Firestone Walker Wookey Jack Clone Attempt

Yakima 728
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Mine wasn't overly bitter at all, but it did have a bit of grassiness that I didn't care for in the beginning. That has faded after being in the keg a couple weeks. It's still there a little bit, but it's not unpleasant. I have a feeling the grassiness was my fault, because I did a hop stand with the flameout addition. I'm thinking I shouldn't have done that.. Still a great beer in spite of this.
 
Stauffbier said:
Mine wasn't overly bitter at all, but it did have a bit of grassiness that I didn't care for in the beginning. That has faded after being in the keg a couple weeks. It's still there a little bit, but it's not unpleasant. I have a feeling the grassiness was my fault, because I did a hop stand with the flameout addition. I'm thinking I shouldn't have done that.. Still a great beer in spite of this.
Click to expand...

Did you use this years amarillo? People are saying they are grassy
 
I did get a bit of grassiness in mine and wondered where it came from. I've heard nothing but rave reviews about the Amarillo in the past and was excited to use it.

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So I don't know if two days matters or makes that big of a difference but my brother-in-law and I are drinking this tonight and it's not as bitter as I had originally thought. He really likes this beer and I have to say that it is much tastier! Another week and it'll be amazing!

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Great beer.

My OG was 1.076 and FG ended up being 1.017. Its definitely a little sweeter than the original, but I think I need to blame my process and equipment for that.

Overall, one of the better beers I've made and even though mine didn't complete at the exact expected gravities, it does taste very similar. I had a friend over last night whose top 5 beer list contains Wookey Jack. Not know what he was having he had one sip and looked at me surprised and said, "Holy Crap, that's almost Wookey Jack." Can't think of higher praise for a clone.
 
The recipe calc needs to be adjusted for the amount of time those zero minute hops spend in the wort over 170 degrees. They will not yield zero IBU. This may be why 60 is seeming too bitter because it's not really 60, it's probably double that with that big charge of high alphas at zero minutes.


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drawdy10 said:
The recipe calc needs to be adjusted for the amount of time those zero minute hops spend in the wort over 170 degrees. They will not yield zero IBU. This may be why 60 is seeming too bitter because it's not really 60, it's probably double that with that big charge of high alphas at zero minutes.


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Click to expand...

Skeezer's recipe doesn't call for a hop stand on the flameout additions, so if your chilling your beer quickly it shouldn't be much longer than 2-5 minutes above 170F. That wouldn't change the bitterness enough to even be detectable in my opinion. As I mentioned above, I tweaked Skeezer's recipe by doing a 30 minute hop stand at 170F with the flameout additions, and my beer STILL didn't come out overly bitter. It just came out a bit grassy, which is apparently an issue with the 2013 Amarillo crop from what I've read...
 
Well I upped the magnum addition to 0.75 oz targeting 75 IBUs and I did a 20 minute hop stand (which I do for all my flameout hops now). I'm sure it won't be too bitter for me, but hopefully I didn't screw up the roasty/rye/bitterness balance.
 
Brewing this up in about 30 min. Brew hut didn't have cara-rye so went with crystal 80 instead. Not sure if this makes a big difference??

Has anyone figured out a water profile for this style? I chose black bitter in bru'nwater but not sure if that's an accurate profile


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juggabrew said:
Brewing this up in about 30 min. Brew hut didn't have cara-rye so went with crystal 80 instead. Not sure if this makes a big difference??

Has anyone figured out a water profile for this style? I chose black bitter in bru'nwater but not sure if that's an accurate profile
Click to expand...
It was posted earlier in the thread:
guillermo81 said:
thank you!!!

FYI... asking Matt Brynildson on twitter about water profile, here is what he said me:

"Wookey Jack brewing salts - we use RO treated water with a 2/3 Gypsum 1/3 CaCl- addition to get the total Ca addition up to 100ppm. Kettle 2"

My only doubt is what does Matt means about kettle 2????? same amount of salts on the kettle?? what do you think?
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I use tap water and I added gypsum to get the Ca up to 100 ppm and it brought my sulfate up to 213.5 ppm. I didn't add the CaCl as I didn't see a need. I haven't tried mine yet as I just kegged it yesterday. I also added lactic acid to bring the pH down. Here's my profile:

Calcium 100.0 (ppm)
Magnesium 9.7 (ppm)
Sodium 21.9 (ppm)
Sulfate 213.5 (ppm)
Chloride 21.2 (ppm)
Bicarbonate 64.2 (ppm)
 
mtnagel said:
It was posted earlier in the thread:

I use tap water and I added gypsum to get the Ca up to 100 ppm and it brought my sulfate up to 213.5 ppm. I didn't add the CaCl as I didn't see a need. I haven't tried mine yet as I just kegged it yesterday. I also added lactic acid to bring the pH down. Here's my profile:

Calcium 100.0 (ppm)
Magnesium 9.7 (ppm)
Sodium 21.9 (ppm)
Sulfate 213.5 (ppm)
Chloride 21.2 (ppm)
Bicarbonate 64.2 (ppm)
Click to expand...

Thanks. I added gypsum and CaCl t give 102 Ca but my Sulfate is at 167. Denver sulfate is pretty low to start (17) and I'm not running up to the store just to get epsom salt. to get my sulfate to 200, my Ca would be at 120.
 
Well following what was said that FW does, if you started with 100% RO and did 2/3 gypsum and 1/3 CaCl2 to get 100 ppm Ca, then I'd get 151 ppm sulfate, so you are very close to that. I purposely chose to drive up the sulfate because I like what it does to my hoppy beers, but I've just started messing with mineral additions, so hopefully I did okay.
 
Thank you again OP for obtaining this clone recipe... A fantastic clone it is, just like the real wookey itself... Pure deliciousness

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2014-02-17 22.00.42.jpg
 
Turns out my boil off rate was over estimated and my OG stopped short at 1.060. Should've been 1.072. Other than that everything else I hit dead on. I wonder if this will change the character of the beer?


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juggabrew said:
Turns out my boil off rate was over estimated and my OG stopped short at 1.060. Should've been 1.072. Other than that everything else I hit dead on. I wonder if this will change the character of the beer?


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Click to expand...

My first attempt at this clone I was around the same thing for the OG... I just let it sit a little longer than usual in primary to get as close to FG as possible. It still turned out to be delicious.

I wouldn't expect anything different from yours

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Plan on making this in a few days. I had to make a few substitutes for the grain bill. What do you think about the following grain bill for this beer:

15 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 80.3 %
2 lbs Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 3 10.7 %
12.0 oz Blackprinz (500.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.0 %
9.9 oz Carafa II (412.0 SRM) Grain 5 3.3 %
4.8 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 6 1.6 %


Also, the Blackprinz has been milled for 2 months now in a sealed bag, is that going to be an issue? thanks for any help
 
Beer_Goggles, The Black Prinz should be fine. My experience is, the darker the malt the longer you can store before use milled or unmilled.

I'm planning on using this recipe as base for a Black IPA I'm brewing in about a week.

I made adjustments for my BIAB system by upping the base malt and adding pale extract as necessary to hit my gravity. I also like a more attenuated beer so I'm using WLP007 and dropping in 4-8 oz of Jaggery.

My hops will be 8 oz total of "Experimental Pine Fruit" from Yakima Valley Hops. Plus an ounce of Citra and an Ounce of Amarillo for the second dry hop.
 
I was actually thinking this beer would make a great base recipe for a stout(ish) type beer as well. It's super roasty and thick bodied.
 
For those who have been asking about an extract version I think that I have it for you! It may have been pure accident that it turned out so delicious since this is only my 8th brew ever, but side by side with the real thing my roommate and I got them mixed up and could not tell which one was which. We think that the original may have a few more IBU's but we really couldn't say either way. A 90 min boil may have fixed that as well. The extract that I used was the rye extract from northern brewer and it worked wonderfully!

Brewer: lammbn
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 5.70 gal
Color: 39.7 SRM
Equipment: Pot - 8gal
Bitterness: 63.7 IBUs
Boil Time: 60 min
Actual OG: 1.083
Actual FG: 1.022
ABV: 8.0%


1 lbs - Carafa III dehusked - Steep 20min prior to boil
12 lbs - Rye Extract blend - Boil 60 min
0.5 oz - Magnum [14.0%] - Boil 60 min
1.0 oz - Citra [12.0%] - Boil 20 min
1.0 oz - Amarillo Gold [8.5%] - Boil 20 min
1.00 - Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15 min)
2.0 oz - Citra [12.0%] - Boil 1 min
2.0 oz - Amarillo Gold [8.5%] - Boil 1 min
1 pkgs - English Ale (White Labs WLP002)
1.0 oz - Amarillo Gold [8.5%] - Dry Hop 4 days
1.0 oz - Citra [12.0%] - Dry Hop 4 days

I may decide to do a second dry hop in the keg if the aroma wears off fast but after one dry hopping it tasted and smelled so good I saw no reason to do it again!
 
I almost forgot. I let it sit in the primary for 3 weeks at 64 degrees and then dry hopped in the primary. I was going to secondary it before I decided not to dry hop again.
 
I brewed this a couple months ago , and it turned out friggin PHENOMINAL. I upped the hops a lot , mine was closer to 90 IBUs, and I dry hopped it even more. One of the best beers I've brewed yet.
Also, for those of you who are in the Denver area and having trouble finding the grains, Go to quirky homebrew! He has 158 different types of grains, all at great prices. It's in Thornton near 112th and Huron.


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Did anyone else have an issue with this beer coming out real sweet climates to the original? Mine finished at 1.017 and my friends came out at 1.018. I feel like to sweetness/maltiness detracts from the beer a little. Still very delicious so I can't really complain.

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jason91notch said:
I brewed this a couple months ago , and it turned out friggin PHENOMINAL. I upped the hops a lot , mine was closer to 90 IBUs, and I dry hopped it even more. One of the best beers I've brewed yet.
Also, for those of you who are in the Denver area and having trouble finding the grains, Go to quirky homebrew! He has 158 different types of grains, all at great prices. It's in Thornton near 112th and Huron.


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Click to expand...

Ive been going to brew hut and the only thing they didn't have was the cara-rye. I substituted C80. Ill check out quirky home-brew if its not too far of a drive. Im in congress park. Thanks for the tip
 
troglodytes said:
Did anyone else have an issue with this beer coming out real sweet climates to the original? Mine finished at 1.017 and my friends came out at 1.018. I feel like to sweetness/maltiness detracts from the beer a little. Still very delicious so I can't really complain.

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Click to expand...

What temperature did you mash at?

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samandbekah said:
What temperature did you mash at?

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I was involved in the mashing of both batches.

Mine (1.017) was mashed at 146F for 60 minutes, then 154F for 30 minutes.
My friend's batch (1.018) was mashed a 146F for 60 minutes and 155F for 30 minutes.

Now I know (looking back at the OP) the 155F degree step was for only 10 minutes. We did the second step for both batches for an extra 20 minutes kind of by accident, but figured the majority of the sugar extraction would have occurred during the 60 minute step at 146-147F and shouldn't have much bearing on the overall fermentability of the wort. Also note that despite the added mash step time at 155F, both of us missed the preboil gravity by a substantial amount (1.072 and 1.074).
 
I've decided to make this brew my house IPA. Will forever now have it on tap (unless it runs out before I can replenish, which will probably be the case!)
 
Swapped out the Amarillo for cascade and used 2 packs of rehydrated us04. Down from 1.075-1.02 in a week and just dropped round 1 of dry hop in. Smells great already.
 
sk888smooth said:
I've decided to make this brew my house IPA. Will forever now have it on tap (unless it runs out before I can replenish, which will probably be the case!)
Click to expand...

I wish you good luck in achieving this as I've failed to succeed myself lol it just goes down so smooth!

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1395171754819.jpg
 
Mine is now 5 weeks in the keg after ~10 days primary (1 dry hop in primary, 1 dry hop in keg) and I now think this might be my best beer. Thanks for the recipe.
 

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