Dear Replicator,

I just tasted Hop Jack Pale Ale, made by the Widmer Brothers Brewery in Portland, Oregon. Would you have a clue how to replicate it?

Mike Schick
Kaneohe, Hawaii

Widmer Brothers opened in 1984 in Portland. The brewery was founded by brothers, Rob and Kurt Widmer. After living in Germany during the 1970s, Kurt returned to America inspired to recreate some of the European beer styles he had enjoyed while abroad. Kurt’s quest took him back to Düsseldorf to study beer styles, and he came home with some special brewing yeast from Weihenstephan in Bavaria. Widmer still uses this yeast today.

The Widmer brewery has made a name for itself with its flagship American-style Hefeweizen. And the tasty hefe isn’t the only great beer that Widmer makes: Hop Jack Pale Ale has been a Northwest favorite since the company started brewing it in March 1998. Rob Widmer was kind enough to give us some insight on how to brew this wonderfully hoppy brew.
Rob calls Hop Jack a “Northwest pale ale,” which Widmer’s profile sheet describes as a pale ale that is aggressively hopped for substantial bitterness and potent floral hop aroma, with just enough malt sweetness for balance. Rob adds that there is a “citrus quality and piney note” from the Cascade and Centennial hops in Hop Jack; I’ve tasted the beer many times, and the citrus-pine note is delicious and unique.

When it comes to homebrewing this beer, Rob stresses using a large amount of fresh yeast. A pitchable vial of yeast from White Labs or Wyeast would be the minimum amount of yeast, and increasing the quantity by either making a starter or using two liquid vials would be even better. There are a lot of hop additions in this beer, so pay attention to the timing of each addition. The hops are critical to successfully replicating this beer.

For more information about Widmer beers, check out the Website at www.widmer.com or call Widmer at (503) 841-2437.

Widmer Hop Jack (5 gallons, extract with grains)

OG = 1.056 FG = 1.013 IBUs = 36 to 40

Ingredients

• 3.3 lbs. John Bull light malt extract syrup
• 2 lb. Cooper’s light dry malt extract
• 0.5 lb. Vienna malt
• 1 lb. Munich malt
• 1.5 lb. crystal malt (40° Lovibond)
• 0.25 lb. dextrin malt
• 2.5 AAU Willamette hops (bittering)
• (0.50 oz. of 4.9% alpha acid)
• 6.2 AAU Cascade hops (bittering)
• (0.75 oz of 8.3% alpha acid)
• 8.3 AAU Cascade hops (flavor)
• (1 oz. of 8.3% alpha acid)
• 4.6 AAU Centennial hops (aroma)
• (0.5 oz. of 9.3% alpha acid)
• 4.2 AAU Cascade hops (aroma)
• (0.5 oz. of 8.3% alpha acid)
• 1 tsp Irish moss for 60 min.
• White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) yeast or Wyeast 1056 (American Ale)
• O.75 cup of corn sugar for priming

Step by Step

Steep crushed malts in 3 gallons of water at 150º F for 30 minutes. Remove grains from wort, add malt syrup and malt powder and bring to a boil. Add Willamette and Cascade (bittering) hops, Irish moss and boil for 60 minutes. Add flavor hops (1 ounce of Cascade hops) for the last 10 minutes of the boil. Add aroma hops (Centennial and Cascade) for the last 2 minutes of the boil.

When done boiling, strain out hops, add wort to two gallons cool, preboiled water in a sanitary fermenter, and top off with cool, preboiled water to 5.5 gallons. Cool the wort to 80º F, aerate the beer and pitch your yeast. Allow the beer to cool over the next few hours to 68º to 70º F, and ferment for 10 to 14 days. Bottle your beer, age for two weeks and enjoy!

All-grain option

Replace light syrup and powder with 4 pounds pale malt and increase Munich malt to 4 pounds. Mash your grains at 150º to 152º F for 45 minutes. Collect enough wort to boil for 90 minutes and have a 5.5 gallon yield in the fermenter.

Decrease bittering hops to 0.5 ounce of Cascade to account for increased hop extraction efficiency in a full boil. The remainder of the recipe is the same as the extract.