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First time for everything. I have only had one or two examples. I'm a fan of darker beers in general so I thought this would be a style to try. A friend of mine said why not try a Firestone Walker Wookey Jack clone. I had the beer once at a Brew Fest and I can't get FW beers out my way so let's do it. Looked around on the web for ideas and what others have done for a recipe, also took a lot of info straight from FW website for Wookey Jack. I'm onto the boil so I figured I would see what you guys think.

Black IPA

Recipe Specs:
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Batch Size (G): 6.0
Total Grain (lb): 20.000
Total Hops (oz): 8.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.084 (°P): 20.2
Final Gravity (FG): 1.021 (°P): 5.3
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 8.25 %
Colour (SRM): 34.1 (EBC): 67.2
Bitterness (IBU): 78.1 (Tinseth)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 70
Boil Time (Minutes): 90

Grain Bill
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16.000 lb American 2-Row (80%)
2.500 lb Rye Malt (12.5%)
0.500 lb Honey Malt (2.5%)
0.500 lb Black Prinz (2.5%)
0.500 lb Midnight Wheat (2.5%)

Hop Bill
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1.00 oz Magnum Pellet (12.5% Alpha) @ 90 Minutes 30 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo Pellet (8% Alpha) @ 90 Minutes 19.5 IBU
3.00 oz Amarillo Pellet (8% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes 11 IBU
3.00 oz Citra Pellet (13% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes 18 IBU

2 oz of each Citra and Amarillo dry hopped in two additions each 5-7 days at 68*.

Single step Infusion at 150°F for 75 Minutes.
Fermented at 66°F with Danstar BRY-97 American Ale yeast.
60 sec of pure o2 with a .5 micron stone at 1 Liter/min flow.

Recipe Generated with BrewMate.

-I should hit about 1.080 SG at the end of the boil. The 5 min additions are actually a Hop Stand addition. Thinking a 15 min free fall from 190* after the boil. Actual IBU contribution from that is tricky to calculate, but I figure it's in the area of what 5 min would do. Added some Gypsum and Calcium Chloride to the mash and kettle. Added some acid to the mash halfway through, acidified the sparge water. Hit my mash ph, boil ph and boil gravity/volume. So far so good.

Never brewed it and only had it twice but Wookey is an awesome beer. None of the recipes I have for this have honey malt in it but you don't have much though a little can go a long way. And everyone seems to think WLP002 is the best yeast but I think the 97 is a good substitute for it.
But, this looks delish and I can't wait to hear how things turn out for you. Please keep us posted.

I know Wookey calls for a touch of CaraRye, even states it on the website. But, my LHBS doesn't stock it, and with such a small amount, I didn't think it would be missed. I didn't want to add Crystal malts in place of it, so I was thinking subbing the CaraRye with Caravienne or Honey Malt, last minute choice was the Honey Malt.

The yeast was just something I had on hand, I'm not a big Liquid Yeast user except for a few particular styles. I have used the Bry-97 in several beers and I like it, just have to adjust for the slightly higher attentuation and it can drop out some hop bitterness and flavor. I'll post back on the progress and final beer. Thanks

This didn't come out pitch black but it should be dark enough. Very dark brown with some ruby highlights. Everything else went well, great brew day.

is it fair to assume when you super experienced guys do a recipe that your doing 5gal batches?

I usually do 6 gallon batches so I have close to 5 in the keg.

I also brew 6 gal batches. I always indicate batch size in the recipe. Thats 6 gals at the end of the boil. Depending on break amount and hop debris its somewhere around 5 gals into the fermenter. This particilar batch had 8 oz of hops in the boil so losing over a gal of wort is typical with so much hop material. Letting the wort settle a few hrs would yield more clear wort for the fermenter but I dont do that.

pengins27 wrote:is it fair to assume when you super experienced guys do a recipe that your doing 5gal batches?

Anything I post has the size in the post, but I do both 2.5 and 5 gallon batches. 2.5s go into one BrewDemon LBC, and 5 gallon ones go into 2 BrewDemon LBCs. I have some old LBKs here too, but I only use those for 2 gallon batches. I am looking to add another fermenter, but don't like fermenters bigger then 3.5 gallons or so, because I have to carry them around, up and down stairs, etc., and I'm a skinny dude. I might just get another LBC, I like them. Also, my 5 gallon batches are partial volume with some water top up at the end, because I work with a 16Q pot on my stove top, so I have volume restrictions.

My full on AG batches are 2.5 gallon ones done BIAB style with a full volume boil. My 5 gallons are partial mash with cold water top up due to volume restrictions.

I had to squeeze this batch into a spare Pinlock Keg I use for a fermenter. It's the only thing that fits in my small dorm fridge that I use as a fermentation fridge with my temp controller. A regular 6 gal bucket will not fit. So this batch, along with the high loss from all the hops got me about 4.75 gals into the pinlock keg. I should get most of that back as a finished beer since I dry hop with sacs, so after cold crashing It will be an almost full keg.

Its kind of amusing how just a month ago we had this blog about black IPA's. I have been a huge fan of Brewdogs TV series. I found a few bottles of the Libertine Black Ale on saturday night. It is an amazing Stout/IPA hybrid....i had two at the bar, and took the other two they had home for safe keeping.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/16315/84505/

If you guys havent tried it, please do! my wife wont drink anything darker than a Boston Lager and she LOVED this beer.

I found a clone recipe of it http://www.craftedpours.com/homebrew-re ... rew-recipe although i dont have the capabilities of a 5 gallon batch, could you guys coach me thru cutting it back, i dont believe its as simple as dividing the ingredients by 1/6 for the small 1 gallon batch i'm capable of.

Cheers!

I'd love to try that. I really enjoy the coffee, roasty, black IPA's or whatever they are calling them these days. I don't think those beers are available here as I've never seen them. Maybe once they get brewing in Oho I can get them.....about 2020 maybe.