Firestone Walker Wookey Jack Clone Attempt

[skeezerpleezer]

I am gonna get a starter going for this tonight; planning to brew it next weekend.

 

[ipsiad]

I came across your recipe a few weeks ago and decided to try it out. I brewed it yesterday, and other than a little boil-over issue which might affect the IBUs slightly, everything went well. For the mash I did 145F for 60min and 155 for 10min. After adding the flameout hops I did a 30 minute hot stand then chilled it down.

My main concern is getting the right attenuation. I used Wyeast 1968 and I've gotten 80% attenuation with that yeast in the past, so we'll see what happens. I gave it lots of O2, pitched a giant starter at 60F and set the temp controller to 65F.

 

[skeezerpleezer]

Awesome. Let me know how it comes out. I will be a week behind. The mash came from Matt B at Firestone, so you should be ok. I am making the starter tonight.

 

[skeezerpleezer]

Got mine brewed up today. Judging by the wort, this is going to be pretty damn good.

 

[jclucca]

Been looking everywhere for CaraRye to brew this up. Where did you guys find it?

 

[skeezerpleezer]

Farmhousebrewingsupply.com

 

[ipsiad]

Got all of my ingredients, except for Briess Midnight Wheat, from Brewmaster's Warehouse.

I just checked the gravity of mine after 7 days of fermentation, and it's at 1.018 (OG=1.080). Most of the yeast have dropped but I'm guessing it will drop another couple of points before it's completely done.

Hydro sample was really tasty - this is going to turn out great. It's been a while since I had the real Wookey Jack so I'll need to track down a bottle for a proper comparison. If anyone has any leads for finding it in the Chicago area, let me know! It should be hitting shelves right around now.

 

[skeezerpleezer]

I racked mine into a keg and started the first dryhop today. Gravity is currently at 1.016, i am hoping for another point or two. The sample I pulled was excellent, it is going to be close. I'll report back here in a couple weeks after the dryhop and carbing. I picked up 4 Wookey Jacks on a trip last week, so can do a side by side.

 

[ipsiad]

My Wookey Jack clone is kegged up and carbing now, should be ready really soon. I also got some WJ bombers for a side-by-side comparison.

Mine finished out right at 1.015, so the Wyeast 1968 works great for this recipe. Due to a variety of reasons (including laziness and going out of town for work) my dryhopping process and schedule was different from what your recipe and Brynildson recommended. After my FG stabilized and all the yeast dropped, I threw the first dry hops directly into the primary (no hop bags), left it for 5 days, threw in the second dry hop, left it for another 5 days, then crash cooled to 32F and racked to a purged keg. I increased my dry hop quantities by 25% figuring I'd lose some hop oils to the yeast. So we'll see how these differences affect the hop profile. I tried a sample while racking to the keg, and WOW is it good. Whether or not it ends up exactly like the original, this one's a winner. There's a slight astringency to it but I'm pretty sure that will fade after about a week in the keg. One thing I noticed is that the Citra/Amarillo dry hops really increased the perceived sweetness of this beer.

I'll report back when mine is properly carbed and conditioned.

 

[skeezerpleezer]

Nice. I am starting DH #2 tomorrow.

 

[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.

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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.