Also available on Apple iBooks store for $10.99.
In defense of the idea of a “clone beer”, as a novice brewer, it has the potential to help point me in the direction of those commercial beers that I’ve liked. I recently brewed a recipe from “Clone Brews” of Double Diamond, a beer I liked years ago, but can’t find in stores anymore. The results were actually very good, but how close to the original I can’t say since I’m reliant on memory for that beer. I’ve also done “clones” from NB and from the recipes on Candi Syrup’s website (it at least appears that they are testing out the recipes before posting them on their website) that were quite good, from my limited perspective. The point is that these recipes gave me a starting point for beers that I liked whereas the beer kits I’ve gotten often have no reference to a beer I’m familiar with. Sometimes I like the kits, sometimes I’m disappointed.
Ultimately, my hope is that I will learn what these recipes bring to the taste of the beer. To me, it’s a bit easier than coming up with something that, for a novice, would most likely be way off base and then to try to incrementally improve on it. Not that I haven’t tried, but the results were not what I had anticipated. Some were pretty good, particularly some experiments with Saisons. I did one from a recipe posted on the internet that was not even close to the style they had referenced, so I won’t do that again.
For those of us who lack experience and insight into how the ingredients interact to produce certain results, I think doing “clone” recipes (if they’re true to form – which it seems is the point from many posters) is a valid and useful experience.
I agree that it’s a valid and useful experience. But you’re not making a “clone”. If some other word was used to describe the recipes, I’d have no problem.
Asking the brewery is the best way. Not to sound self serving, but the best book of real brewery recipes (I HATE the word “clone”, because even with the recipe you won’t make the same beer exactly) is a book I just worked on called “Craft Beer for the Homebrewer”. The recipes came straight from the brewmasters at each brewery. There was no guessing about what the “might” be doing.[/quote]
+1 Denny. I really like book as it’s not just a recipe book, but tells a bit about the brewery. Would be cool if we can see Vol. 2 in the future…
If I can ever find time again, I’m going to try brewing a few out of there as I really need to dial in my process and it would be a good way to have a benchmark nearby.
