black ipa and bruns water spreadsheet

Brewing Processes
1

Hi! i want to do a wookey jack clone from firestone walker, i have build all my recipe but dont know how to approach this on the bruns water spreadsheet. Can i use the pale ale profile to enhance the hops? o do i need to use the black hoppy profile?

I have tasted that beer and for me it is very balanced, but i dont know if the black balanced profile could fit with this beer…what do you think? what profile would you use?

thanks!

2

I just brewed an American Black Ale that is very similar to Wookey Jack, but without the rye. After a bunch of research, and a post on this forum (https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=17054.0) I ended up using 1.25 tsp gypsum and 1 tsp CaCl in 5 gallons of distilled water (mash and sparge combined). The idea was to keep the mash pH balanced for a dark beer but lean a little towards accentuating the hops with a tad more gypsum. The beer is still in the fermentor, but I’m thinking that’s the way to go!

3

My opinion and take it for what it’s worth as I have never tasted that beer. I would start with the Pale Ale profile and get your “flavor” profile where you want it, then see what this will do to your pH. If you need to lighten up on your additions you can always add some to the boil if needed. My thoughts are a Black IPA is still an IPA so you need to get the flavor correct to that.

4

I’d say it depends on your recipe.

Isn’t there a bitter or hoppy black profile? I would use that profile if you are using roasted barley, black malt, or chocolate malt because those grains will lower ph. If you are using something more gentle like unhusked carafa or midnight wheat I’d probably use a pale ale-appropriate profile since the dark grains aren’t lowering the ph in a noticeable manner.

5

This is my malt bill:

13.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 81.1 %
1.66 lb Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 9.9 %
0.50 lb Cara-Rye (70.0 SRM) Grain 3.0 %
0.50 lb Carafa III dehusked(525.0 SRM) Grain 3.0 %

So…do you consider a pale ale profile (sufates = 300 ppm) since there arent any harsh or roast flavors?

thanks!

6

You can mash the base grains with the pale hoppy profile. Cold steep the cara and roasted grains and add when vorlaufing.

7

This is what I’d do, then add some Gypsum to the kettle for flavor.

8

This reinforces my observation that the only “Black IPA” I’ve ever really liked was a regular IPA with Sinamar added.