American Porter Scallywag Porter - Victory at Sea Clone

I just posted this in the Recipes/Ingredients forum, and thought I'd add it to the database since I wrote it up anyway.

(Anyone know why the porter database lacks the pre-filled forms of the other styles?)

I love, love, love Ballast Point's Victory at Sea porter. It's a coffee vanilla porter, about 10% abv, and a wonderful sipping winter brew. My first sip of Victory at Sea resulted in the heavens opening up and angels singing. It's amazing! I have yet to actually do a side-by-side comparison of my clone attempt, but in my memory it's very close, and even if it's off, this recipe is worth the brew! I tend to prefer porters more on the chocolatey side, and less on the roasted barley burned side, so that's what this recipe aims for.

Note: The base grains for this recipe are loosely based on Heretic's (Jamil Z.) Shallow Grave Porter (recipe can be found at Morebeer's site), which is also AMAZING.

14lbs Pale 2-row
8oz Blackprintz
1lb Chocolate Malt (NOT CHOCOLATE CANDY!!)
1lb Crystal 40L

This is a big brew... you'll need to adjust the 2-row for your personal efficiency. I did a large sparge, collecting 7.5-8g of wort, which I gave a 2+ hour boil (slow boil off here.. adjust according to your system), to eventually get down to a ~5g batch.

Hops start at T-60m

1oz Columbus at 60m
2oz Cascade at 15m

Mash low. 150 max. You want this sucker fermentable because of the high OG (1.092 or so)

I pitched it with Notty, but any american ale yeast (WLP001, 1056, or S-05) will be fine I'm sure. Note, per Chris White's (White Labs) recommendation with big beers, I gave this two shots of pure 02. One right before pitching, and again 12 hours later.

Left in primary for two weeks at 66F (increased to 70-71 after 4-5 days to encourage full attenuation, again per Chris White), and secondaried for 3 months.

About 2 weeks remaining in secondary, I added 3 chopped/scraped vanilla beans which I had soaked in about 1/2c of vodka for a week (including the vodka... tossed it all in). At the same time, I added about 2cups of cold press coffee (french press, fine grind, 24 hours in cold water... press it to filter the grinds and add liquid to secondary. I worried about bugs, but had no contamination issues.)

I then transferred it to a keg, and it took another 2 months or so, but it's heavenly now (Total of about 5-6 months, I made it Nov. 10). Just in time for summer which is a pity, because it's an awesome winter brew.

Some people detect the vanilla right away in this recipe, but it's subdued to me and I'm not going to reduce my beans on my rebrew. Everyone's noses/tastes are different.

Anyone looking for an extract recipe can substitute out the 2-row for 12lbs or so of LME. Don't use the ultralight LME if your LHBS happens to carry it (it's less fermentable), just plain LME is fine because you're darkening it anwyay. You'll need several grain bags for the 2.5lbs of specialty grains.

I bottled a few from the keg and mailed them to a friend on the East Coast. Here's the pic I got back:

pfgonzo, i cannot get blackprinz.. would midnight wheat work? or de husked carafa special?

I think either will work. All three (blackprinz, midnight wheat, and carafa special) are similar, designed to give color and roasty flavor without the bitterness. Though I read somewhere that blackprinz differs from the other two in that it is a "true bitterless" roast rather than a dehusked/debittered malt.

It's an easy substitution in my mind, though I'd probably prefer carafa over the midnight wheat simply because there's no other wheat in the grist.

I should also point out that you might need to up your 2-row. I had some insane crazy efficient brew day when I made and posted this recipe. I've not been able to duplicate it, and had to increase my 2-row by a pound or two.

you're right!
i had punched the numbers and this is what i come up with:

14.2 lbs great western 2 row
4 lbs munich 10L
1.2 lbs chocolate
1 lb crystal 90
.5 lb carafa III
1oz columbus @ 60
1oz cascade @ 15

abv 9.98%
srm 40
ibu 46.6

Looks tasty! I'm curious to know how it turns out with your Munich addition. Check back in when it's done and let me know what you think!

will do. i was also brainstorming about the coffee addition.. i'm thinking around 2oz of coarse ground beans like guatemala antigua or honduras bio latina - in a hop bag after flameout (205F or so) for about 5 minutes.
im also considering a pound of oats, since mashing low i might want some creaminess and good mouth-feels
i'll use some washed san diego Super, that should chew right through it!

brewed today. took FOREVER!
mashed at 150, 75 minutes.
7.5 gallons, boiled down to 5.25
chilled, aerated, pitched 2L of san diego super yeast.
will ferm at 65 degrees.
fly sparge gave me an OG of 1.091

tomorrow brewing a batch of american wheat, also SD super. this will hold me over until mid January, when the porter should be ready. Prost!

update! i used this recipe:
14.2 lbs great western 2 row
4 lbs munich 10L
1.2 lbs chocolate
1 lb crystal 90
.5 lb carafa III
1lb flaked oats
5oz light brown sugar
1oz columbus @ 60
1oz cascade @ 15

i was shooting for a sweet, molasses hinted coffee porter. that's exactly what i got. the full pound of c-90 worried me that it may be too sweet, or overwhelm.. but the brown sugar helped dry it out a bit. i used a cup of organic guatemalan antigua beans (NOT ground, but whole) and 3 vanilla beans in a cup (one pint) of cheap vodka, for 4 days. when i added the filtered vodka to the beer, i tossed in the vanilla using a hop bag.

i have been force carbing for 24 hours @ 30lb psi, and will krank it down to 12psi tonight, to let it sit a week and mature. it is now 5 weeks old, and the pint i just snuck is fantastic. using 2 base malts gave it a nice, deep and nutty dimension that has a mild chocolate and even a slight toffee taste. very nice!

of course, like all my brews, the last pint will be the best one. and that's my dilemma. ha!

i'm calling it LORD VADER

*update, despite my apologies that the beer was young, needed some time to mature, a growler i took to my brewing club's holiday party got great reviews. twice from professional local brewmasters. prost!!

Sounds amazing, and I love the name!

it's very good. 6 weeks old now. the coffee has faded slightly, and has become perfectly complimentary with the dark malts. i would only add more vanilla next time. it is present, but a vodka extract was rushed and didnt really pull a lot of vanilla flavor. next go around, i'll let the beans soak for 3 weeks or so.

the oats addition was a hit.. perfectly creamy mouthfeel with a nice sticky off-tan head.

i'd also change the yeast, to wlp 007 and ferment at 65.
other than that, i think this is in the top five beers for the year, out of 28 batches.

prost!

Very cool! Where did it finish?

I had the same tasting notes, almost exactly with mine. I thought the vanilla was too muted. I gave three beans soaking in vodka for a week, and there was the barest hint of vanilla in the final product. Others said they could strongly detect it, so maybe it's just that my nose is off

looked like about .018 or 9.6% abv

hey, any advice for someone trying to brew this recipe as an extract beer?

Pfgonzo. I am a recent convert to the Victory at Sea porter and would love to replicate it. Your recipe and your reviews seem promising. Have you brewed this more than once and if so is the recipe still the same?

I've made it twice after my initial post and have never been able to achieve the same efficiency. I tried increasing the 2-row by a pound, and still didn't hit the same numbers. If I were to brew it today, I would go with:

17lbs of 2-row
0.5lbs of blackprintz
1.5lbs chocolate malt
1lb of Crystal 40L

You can get by with less 2-row, but you need to pull more during the lauter and do a longer boil.

I hope you have a good temp control system, because after 3 days you NEED to start cranking the heat on the fermentation or it'll stall out. Also make sure you do the double shot of 02. I think I mention both strategies in my original post.

Also, I mentioned above that the vanilla didn't hit me the way I wanted it to, and will be using an extra bean for the rebrew.

All that said, even if you don't hit the numbers to get this to 9.5-10% abv, it will still be damn tasty. Let me know how things turn out!

Thanks for the quick reply and guidance. I just finished a fermentation chamber build and am happy with the results. I have a honey blonde ale planned for this weekend so probably won't get to the victory at sea until Thanksgiving week. Like you I will probably have the first batch ready when the heat of summer comes. [emoji41].

Oh well, I will just have to enjoy the real thing until then. Thanks again. I will reply with details post brew and post consumption.

Anyone get close to the real deal??

I brewed 8 gallons of this back in June. Bottled 2.5 gal pretty fresh and it was pretty spot on, maybe a touch less bitter, fine by me. I wasnt very efficient, hitting 1.08 but oh well, I was maxing out my system with a thick mash and double sparge.

Bulk aged 5 gal in a carboy in the ferm chamber for about 5 months now and the final product is less than ideal, smelling and tasting of rubbing alcohol and getting down to about 1.012. Not sure what I'll do with it now... Me thinks I may mash normal temps next time and see how it goes.

Guess nobody really comes through this thread, haha, my post was the last one.

te-wa said:

update! i used this recipe:
14.2 lbs great western 2 row
4 lbs munich 10L
1.2 lbs chocolate
1 lb crystal 90
.5 lb carafa III
1lb flaked oats
5oz light brown sugar
1oz columbus @ 60
1oz cascade @ 15

i was shooting for a sweet, molasses hinted coffee porter. that's exactly what i got. the full pound of c-90 worried me that it may be too sweet, or overwhelm.. but the brown sugar helped dry it out a bit. i used a cup of organic guatemalan antigua beans (NOT ground, but whole) and 3 vanilla beans in a cup (one pint) of cheap vodka, for 4 days. when i added the filtered vodka to the beer, i tossed in the vanilla using a hop bag.

i have been force carbing for 24 hours @ 30lb psi, and will krank it down to 12psi tonight, to let it sit a week and mature. it is now 5 weeks old, and the pint i just snuck is fantastic. using 2 base malts gave it a nice, deep and nutty dimension that has a mild chocolate and even a slight toffee taste. very nice!

Click to expand...

I ended up making this (more or less) last night while smoking some ribs and entertaining guests. Due to this, I ended up forgetting my 15 min addition. I also used (2) 6oz cones of piloncillo (Panela) instead of the brown sugar, and mashed it at 152 after my last attempt over-attenuating. I got 5.5 gal into the fermentor and hit 1.105, and am fermenting with S-04, been using a lot of S-05 or Notty and wanted to branch out. Should be interesting, and big, and boozy, and sweet haha. Thinking I'll wait and see what it ends up like to decide on treatments, I have vanilla ready, but was thinking of going peanut butter cup on this one.

I may give this a shot with Notty! Are you building a starter or just pitching two packs?

Either one should be fine