FSW tribute recipes - "A tale of 3 Jacks"

I love a great IPA. From what I hear, some of the best IPA's in the country are coming out of a little brewery in CA called Firestone Walker. I have made the Union Jack clone featured on CYBI, and I can't believe how great it came out. I have also tasted the Union Jack and Double Jack, and they do not dissapoint. I just love Matt B's outlook on process and recipe formulation, so I made an effort to emulate what he is doing. I'd like to share my recipe and process for Union Jack, and I want to offer 2 variations I worked through; a Black IPA (sort of like Wookey Jack but omitting the Rye) and my answer to Double Jack. These recipes all use a criminal amount of hops, but it is worth it. If you want to skimp on hops, brew a Scottish 60. My process calls for 10 days warm fermentation and 4 days cold conditioning before packaging. I bottle condition, and even with a crash cool, enough yeast remains in suspension to get the job done.

All recipes are 70% efficiency
exactly 7.5 Gallons preboil
exactly 5 gallons into the carboy
70 minute boil

Water - 100 PPM calcium , 50 PPM Chloride, 200 PPM Sulfate.
5 gallons of mash water + 2.5 Gallons of sparge water (prep extra sparge water to off-set absorption). I add 2 level tsps. of Gypsum right to the mash, and make a small pH adjustment with a dash of Lactic Acid. You could also build RO water up with a small addition of Calcium Chloride.

Mash Schedule - 60 mins at 145F , 30 mins at 158F, raise to 168F for mash out. Recirculate until clear. (If single infusion, try 152F for 90 minutes, and maybe switch to WLP007 to make up for attenuation issues).

Ferm Schedule -oxygenate for 60 secs and big decanted pitch of WLP002 (or maybe WLP007 if using single infusion) - pitch at 64F, raise to 66F 12-24 hours after pitching, raise to 70F 48-60 hrs after pitching, and crash cool 10 days after pitching to 35F.

"Union Jack" IPA (Clone)
13 lbs US 2-row
2 lbs light Munich (8-10L)
12 oz Briess Carapils
4 oz Simpson's Caramalt 30/37

.75 oz Magnum at 60 (could use Warrior or Horizon)
.25 oz Columbus at 60 (could use Simcoe or Chinook)
.5 oz Centennial at 30
.5 oz Cascade at 30
2 oz Centennial at 0 (allow for 30 minute hot steep/whirlpool)
2 oz Cascade at 0 (allow for 30 minute hot steep/whirlpool)
(On day 4 of fermentation - 1st dry hop)
1.5 oz Centennial
1.5 oz Cascade
(4 days after 1st dry hop)
1 oz Centennial
1 oz Cascade
.5 oz Amarillo
.5 oz Simcoe
.5 oz Columbus


"Black Jack" Black IPA
13 lbs US 2-row
2 lbs light Munich (8-10L)
12 oz Carafa Special III (ground and top mashed at end of 158F rest)
4 oz UK Chocolate (ground and top mashed at end of 158F rest)

.75 oz Magnum at 60
.25 oz Columbus at 60
.5 oz Amarillo at 30
.5 oz Citra at 30
2 oz Amarillo at 0 (allow for 30 minute hot steep/whirlpool)
2 oz Citra at 0 (allow for 30 minute hot steep/whirlpool)
(On day 4 of fermentation - 1st dry hop)
1.5 oz Amarillo
1.5 oz Citra
(4 days after 1st dry hop)
1.5 oz Amarillo
1.5 oz Citra

"Double Jack" Double IPA
(Smaller than the real Double Jack; made more in the spirit of Pliny. Also, this is a 3 week beer to allow for the third dry hop addition.)

13 lbs US 2-row
2 lbs light Munich (8-10L)
4 oz Simpson's Caramalt 30/37
12 oz White Sugar at end of Boil


1.5 oz Magnum at 60 (could use Warrior or Horizon)
.5 oz Columbus at 60 (could use Simcoe or Chinook)
.5 oz Centennial at 30
.5 oz Cascade at 30
2 oz Centennial at 0 (allow for 30 minute hot steep/whirlpool)
2 oz Cascade at 0 (allow for 30 minute hot steep/whirlpool)
(On day 4 of fermentation - 1st dry hop)
1.5 oz Centennial
1.5 oz Cascade
(4 days after 1st dry hop)
1.5 oz Centennial
1.5 oz Cascade
(4 days after 2nd dry hop)
1 oz Centennial
1 oz Cascade
.5 oz Amarillo
.5 oz Simcoe
.5 oz Columbus

"Black Jack" is next of my list. Please reach out if anyone tries one of the recipes, and let me know what you think.

Great write up! I am also a huge fan of FW. I've used the hop schedule Tasty created for UJ when I brewed an India Red Ale and I ran into some issues. I followed Tasty's advice of doing a 30 min rest post-boil and prior to chilling to maximize the late additions. I use an immersion chiller to cool and found out (between this brew and a Janet's brown brew) that these steeps after boil were actually causing me to lose hop aroma/flavor and drive up bitterness slightly.

What are your experiences with this hope schedule? Also, what methods are you using for your whirlpool/aroma steep?

Cheers

uright said:

What are your experiences with this hope schedule? Also, what methods are you using for your whirlpool/aroma steep?

Click to expand...

I have decided to experiment with even dropping the 30 minute boil addition, and just going with a small 60 minute bittering addition and the 30 minute whirlpool. I know it kind of spits in the face of 60/30/15/0 convention, but I just really like the results of the whirlpool. For the sake of calculation, I enter the whirlpool addition as a 15 minute boil addition into Beer Alchemy.

For my method...

I start my whirlpool recirculation arm at 15 minutes left in the boil (I built a Jamil-style whirlpool immersion chiller). As the timer goes off for the boil, I toss in the whirlpool hops and kill the flame. I then cover the kettle with the lid and some foil to seal up any openings. I reset the timer for 30 minutes, and walk away. When 30 minutes passes, I turn on the cold water to begin chilling (leaving the pump recirculating for 15 minutes to improve thermodynamics during chilling.) After 15 minutes, I turn off the pump to allow things start to settle, leaving on the chilling water if the pitching temp has not been met yet. One hour after the boil ends, I transfer to the carboy. It is tough to get a nice cone in the kettle because the chiller interferes a bit with the formation, but between the rapid chilling, whirlfloc, and some time to settle, the wort being transfered is pretty clear.

The BN had a pretty good discussion about this method of whirlpool hopping at the end of the Distihl Show on the Sunday Session (the show aired a month or two ago).

Thanks for the info bud.

I have been researching the effects of post boil/flame out hops, and I've decided to run some tests on an APA using the same grist and hop amount. Test 1 will be hop bursting at 15/10/5/0 and starting the cooling process at flame-out. Test 2 will be a large addition at flame-out with a 15 min steep then chilling. Test 3 will an addition at 200 degrees with a 15 mins steep. Drop the temp to 160 and add the rest of the hops for a 15 mins steep.

I wish I was able to talk to Matt B from Firestone and ask him what hopping schedule for a homebrewer would best simulate his commercial schedule.