast to pick up that traditional influence.

I wanted this porter to have a really dark chocolate finish so I stayed away from the roasted barleys that give a heavy coffee taste and used chocolate malt. There’s a lighter and a darker chocolate malt available, and I used the darker one which gives a big, pronounced chocolate flavor.

Two malts in glasses, chocolate malt and black malt

To enhance the chocolate and to give balance, I also used some black malt—a very dark roasted malt that gives a smoky flavor and lends a lot of color to the beer. The result is a robust porter with about 8% alcohol. The chocolate flavor ended up being very up front which I’m happy about and which people seem to really enjoy.

I find it a little funny and a lot humbling when I take an old homebrew recipe that I used to make in my driveway, reproduce it here and then people get excited and latch onto it. There are more dark beer fans out there than you might think, and where can you go to get a good traditionally brewed porter like this, fresh on tap?

Man in hat in drinking beer, sitting at a tap room table, looking outward toward.

I’ve always enjoyed dark beers myself. There are times now and then, if I get a few minutes to sit out on the deck and listen to the live music, I get to enjoy the flavors and complexities of a dark porter or a stout.

In The Ditch Porter provides that fun “flavor and aroma experience” for people to enjoy. We try not to be too IPA-centric or to lean toward any one thing or trend at Hwy 50 Brewery—unless it’s a preference for traditionally brewed beers that are crafted with passion and attention to every detail. We brew a broad range of beers because people like what they like and it satisfies my passion for brewing a variety of traditional styles and then getting creative with the nuances—like the chocolaty, smoky notes in this English style porter.