Ok, let the cringing begin.
This is what I've decided on. There were many options and according to quite a few brew masters, none of them wrong, well not entirely anyway.
The idea was to increase the ABV by a bump. If I wanted to take a zip line to inebriation town I'd just drink the crap Taaka vodka I use for my air locks. So, bump the potential ABV, just a bump, to try and secure a 5% ABV which is within the normal Porter range of ABV. All of this without sacrificing on taste and enjoyability.
Anyways, this is what I came up with. Not my original thought in anyway. More of an amalgamation of whims by many great and possibly misled and somewhat intoxicated zymurgists.
I bought a pound of dried LME. I reserved 1 1/4 Cup of it for later during the bottling process (more on this later). Following the kit instructions, after steeping the specialty grains I'll bring the water to a boil, remove from heat and add all the extract, dried and canned to include even the priming sugar
. Bring back to a boil for 30 minutes. Then drop temp and pitch.
Remember, I reserved 1 1/4 Cup of the dried LME, this will become my priming agent. The idea here is to increase head retention and decrease the size of the carb bubbles in the bottle.
One guy at the LHBS said the difference between a cheap or expensive bottle of champagne was the size of the bubble. A few eyebrows went up when he said that. I thought maybe he'd run for the door. But then a few of the patrons began to visibly imagine the possibility with chins in hand. Dextrose isn't the one and only priming agent. One suggestion was the use of molasses.
Eh, what do I know? I knew I didn't want a honeyed porter. So, I'll try the champagne bubble idea.