Firestone Walker Wookey Jack Clone Attempt

[ipsiad]

I did my side-by-side tasting with the real Wookey Jack. FWIW, my bomber of WJ was bottled on 7/6/12 and was unrefrigerated at the store, while my brew was brewed on 8/5 and kept cold after dry hopping.

Here's a picture of them next to each other:

Mine is on the left, WJ is on the right. Right away you can see there's a difference in the color of the head, and when light is shining through them the clone is slightly darker. I think this is due to the crush on my midnight wheat. I bought that separately at my LHBS (everything else was pre-crushed from BMW), and as I always do with wheat malts I set the mill gap smaller, but that ended up pulverizing the midnight wheat almost into powder. I think if everything were milled together the color would've been identical.

I had SWMBO assist me with a blindfolded triangle test. Aroma was virtually indistinguishable. Mine had slightly more hop aroma, but the character was the same. Taste was very close as well - same hint of spice and roastiness from the rye and dark malts, same sweet fruity flavors from the Citra/Amarillo blend. The WJ however had a floral note in the aftertaste that the clone didn't have, and WJ's mouthfeel/finish was also a little thinner. So based on the aftertaste and mouthfeel I could always tell them apart in a triangle test. Overall though they're really, really close, and both beers were outstanding. Without knowing which was which, SWMBO said she preferred the clone.

Phenomenal recipe, easily one of the best beers I've ever made. Can't stop drinking it (which is problematic, as it's 8.5% ABV). I'm actually not a fan of most black IPAs, but FSW and skeezerpleezer got it right with this one. I will definitely brew this again.

 

[skeezerpleezer]

Thanks for the feedback and glad it turned out good. I put mine on gas 3 days ago, so will compare it to the real Wookey Jack this weekend.

 

[skeezerpleezer]

Welp, here it is. Appearance is spot on, my head retention lasted a bit better. Aroma, mine is better, lots more hops, but is fresher, i will grab new Wookey tomorrow in AZ and compare again. Taste is as basically spot on, not gonna get much closer. This is fantastic, will be making another soon.

 

[Moose777]

I was one of the judges at The California Beer Festival in Ventura last weekend and this was my favorite entry. It ended up taking second place overall.
Karl Strauss Brewing - Wreck Alley Imperial Stout took first prize

I'll be giving this recipe a shot next if I can find all the ingredients.

 

[LarryC]

Welp, here it is. Appearance is spot on, my head retention lasted a bit better. Aroma, mine is better, lots more hops, but is fresher, i will grab new Wookey tomorrow in AZ and compare again. Taste is as basically spot on, not gonna get much closer. This is fantastic, will be making another soon.

View attachment 75841

Today I will be brewing the FW Wookie Jack clone and I wanted to thank you for posting the recipe and doing the grunt work to get everything out to your HBT brothers.

I do have two questions for you - first, is the recipe you posted at the beginning of the thread the final recipe (I have gone through most of the thread but I want to be sure I didn't miss anything). Second, the fermentation temp is shown at 62° in your recipe but White Labs shows 65° as the lower end of the range for WLP002. Did you ferment at 62° or something higher?

Thanks again and as soon as my batch is finished, I'll post up the results!

 

[jclucca]

Today I will be brewing the FW Wookie Jack clone

Great minds think alike! I just pitched 2 packages of US-05 into a 5.5 gallon batch of this one myself. I made a few minor changes, mostly moving the late additions to 15 instead of 25 minutes, per Scottland's version posted here. I also upped the rye to 2lbs, just because that was how much I bought, so it all went in the recipe.

I had Wookey Jack and a Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous side by side last night and they were very difficult to distinguish on flavor, but the aromas were different - the Stone being more piney. Either way, I'm very excited to have a full batch of this all to myself!

My brew day went pretty well. My mash temp was a bit low - 148 and I decided to skip the 154* step and just batch sparge. I seriously doubt it will make much difference, and I didn't feel like doing a 1gal 210* infusion to try and hit the second step.

I'll update on the progress on this one, too.

 

[FarmerTed]

This bad boy won 1st prize in the black american ale category at gabf. I'd say that for most people who've had it, the win is not a surprise at all.

 

[skeezerpleezer]

Today I will be brewing the FW Wookie Jack clone and I wanted to thank you for posting the recipe and doing the grunt work to get everything out to your HBT brothers.

I do have two questions for you - first, is the recipe you posted at the beginning of the thread the final recipe (I have gone through most of the thread but I want to be sure I didn't miss anything). Second, the fermentation temp is shown at 62° in your recipe but White Labs shows 65° as the lower end of the range for WLP002. Did you ferment at 62° or something higher?

Thanks again and as soon as my batch is finished, I'll post up the results!

Yeah the 1st post is up to date. I set my ferm chamber to 62, no problems. The wort probably hits 65+ at that setting. Make a big starter. I have put this head to head with 7 or 8 people and they like the clone better. They say it is pretty much spot on but hop presence in the aroma is way better in the clone

 

[LarryC]

They say it is pretty much spot on but hop presence in the aroma is way better in the clone

Nothing tastes better than fresh hoppy beer! Thanks for keeping the recipe up to date. My brew day went really well though LHBS didn't have the midnight wheat so I just have plain wheat in there. Next time round I'm going to order the specialty grains online & get the recipe exact. I went with a 2.7 liter starter and pitched it last night when the wert got down to 70°. It's hovering at 62-63 according to the temp probe on the side of the carboy and I've got kroisen pumping out the blow off tube - busy yeaties!

 

[petree3]

I'm excited to try this recipe! Probably the most expensive and hardest to track down ingredient bill I have ever seen... but... It's all in my hand and ready to brew as soon as I get more fermentation space opened up!

 

[LarryC]

The hops were an issue for me as well as the midnight wheat. Hopefully next time I brew it things will be easier to find.

 

[scottland]

I made a few minor changes, mostly moving the late additions to 15 instead of 25 minutes, per Scottland's version posted here. I also upped the rye to 2lbs, just because that was how much I bought, so it all went in the recipe.

Keep in mind, my recipe was never meant to be a clone. It just happened to be ridiculously close to the same beer.

 

[jclucca]

Keep in mind, my recipe was never meant to be a clone. It just happened to be ridiculously close to the same beer.

Yep, I know. I just prefered your hop and mash schedules to that of the clone.

 

[Francis]

I'm going to give this recipe a go very soon. I volunteered at the Great American Beer Fest last weekend and was lucky enough to pour for FSW on Saturday night. Man do they make amazing beers! I wasn't much of a fan of black IPA's but the Wookey blew me away. Didn't realize it was 8.5% - that explains Sunday morning.

I believe the Wookey and DBA won gold medals and the Double-Jack won Bronze. They also had the Velvet Merkin there - a bourbon-barrel aged oatmeal stout - mmmm....

 

[petree3]

Tried to brew this yesterday and got pretty good numbers right up until I went to pitch my yeast starter and I smelled malt vinegar. Sure enough the starter was infected with acetobacter. Now my wort is sitting in the fridge hopefully not getting fermented by whatever else got in there while it was brewing. LHBS is closed on Monday's so my only option is to go to the local brew pub and see if they've got anything close to white labs 002 that they can pull off for me. Wish me luck!

*UPDATE* The brewmaster at the local brewpub was super nice and gave me some San Diego Super Strain WLP090 slurry. He said it should end up quite similar so soon I will be able to compare it and let you guys know if we can use this strain for fast fermentations!

 

[scottland]

That's pretty awesome. Which brewery uses WLP090? SLO Brewing?

 

[theveganbrewer]

Brewed this up last night. I bumped it up to 6.5 gallons so I could net 5-5.5 after the loss from trub and hop absorption. I had to use citra leaf. The recipe was a great step into some new grains for me and I will use the results to build my own CDA in the future.

 

[skeezerpleezer]

Brewed this up last night. I bumped it up to 6.5 gallons so I could net 5-5.5 after the loss from trub and hop absorption. I had to use citra leaf. The recipe was a great step into some new grains for me and I will use the results to build my own CDA in the future.

I am a big fan of the midnight wheat now for a black IPA. First time using crystal rye also.

 

[theveganbrewer]

I am a big fan of the midnight wheat now for a black IPA. First time using crystal rye also.

Same here, always enjoy entering new grains into beersmith. Did you bag your dryhop and remove every three days? I have a feeling that's not going to fly in my carboy, because the hop back will get stuck in the neck. Debating racking to a keg and dryhopping in there.

 

[skeezerpleezer]

I racked to a keg then used a bag with marbles, removing the first addition when I added the second.

 

[flyingfinbar]

I'm looking forward to giving this a shot now that I have the necessary hops on order. This beer rocked my world the day that Hurricane Sandy came ashore on LI. Drank it right up until the power went out at the brewpub!

 

[runningfarmer]

Made 10 gallons of this clone three weeks ago and used s-04 at 64* Original gravity was 1.079 and now is 1.026 should this be a problem? We dry hoped it and rousted the yeast and was going to keg in a week

 

[skeezerpleezer]

Made 10 gallons of this clone three weeks ago and used s-04 at 64* Original gravity was 1.079 and now is 1.026 should this be a problem? We dry hoped it and rousted the yeast and was going to keg in a week

It will be sweeter, but probably still a great beer. Did you do AG? If so, what mash temp? The mash, yeast cell count, and oxygen are important to get this to dry out.

 

[runningfarmer]

Pitched three packets 11 grams for ten gallons and ran pure o2 until it foamed out the top of the carboy and the mash temp. was 148 for 60 min and 158 for 10 min and 168 15 and mashed out. Fermentation was 68 wort chilled to 64 and has been there for two weeks and then raised to 68 maybe i should have raised it sooner?

 

[runningfarmer]

Sorry also it was all grain

 

[jehatha]

Yes it was all Grain. I brew with Runningfarmer. It does taste a little sweet but with all the dry hops added it should be fine.

 

[MeanDeuce]

I hate to be the guy to ask for a 5gal extract recipe, but I can't currently do all-grain with my setup (small condo) and limited to indoor brewing. Was able to get my hands on some Citra and Amarillo hops and thought I'd try this out. I took a stab at converting the recipe on the first page via beersmith and this is what I was given. Any thoughts? Beersmith couldn't adjust the rye malt for some reason, so i'm not sure how much to cut from the grain bill.

Amt Name Type # %/IBU

1 lbs 10.1 oz Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 2 10.9 %
7.9 oz Caramel Rye (Weyermann) (35.0 SRM) Grain 3 3.3 %
7.0 oz Carafa III (525.0 SRM) Grain 4 2.9 %
7.0 oz Wheat, Midnight Malt (550.0 SRM) Grain 5 2.9 %
11 lbs 14.5 oz Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 6 79.9 %
0.50 oz Magnum [13.00 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 7 19.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 25.0 min Hop 8 16.1 IBUs
1.00 oz Citra [12.40 %] - Boil 25.0 min Hop 9 23.5 IBUs
1.75 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 10 0.0 IBUs
1.75 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) [35.49 ml] Yeast 12 -
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 13 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 14 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 15 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Citra [12.40 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 16 0.0 IBUs

 

[theveganbrewer]

I'm getting a really overpowering Amarillo on this after the first dryhop. Is that normal? I might leave it out of dry hop 2

 

[jclucca]

I'm getting a really overpowering Amarillo on this after the first dryhop. Is that normal? I might leave it out of dry hop 2

Sounds like you're doing it right.

 

[theveganbrewer]

Haha, I have had the beer once, but it was a while ago, and I couldn't remember. My better sense prevailed, the one that says when faced a choice of more hops or less, always choose more, and I added them all.

 

[jehatha]

Just kegged a 10 gallon batch yesterday and the gravity sample was great. Yes it has a strong Amarillo and citra nose and taste. This is going to be a great beer.

A local nano brewery that is just starting up in my area is doing a Firestone tap take over on 12/12/12 with Union Jack IPA, Double Jack Double IPA, Wookey Jack Black Rye IPA, Reserve Porter, and the ever so elusive Double DBA Imperial Special Bitter. I can not wait.

 

[LarryC]

I'm a little late on posting this up since the keg got tapped about two weeks ago but... my batch came out great! I was not able to get Amarillo hops at the time so I went with Falconers. I think it was probably a decent substitution but I'm looking forward to doing another batch with Amarillo.

All in all, I'm very happy with the results. I had a couple of friends taste it side by side with FW Wookie Jack and they both said it was very close. Mine seemed to have a bit more mouth feel than the FW and there was a noticeable difference in the aroma - not less, just different. My AVBwas about a half point low so I've got a bit of dialing in to do on the next run.

One last note, I did my dry hop in the keg and I'm not too sure how I feel about that. I used a paint strainer bag for both additions weighting it and dangling it near the bottom of the keg. Still, I think there was a lot of hop matter that got into the keg. I was hoping it would all settle to the bottom and be gone after a few pints but I still see some residue on glasses. I think maybe next time I'll just go into a secondary carboy...

Last but not least, thanks to SkeezerPleezer for posting the recipe and and the follow up adjustments! This is on the top of the favorite recipe files for me.

 

[flyingfinbar]

Anyone have any luck with wlp007 in this recipe? Would it dry it out too much? I used 007 for a 90min clone, and loved it! The last iPa I made came in under attenuated, and I reeeeeally want to try and avoid that again

 

[jclucca]

Anyone have any luck with wlp007 in this recipe? Would it dry it out too much? I used 007 for a 90min clone, and loved it! The last iPa I made came in under attenuated, and I reeeeeally want to try and avoid that again

I used US-05 in mine and it turned out great. 007 would be good too.

 

[theveganbrewer]

Side by side mine has way too much Amarillo. Not sure where it is coming from, the rest seems quite close to the original. But I noticed this before I finished the first dry hop, wonder if I whirlpooled this and what temp.

 

[HoppinThruTX]

Brewing this today. Just mashed in at 148. Only difference was I had had to use Chocolate Wheat (400L) because the LHBS doesn't carry Midnight Wheat. Really looking forward to having this beer on tap at my house.

Oh, and glad we all made it through the apocalypse!! Cheers!!

 

[flyingfinbar]

It's interesting that the ibu's are only ~62 for such a big CDA. Has anyone turned up the bittering addition? I love the original, and I certainly don't doubt this recipe, but it's definitely on the low side of imperial IPA's... Or is that a stylistic departure from CDA's and big IPA's?

 

[theveganbrewer]

It's interesting that the ibu's are only ~62 for such a big CDA. Has anyone turned up the bittering addition? I love the original, and I certainly don't doubt this recipe, but it's definitely on the low side of imperial IPA's... Or is that a stylistic departure from CDA's and big IPA's?

Website says Wookey is 80 IBU. Maybe the difference would be whirlpool isomerization of the 0-min additions? They are known for doing that in other beers. I calculated my final product to be around 85IBU based off a 30 minute whirlpool at 180.

 

[HoppinThruTX]

I bumped up my bittering addition about 15 IBU's because I was kinda thinking the same thing... But I also moved the 25 minute additions to 20 minutes thinking I would retain more flavor and aroma.... Also threw in 2 oz. each of Citra and Amarillo for the whirlpool instead of the suggested 1.75

Looking forward to having this one perfect by the time the Super Bowl comes around... And hopefully the Texans will be playing in it

 

[runningfarmer]

I did A side by side taste test of my batch that was brewed on 10/27/12 to a bottle that was bottled on 9/12. The left is the Wookey the clone has a darker head, they taste very close. Almost can't tell the difference. Maybe a little more hop taste in the clone. The second picture is after 15 minutes and the head is almost the exact same. This is one of my favorite beers ever. Thanks again for the great recipe.