Can you Brew It recipe for Firestone Walker - Walker's Reserve

All recipes are (unless otherwise specified): 6 gallons post-boil, 70% efficiency, Morey for color, 15% evaporation, 7.27 gallons preboil, Rager IBU, and most hops are in grams not ounces. Most, if not all recipes are primary only (no secondary).

If you brew this, please reply with your results for discussion.

90 minute boil

OG 1061
33 SRM
17.8 IBU

4.61kg British Pale Ale malt
650g Crystal 75
320g chocolate malt
320g flaked oats
320g wheat malt
160g Crystal 120
100g Carafe Special III

18g EKG 5%AA @ 90min
12g EKG @ 30min
39g Cascade 7%AA @ 0min
With a one hour hot whirlpool. Or...

change the cascade to 30min and change the 30min EKG to 45min if you do not use a whirlpool.

WLP002 (Jamil said that WLP007 would work fine as well.)

Step Mash instructions:
145F for 15min
156F for 45min
Mash out at 168 for 10min

Adjust water with gypsum and CaCl to 100ppm

Pitch at 17C, let rise to 19C in 24-48 hour. Let rise to 21C over course of further fermentation.

1-2 oz medium toast american oak cubes for each 5 gallon

Discussion Notes:
JP mashed at 154F. Jamil said this is an acceptable alternative to the step mash listed above. JP added for 1oz oak chips immediately and then removed after 7-8 days. JP said that chips work better for fermentation and cubes are better for aging. JP did not use gypsum, but Jamil and JP both agreed that it would be helpful to add it.

Popping this into beersmith yielded an OG of 1.071 with 70% efficiency. Think Jamil made a mistake?

thesanch said:

Popping this into beersmith yielded an OG of 1.071 with 70% efficiency. Think Jamil made a mistake?

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I don't think so. ProMash gave me OG of 1.073, but then I realized something I missed at first:

EricCSU said:

All recipes are (unless otherwise specified): 6 gallons post-boil,

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If I bump the batch up to 6 gallons, that 1.073 falls to a dead on 1.061.


edit: by the way, who said you guys could have my private reserve beer?

Stupid me. Thanks.

Anyone made this? Results? Sounds great, might be my next brew.

Brew date is set for Sunday. I've been waiting to do this beer for a long time.

I was finally able to get my hands on this, and I must say that it is by far my favorite porter on the market right now. I'll have to give this a shot, but later in the year.

As for the water adjustment, what do you think they mean by adjusting Gypsum and CaCL to 100ppm? What ion? What CL:SO4 ratio?

Brewed this on Sunday. I used RO water and built the water profile up:

Total water (ppm):
Ca: 107
Mg: 16
Na: 85
Cl: 122
SO4: 159
Cl to SO4 Ratio: 0.76

Hit my numbers for the first time in forever. I'll post later for a tasting, and later again when it's packaged and carbed.

OG 1061
33 SRM
17.8 IBU

Click to expand...

18g EKG 5%AA @ 90min
12g EKG @ 30min
39g Cascade 7%AA @ 0min
With a one hour hot whirlpool. Or...

change the cascade to 30min and change the 30min EKG to 45min if you do not use a whirlpool.

Click to expand...

17.8 IBU? Plug the 'non-whirlpool' numbers in and you should get an IBU level at least twice 17.8. I'm not sure if the two methods yield the same bitterness level but if they do, 17.8 IBU isn't even close. What gives?

SpanishCastleAle said:

17.8 IBU? Plug the 'non-whirlpool' numbers in and you should get an IBU level at least twice 17.8. I'm not sure if the two methods yield the same bitterness level but if they do, 17.8 IBU isn't even close. What gives?

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Are you using Rager?

dcp27 said:

Are you using Rager?

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No, and I know Jamil uses Rager in all the recipes but I'd be shocked if Rager says 17.8 and Tinseth says 37.

The reason I plugged in the numbers for the 'non-whirlpool' method was to see how much bitterness they were expecting from the 1 hour hot whirlpool with the Cascade added at flameout. I plan to try whirlpool-hopping this weekend and was interested in the calculation. I can't remember the exact number but it was around 37 IBU.

I got 18.8 using Rager, but close enough

http://www.rooftopbrew.net/ibu.php

dcp27 said:

I got 18.8 using Rager, but close enough

http://www.rooftopbrew.net/ibu.php

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That's not even close to what I get. I get 37 IBU per Rager on that site.

Using 6 gal @ 1.061 and Rager using the non-whirlpool schedule:
.63 oz 5% at 90 min
.42 oz 5% @ 45 min
1.38 oz 7% @ 30 min

It returns ~37 IBU.

I was pretty sure Rager returned higher values than Tinseth but was hesitant to say but this little exercise confirmed it. Don't know what I did wrong before (prob used Rager unknowingly, I used tastybrew the first time) but that site returns 33 IBU per Tinseth.

oops I was using the whirlpool one

dcp27 said:

oops I was using the whirlpool one

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That's what caught my eye in the first place, one glance at that hop schedule and the seat-o-the-pants meter said "No effing way that's 18 IBU."

Something that wasn't noted in the recipe: JP did use 1 oz of oak chips, but he brewed 10 gallons. I just brewed it and I added .5 oz. of oak chips to my 5.5 gallons in the fermentor. I'll report back, smells great!!

So, how did this go for those that brewed it? I am planning to brew this tomorrow as Walker's Reserve is also my favorite porter available right now...

It turned out really well. I did notice that I got a slight bubblegum ester from the yeast (WLP002). I followed the fermentation temps from the show, and I made a starter using the Mr.Malty yeast calculator. FW's beer is a little more "rich" than mine, not sure why yet. I was thinking maybe water, I used carbon filtered tap water, while FW used RO and adds back gypsum and Calcium Chloride. Great beer.

Brewed this 2 weeks ago and just kegged it today. I altered it just a bit based on grains on hand; about half of my chocolate wheat was subbed for chocolate malt. The significant alteration was slicing, scraping, soaking 2 vanilla beans in 2 ounces of Maker's Mark for a few days, then adding for the final 10 days in the primary. The flat sample from today at kegging screamed cigars to me. The vanilla was prominent, but not too much in my opinion. That added with the oak and a bit of alcohol burn really brought visions of a cigar to mind. It fermented hot. I pitched at 65F, but without any temp control it skyrocketed up to almost 80 around the 36 hour mark. I ended up with 76% AA compared to the 66.5% in the numbers provided, so it dried out more than planned. I'll report back in a month or 2 once it's tapped.

Brewed it a few weeks ago. Only differences were I used Magnum in place of EKG and oak-smoked wheat instead of the regular wheat. Used WLP 007 and was shocked when fermentation ended at 1.020. After carbonation the beer still tastes amazing. Oak flavor was a little more pronounced then expected but the beer will probably mellow with age. Overall I'm really happy with this one!