IPA Clone Series: Firestone Walker Double Jack

Oh Double Jack... I love this beer. I feel it's one of the best beers in the country, and happily defend that statement. =) Seriously though, when I decided to clone some of the best IPAs, Double Jack was one of the first to come to mind. Not much warms my heart more than ripping the foil off of a DJ bomber, popping the cap, and catching a whiff of what's inside. There's a good reason Firestone Walker manages to win brewery of the year about 50% of the time.

Bulk Hop Extract

Finally! I found a vendor (Yakima Valley Hops) that was willing to sell me a can of generic CO2 extracted hop extract. I already had some cheap syringes from eBay, so I purchased a 150g AA tin, and away we went.

Brew System/Equipment Update

I had planned on writing a post detailing my Electric HERMS once it was complete, but we moved houses shortly after it was. Since I needed to change the system to accommodate the new house, I figured I would wait until I had everything settled before I bothered. I've brewed a few batches on the system in it's current state, and I'm pretty confident I won't be making any changes in the near-term. So here's a breakdown of what I'm using now.

American Amber Ale

I was planning on brewing a Double Jack clone this weekend (that keeps getting pushed back), but with the move looming, I never got around to making a starter this week. So on Saturday I scrapped that idea, and flipped through the future batches I have planned to see what could use dry yeast. My Amber Ale fit the bill nicely. I've brewed this beer a few times, and most recently back in February. The recipe is pretty close to where I want it, so I only made a few small tweaks this time around. I dropped the C60 to 14oz, and the C120 to 7oz. We added 8oz more Munich, and threw in 1oz Chocolate (up from a pinch) to make up the color difference. Finally there's .5oz of Galaxy added to the dry hop.

Super-charge your Oxiclean

PBW is awesome. Unfortunetly, it's also expensive. Many homebrewers (myself included) turn to Oxiclean as a suitable alternative. It's main ingredients are pretty similar to PBW -- sodium carbonate (washing soda), and sodium percabonate (the oxidizing agent). The problem is: Oxiclean simply doesn't work as well as PBW. It doesn't remove caked on crap as well as PBW does, it doesn't rinse away as easily, and if you have hard water, it can leave hard water scale on your equipment. So where's the missing link?