CloneBrews, 2nd Edition: Recipes for 200 Commercial Beers

Love the book. I've brewed the Saison Dupont and Orval recipes many times: once each as extract only, and subsequently as partial mashes. These are great beers.Some criticisms relate to the yeast recommendations and the priming recommendations.For the Saison Dupont recipe, the book oddly lists Wyeast 3711 French Saison as the first choice for yeast. Readers should know that the second choice, Wyeast 3724, should be the first choice. That yeast is actually derived from Saison Dupont, and it's what gives the beer it's distinctive character. It's a trickier yeast, since it must be fermented very warm (I use a Fermwrap) to bring out the flavors and prevent stalling. WLP565 is the White Labs version of this yeast. If it does stall, give it plenty more time. It's best to leave it in primary for 2 to 3 weeks (maybe longer) before racking to secondary. Alternatively, 3711 can be pitched when fermentation slows if you're impatient (as noted on Wyeast's website). Much of Phil Markowski's book "Farmhouse Ales" is dedicated to the Dupont yeast.As for the Orval recipe. It's fantastic. It even tastes a bit like Orval; even though the yeast strains recommended are the Rochefort strain (1762) and the Chimay strain (1214). The book neglects to mention that the Orval strain is only available from time to time from White Labs as WLP510. Further, Orval adds a wild strain called Brettanomyces Bruxellensis at the time of bottling. Better to add the Brett (White Labs WLP650) in secondary, though, and give it lots of time. Brett works slowly on some sugars that the primary strain misses. See Stan Hieronymus's "Brew Like A Monk" for the details referenced here with regard to Orval, as well as the information about the Chimay and Rochefort yeast.That said, I used the Chimay (1214) strain, and it's great. Recently finished one with the Rochefort (1762) strain. Having finished at 1.006, I went ahead and added the Brett (WLP650) with 2/3 the priming sugar and strong bottles (to account for the additional carbonation from the Brett).The author often mentions to add dry malt extract (DME) in lieu of priming (corn) sugar to carbonate beers. While some may have success with this, I tried it once with an experimental 1 gallon batch, and I found that it left a nasty residual taste.All this sounds pretty critical, but I'll stress again that the recipes are great. You just might want to double check the yeast suggestions and stick to regular priming sugars. I love these recipes so much that I tinker around with them in Beersmith a bit each time to tweak them here and there, but also to ensure that the core recipes that I love are still respected.I'm looking forward to trying out some others. Would have liked to have seen a number of other beers in the book. Given all the great newer American craft brews, this book - published in 2010 - could use an update.

I purchased the kindle version of this book because I was attending a brewing class in a few hours and needed a copy in my hands asap. I also have a paper copy of this book because it has some amazing recipes for making your own beer. It was recommended by my brew master and has opened a whole new world of brewing to me.It takes you through step by step the recipes and direction for brewing your own beer. If you are buying for a self brewer or simply curious about what goes into some of your favorite beers I highly recommend this book. It is the bible of brewing, according to my brewmaster. I have enjoyed it and plan on keeping it around. Instead of purchasing those high priced kits that always seem to be lacking something I can copy a recipe and take it with me when I go shopping to check off everything I will need to make a beer that I truly want to drink.I am not a huge beer drinker but my husband is. But have found several recipes in this book I actually enjoy drinking. And worst case scenario it always makes amazing beer bread. I give this book two thumbs up because it is not only informative it is also a cookbook of various flavors of beer and how brewers get that taste through the selection of particular hops and yeast and processes. You will never look at beer the same way again after reading this book.

I am a big fan of this book, as I am a relatively new home brewer and the many recipes here give me ample examples to select from. I also am learning what ingredients go with what style of beer, so I can create my own. My son-in-law had this book, and I bought an on-line copy so we didn't keep fighting over who got to keep Brian's dog-eared copy. This book was delivered as scheduled. I like the appendices in the book: examples major types of grains (too few, actually) and additives/specialty grains. The hops table that provides some alternatives to hops in case of missing items is especially useful (though this table does not agree with many on-line resources).My issue is that there are missing bits and pieces to this e-book compared to the actual printed book. To a home brewer, these are critical issues. My first brew that I used this book on was a Duvel. Compare the Duvel from the hard copy and the soft copy. Important information missing from the soft copy. I brew using all-grain, not extract, and this Duvel leaves out the important section on what base grains to use in place of the less satisfactory (to my tastes) and more expensive (no argument here) DME extracts. The printed version has a nice section following each recipe discussing what all grain brewers should use in terms of base grains.If this is my first attempt at using the book, and there are issues that make me run down my hard copy again, I fear that there are many more. This book needs to be re-edited and then re-published electronically, at no cost to those of us who bought this book in e-book format.

This book is a very good start for homebrew recipes. However, I don't find myself reaching for this book very often. Yes, it has a lot of information as a good start for cloning, but I think most internet websites have this information with greater clarity from folks testing it. I have to give the book some credit, and therefore 4 stars, because this book may have been the starting point for many of those internet recipes. I have the book, but I have not brewed anything from it exactly as written. I also brew all grain, and the book is geared for the extract brewer.I find myself reading the book just to have something to read on the couch for my next idea for a brew. The book is also well organized by style. I use it to scan through the base grains and hops in recipes, and makes hybrids of various commercial beers. Again, it's a good book for someone looking for a starting points for recipes, but it also is a good book to pick up for folks that want to have something to fuel their brewing obsession.

This book contains recipes and info for loads of well-known and not so well-known worldwide beers. The book is well laid out and easy to read. However, the book focuses mostly on Extract brewing with only footnotes for AllGrain brewers. Usually, recipe books will give the actual ingredients as the main recipe with Extract substitutes as the footnotes. Happy enough with the book all the same.

As said already this mainly an extract brewing book with full mash and mini mash given. No water treatment however and if you are unfortunate to live in a hard water area you will need water treatment to get good results. I know as I can only brew dark beers without water treatment. Graham Wheeler books give the method I use. I use the full mash method. A good selection of recipes.

There are some great recipes in this book the only down side is measurements are in US gallons but I've made a formula where I divide all ingredients by 5 then multiply that total by 7 and that gives you approx 26.5 litres which is just over 5 and a half English gallon.

If you are a home brewer wishing to go to the next level this is the book for you. Whether you brew from concentrates or all grains this is a superb refernce guide that is packed with great recipes, hugely helpful and informative information and helpful hints on working out your own recipes and clone brews. An invaluable aid to brewing!

An excellent book that details all you need to know about brewing a facsimile of your favourite beers and many you may never have heard of. The detailed instructions and ingredients list are so comprehensive that it opens up a new world for home brewers to produce pub quality beers. A fabulous book!