Firestone Walker Wookey Jack Clone Attempt

Williams 728
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How much difference is using "carafa III special" going to make versus "carafa III?" My home brew store only carries the "special" versions of carafa. Should I use something else instead? I know the "special" version is debittered.
 
It's supposed to be the "Special" version. This is in the first post:

From Firestone Walker's website:
Style: Unfiltered Black Rye IPA
ABV: 8.5%
Malts: Pale Malt, Malted Rye, Dash of Cara-Rye, Midnight Wheat from Briess, De-Bittered Black Malt (Weyermann - Germany/Patagonia malting - Chile), Dash of Wookey dust
Hops: German Magnum (bittering), Citra & Amarillo (flavor/aroma and double dry-hopped)
Click to expand...
 
Brewed mine this past weekend. I tweaked the recipe just slightly to better hit the numbers as stated on this site and Firestone Walker's site. My fermentation fridge smells fantastic! Very excited for this beer. Thanks for the write up, OP.
 
Kegged this yesterday and am slightly disappointed. My FG came in at 1.023. I used yeast collected from another beer and thinking it may just have crapped out where it did. The previous beer was on the higher gravity/ABV end. Should have started with fresh yeast. 72% attenuation isn't terrible, but I was hoping to get this down around 1.015 or lower. Oh well, live and learn. It's not terrible. Just a little thicker/sweeter than expected/wanted. I may try a different yeast next time around. Something with a higher attenuation and a bit cleaner.

EDIT: Ok I just gave it a taste after sitting on the gas for two days and I have to say, I'm pleasantly surprised. I was concerned with the FG of 1.023, but it tastes damn good. The uge hop aroma and flavor up front that mellows but still hangs around for bit really helps balance the high FG. I wouldn't say it's perfect clone, but not too far off.
 
Thought I would post a pic of mine. Best personal homebrew to date.

ImageUploadedByHome Brew1398897202.827699.jpg



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Got this back on tap for the third time brewing it - It is my house brew from now until I can potentially find something better (Will be a while) :)
 
Recently kegged my 2nd attempt at this recipe but this time with Conan and it came out fantastic. It's such a great recipe. Thank you for sharing. It's easily my favorite black IPA recipe out there.

Give Conan a shot in this and the fruity hops play nicely with the subtle roast.
 
Can't really sub chocolate rye for cara rye. Totally different - one is heated to carmelize the sugars giving sweetness, the other is Kilned then roasted to give more bitter/nutty flavors.

If you must sub, I would use a bit of crystal 60 and a bit of rye before I used chocolate rye.


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Can someone help me here. I'm inputing this into beersmith for the future and my mash efficiency is calculated to 72% which is around where I've been the first 4 batches I've done. So I had to adjust the grainbill for my efficiencty which increased the 2 row and the rye malt. OG is now 1.080 but the FG won't change and its at 1.021 thereby lowering the overall ABV to 7.8. What do I need to change to lower the FG and up the abv? The IBU's look good at 61.9 and the color is a little lower at 31.6 but Beersmith doesn't have Cara-rye or midnight wheat in it's database so I had to substitute carared and chocolate malt which may have altered the color. Thanks for any help.
 
olotti said:
Ok thanks when I changed it to max attenuation of 85% it dropped FG to 1.015 and abv to 8.6%.

Is this clone still being brewed with the Cara-rye and midnight wheat?
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Yes, I've been using this recipe to the T and the results have been fantastic, very, very very hard to tell the difference in a blind taste test
 
New issue of Zymurgy has a recipe for Wookey. Very close to this recipe. I need to brew this one again.


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samandbekah said:
Yes, I've been using this recipe to the T and the results have been fantastic, very, very very hard to tell the difference in a blind taste test
Click to expand...

Its unbelievably close. Me and a friend brewed up separate batches then did a three way blind test with the real thing. All three were pretty much identical, with the only difference being more hops aroma from the two home brews, just because they were fresher. This will be my house beer for a long time.
 
troglodytes said:
Its unbelievably close. Me and a friend brewed up separate batches then did a three way blind test with the real thing. All three were pretty much identical, with the only difference being more hops aroma from the two home brews, just because they were fresher. This will be my house beer for a long time.[/QUOTE

This looks like a great recipe to bourbon barrel age. Anyone ever try it????
Click to expand...
 
Nah. Typically barrel aging and IPA don't mix. IPAs are all about fresh hop aroma, flavor, and bitterness. If you age it in barrels your going to lose a lot of IBUs and your aroma will be gone. Barrel aging is best left to more malt forward beers and sours IMO.


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olotti said:
troglodytes said:
Its unbelievably close. Me and a friend brewed up separate batches then did a three way blind test with the real thing. All three were pretty much identical, with the only difference being more hops aroma from the two home brews, just because they were fresher. This will be my house beer for a long time.[/QUOTE



This looks like a great recipe to bourbon barrel age. Anyone ever try it????
Click to expand...


I have had some BA IPAs I liked, such as Founders Doom and Karbach Bodacious. I would dry hop after the "barreling" and probably use soaked oak chips in leau of barrels. They seem to impart flavors faster IME.
Click to expand...
 
skeezerpleezer said:
olotti said:
I have had some BA IPAs I liked, such as Founders Doom and Karbach Bodacious. I would dry hop after the "barreling" and probably use soaked oak chips in leau of barrels. They seem to impart flavors faster IME.
Click to expand...

I guess I was just wondering if anyone here had tried throwing this on bourbon. Seems like it may pair well with the dark malts, but then again IDK how it would work with the citrus of the hops.
Click to expand...
 
One of the finer points of home brewing is experimentation... Do if you wanted to barrel age, go for it... I would agree with the post above regarding dry hopping though, I would brew as normal, barrel age, then follow the dry hopping schedule. And if you Keg, add the second dry hop addition to the actual keg and I think you would stand a good chance of maintaining some or a lot of the aroma
 
I would also over bitter if you're going to age for any significant length of time. That way when hops drop out it will still be hop forward


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Brewed this up yesterday. Had to make a few substitutions due to lack of some grain availability. Upped the carafa and used a smaller amount of regular wheat, and then crystal 60L. Didn't realize I was out of Magnum so subbed Chinook. Won't be the same beer but smelled great.

I recently switched over to some new equipment so my efficiency has been awful. This one went better but still dialing everything in. Ended up with a mash efficiency around 65% or so and brew house efficiency less than that. Still not quite sure why my numbers have been so far off.

My mash temps got away from me so ended up way too high. Either way I'm excited for this one. Still should end up around 7%

OG: 1.070
Est FG: 1.016

Ingredients:

6.50 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) US (3.9 EBC) Grain 1 80.7 %
0.80 kg Rye Malt (9.3 EBC) Grain 2 10.0 %
0.35 kg Carafa III (1034.3 EBC) Grain 3 4.3 %
0.25 kg Crystal (Joe White) (160.0 EBC) Grain 4 3.1 %
0.15 kg Wheat Malt, Pale (Weyermann) (3.9 EBC)

16.00 g Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 6 23.9 IBUs
28.00 g Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 25.0 min Hop 7 17.8 IBUs
28.00 g Citra [12.40 %] - Boil 25.0 min Hop 8 25.9 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 9 -
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 10.0 mins) Other 10 -
50.00 g Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
50.00 g Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 12 0.0 IBUs

Yeast:
California Ale V #WLP051 - Re-cultured from a recent IPA, built up for a few days. Should be a beast.

Mash:
Mash In Add 24.00 l of water at 70.8 C - hold 65.4 C 60 min
Mash Step Add 0.00 l of water and heat to 71.0 C over 5 min 71.0 C 10 min
 
Just wrapped a long brew day with this recipe (beast...). Really appreciate all the ideas along the way on this thread. We will see how it turns out (OG turned out WAY low (13 points), still tuning my gear so not unexpected).

I've gotta say that this beer is one of my favorites. FW does some great work and sometimes you just have stop, sit back, and appreciate the craftsmen...While drinking a beer of course...
 
Josh1275 said:
Just wrapped a long brew day with this recipe (beast...). Really appreciate all the ideas along the way on this thread. We will see how it turns out (OG turned out WAY low (13 points), still tuning my gear so not unexpected).

I've gotta say that this beer is one of my favorites. FW does some great work and sometimes you just have stop, sit back, and appreciate the craftsmen...While drinking a beer of course...
Click to expand...

My OG was really low also. About 12 points lower but it still turned out awesome. Still figuring out my equip also since now I have to do 2.5gal batches on an electric stove. This is my best brew to date out of a dozen. I wouldn't worry but I get it
 
The first time I ever brewed this I missed my OG by 20 points... the beer still turned out amazing... don't sweat it, I'm sure the same will turn out for you guys!
 
In order to hit the gravity on this recipe I think you need to be pretty good with your process with such a high OG. I was proud to only miss by 8 pts. Still the best recipe I ever made
 
troglodytes said:
In order to hit the gravity on this recipe I think you need to be pretty good with your process with such a high OG. I was proud to only miss by 8 pts. Still the best recipe I ever made
Click to expand...

I've brewed this about ten times now and I couldn't agree more... I'm finally hitting my numbers spot on. Practice makes perfect!
 
troglodytes said:
In order to hit the gravity on this recipe I think you need to be pretty good with your process with such a high OG. I was proud to only miss by 8 pts. Still the best recipe I ever made
Click to expand...

I've brewed this about ten times now and I couldn't agree more... I'm finally hitting my numbers spot on. Practice makes perfect!
 
Been in the keg for a couple of weeks. Finally starting to hit the right marks. Sitting somewhere around 2.5 vols. Not quite the same beer but I'm really liking it so far. The chinook added an earthy - slightly spicy tone to it. Nice balance of biscuit, roast, and hops. Dry hop seems to be fairly lost but there's still a slight nose as it warms. Thanks for the recipe - great brew!

OG: 1.070
FG: 1.015
Ended up at 7.3%

mmexport1410295262697.jpg
 
kwoodsetup said:
Been in the keg for a couple of weeks. Finally starting to hit the right marks. Sitting somewhere around 2.5 vols. Not quite the same beer but I'm really liking it so far. The chinook added an earthy - slightly spicy tone to it. Nice balance of biscuit, roast, and hops. Dry hop seems to be fairly lost but there's still a slight nose as it warms. Thanks for the recipe - great brew!

OG: 1.070
FG: 1.015
Ended up at 7.3%

View attachment 222964
Click to expand...

If you are not tasting/smelling the dry hop addition it's suggest adding the second dry hop straight to the keg. I started doing that a few batches ago and my aroma is spot on if not slightly more intense (I prefer this myself)
 
I just kegged my third batch of this bad boy. I get a heavy hop flavor from the dry hop and I'm surprised it is missing for you! Did you dry hop in a bag or tea screen? I dry hop right into the wort.

Can't wait to drink this bad buy in a week or two!
 
I dry hopped it in bags. Thinking it might not have gotten a lot of surface area in the fermenter. Next time I may do the second dry hop in the keg as suggested by someone else, I've had pretty good luck with that.

Once we finish this keg up I'm looking to do this one again. Split batch with some oak cubes maybe? Wondering how some more smoke/oak flavor might play with this grain/hop bill.
 
So looking at the recipe and some follow up posts I see that the mash is started at 148 for 60min then raised to 155 for 10 min. How is this done? I have a 10gal cooler mlt and obviously it cant be heated. On first glance I just viewed the raising to 155 as a mashout process but I see others raise the temp then do a mashout so I'm confused as to how people are raising the temp of the mash and with how much water and what strike temp to achieve the 155deg. Thanks for the help.
 
olotti said:
So looking at the recipe and some follow up posts I see that the mash is started at 148 for 60min then raised to 155 for 10 min. How is this done? I have a 10gal cooler mlt and obviously it cant be heated. On first glance I just viewed the raising to 155 as a mashout process but I see others raise the temp then do a mashout so I'm confused as to how people are raising the temp of the mash and with how much water and what strike temp to achieve the 155deg. Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...

The first step is a rest 145F so I shoot for 1.25-1.5 quarts per pound for this step. Then I add enough boiling water to get to 155F for the second step (for my 5.5 gal batches generally 4-8qts boiling water). And again add a little more water for 167F mash-out (or if mash tun too full I can just drain first since I batch sparge).

The 145F and the 155F steps are the only points any conversion is happening so that's the only time to try to stay in the 1.25-2.25qts/lb.

Here's a calculator for determining how much boiling water needed to raise temperature of mash:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash/

A little info on the mash temps:
http://realbeer.com/jjpalmer/ch14.html
 

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