Great BA Beer Recipes

You might want to check out the Jamil Show archives...
http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/The-Jamil-Show
He used to do a lot of "Can You Brew It" beer cloning shows.

 

Spot on is very subjective and is much more involved than just the ingredients used.

That said, you may have better luck looking for threads like this over on homebrewtalk as they seem to focus a lot more on cloning commercial beers over there.

Also, youll never know if your version is close to the real deal if you havent had the original.

 

The answer to your question (and most everything) . . . is in Google. If you search for "pliny the elder clone recipe" you will very quickly find the details from the brewer. Search "stone brewery clone recipe" and you'll see where Stone publishes all their recipes (except AB). This is as spot-on as it gets. If the brewery doesn't publish their recipe you might have to go to the second or third link . . . but almost everything good is available online, just search for it. Interested in cloning Westy 12, it's in Google. It took me less than a minute to find a KBS recipe. Google . . . a brewers friend . . .

Personally I would not use a suppliers kit. My experience is they go light in some of the ingredients, especially hops.

 

Pliny the Elder - should google easily, Vinny from RR posts the real deal recipe online. I've made it (with a different hops schedule) and it's surely either my best or 2nd best ever (which is debatable). The base recipe is perfection embodied for a IIPA, any reasonable MOAR HOPS hop schedule should produce an amazing beer.

BA's (Vikeman's) Averagely Perfect American IPA (the APA IPA) is also amazing*. I brewed it almost exactly (only difference was I subbed 1/4 oz of bravo for the specified 1/4 oz magnum because I didn't have magnum). Definitely also ranks as one of my best ever.

My own personal fav'd recipe was quite easy, but it's not a clone of anything commercial... take 12 lbs golden promise, then add waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more citra than you think you need, then add in another 2 oz citra at flameout, just to be sure you added waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much citra, then dry hop with 3 more oz citra. Watch in amazement as even staunch bud light drinkers sing its praises, and it disappears amazingly fast.

*do not fear the crystal police, just put it in there

 

Yeah I hear you... As I said before, homebrewtalk tends to have more discussions focused on cloning popular beers... Might find a good lead or two there

 

I agree with the recommendations in the posts above, and I'll add a suggestion to do a search of this Homebrewing forum. I know there was a thread on a Zombie Dust clone because I brewed that one and it was very tasty. I have a recipe for Pliny the Elder that I found online, but I don't remember where I got it, and I haven't brewed it yet to know if it is close to the real thing.

 

I generally find store-packaged kits unreliable and that is especially true for AHS. Poke around the internet and you are sure to find multiple alleged clone recipes for almost everything. I would trust anything that is quoted directly from the brewer, CYBI, or BYO as most reliable versions of clones. I would be leery of some guy on some forum, especially HBT, calling something a clone.

 

Yes and no. The problem with extract is not being able to control the fermentability of your wort, which for some beers is very important. A big RIS can be fine with a lot of body from the dextrins you find in extract but it's not going to fit well in your Pliny clone.

What's wrong with your BIAB set up? Lots of brewers do their all grain exclusively BIAB, including some who had a traditional mash tun and gave it up for the ease of BIAB. I do a modified version of BIAB for my small batches, which is the majority of my brewing these days. It makes perfectly fine beer. The only issue with BIAB is your ability to control stable mash temperatures. If you can do that then your set up is just as effective as any other all grain system.

 

Some of those are "add ons" in Beersmith. There are also a few clones in Zymurgy.

 

That Pliny recipe was in Zymurgy and it was given by the man himself. Although I understand he has changed it up a bit. Its located HERE:
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/zymurgy/free-downloads

 

+1 to the Averagely Perfect American IPA. Best beer I brewed so far.

 

The link to the Zymurgy recipe from Boonedog above has an Extract modification note from the AG recipe, so you can go to that page and print it. The Zombie Dust recipe that has been in this forum was also an extract recipe. http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/dme-technique.94830/#post-1489360

 

Another note that I'll add to this thread: if you are wanting to make clone beers then you can purchase the book 'Clone Brews' and select your recipes from it. The book has extract, mini-mash and all grain versions. I usually select a beer that is available at my local bottle shop so that I can buy bottles for comparison to my homebrewed version.
http://www.amazon.com/CloneBrews-2nd-Edition-Recipes-Brand-Name/dp/160342539X

 

I find much of the stuff in that book dated, and poorly researched. The yeast recommendations are often from the wrong brewery, for example.

 

Back in the day...before I knew any better...ordered me some AHS recipes.

AHS recipes cost more than the sum of the ingredients.
AHS recipes all featured the same unpleasant souriness.

If that's the kind of HB experience you're looking for...then by all means...AHS is the o-LHBS for you!

DISCLAIMER
Neither I nor any family member...real or imagined...am in any way associated with AHS.

 

I have gone through AHS before and built up a few of the recipies I ordered from them, they have always been the exact price. They just bundle it for convenience and you dont pay anything for it. More recently Ive been making up my own recipes so I havent ordered their kits but from time to time I order ingredients from them still. The only reason I dont order everything through them is I dont want to pay shipping since I live in Houston and I like pulling my own grains.

My experience with their kits has been that their unique recipes arent very good but their clones are excellent, although I will admit I havent brewed many of their AHS recipes. Their pliny kit as well as stone russian imperial stout come to mind as being very good. No "souriness" for me...