Might Stop Brewing Clone Beers...

[SkyBlue]

Over the past year or so I’ve brewed a number of “clone” beers and my favourite has been a Jaipur which tasted nearest to the original. Most of the others have not been close to their original but all have been great beers in their own right.

I think, therefore, I just need to brew more beer rather than try and copy what I can get in the shops.

Cheers

Andy
Ps, just brewed Greg Hughes’ 60 Minute IPA which I’ve done before and is very very nice indeed!!

 

[scomet]

Let the FUN begin!

Brew beers You like, bitters pales porters lagers, make your own adjuncts, learn where the flavours come from, recipe, process, mash temps yeasts etc. - Call yourself a brewer of your own 'house beers' Great Fun, Enjoy….

ps write everything you do down :-}

 

[Drunkula]

Yes, yes, yessss! Brewing is just different cooking and everybody should make their own thing and it be based on the internal taste memory you've learnt. We've had philosophical disagreements about this sort of thing before but this is the difference from being a home brewer and an OOooh yeahhh, home brewer.

I will forever high your five.

 

[An Ankoù]

Even the brewers can't clone their beers. Anybody tried a Guinness clone of draught Guinness recently?

 

[aamcle]

"Try inspired by" rather than Clone.

You know it won't be a perfect copy so think of the recipe as a guide to making a beer of a type you enjoy rather than as a bottle of "Old Rats ****" you brewed cause you didn't want to buy it.

I tend to avoid brewing beer I can easily get in a supermarket, if I'm putting in the hours I want something I can't buy cheap and easy.

Aamcle

 

[Sadfield]

Amen to that. Burn the GH book too....set yourself free.

 

[Portreath]

Yes..yes..go run with it. The books are great to give us the basics of style etc. But the most fun in brewing is making your own. Just like cooking, styles are generally based on regions, environments and available produce. As a cook I see brewing styles as coming from similar backgrounds, and often similar constraints. I get great pleasure bastardizing recipes in the kitchen, and more recently in my brewing

 

[Covrich]

I avoid clones as you have a reference to draw to no matter how good your effort is, you are comparing it to something that will involve a process which will be the minor difference..

Whilst I o like the GH book I only use it as a guide or a basis to get an idea of a style which I haven't mades composition.. use it and look at other styles or similarities and come up with something yourself

 

[xozzx]

I use a lot of recipes, have a great book 1000 clone recipes (or something like that). However most of the beers I make are ones Ive never tasted, so nothing to compare it to and I never follow the recipe completely. Once I add the ingredients to brewfather (highly recommend by the way) I play about with the recipe until it is something more to my taste (and inventory). If it is a good beer I will brew it again making more changes. Eventually I end up with something I am happy with which is often quite far removed from the original recipe, but needed that as a starting point.

 

[Keruso]

Over the past year or so I’ve brewed a number of “clone” beers and my favourite has been a Jaipur which tasted nearest to the original. Most of the others have not been close to their original but all have been great beers in their own right.

I think, therefore, I just need to brew more beer rather than try and copy what I can get in the shops.

Cheers

Andy
Ps, just brewed Greg Hughes’ 60 Minute IPA which I’ve done before and is very very nice indeed!!

I started brewing with a BYO's 300 clone recipe book. I haven't tried most of the commercial beers I've brewed but I've found them to produce pretty decent beers which I can now use as a starting recipe that you can fiddle with. I doubt any recipe is giving a faithful reproduction of the original. I have tried Brooklyn Sorachi Ace before and there's a clone recipe for it in the book. I brewed it and there was tons more yeast and hop flavour in the clone versus the original.

 

[Madhouse]

Do it!! I’ve brewed some beers inspired by those from commercial breweries but they’ve not been ones I’ve had before and are usually not readily available, therefore I’m not comparing my beer to another.

If you’re brewing something new then it’s all about appreciating what you have made and not comparing it to something else.