Customer Reviews

CloneBrews, 2nd Edition: Recipes for 200 Brand-Name Beers

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In the preface to Clone Brews, the Szamatulskis (try pronouncing that name twice after a few homebrews) state that their object in this collection of recipes is not to introduce homebrewers to the joyless pursuit of reproducing commercial beers but to provide them with one way of discovering beer styles and developing a more discerning palate. The authors even encourage users of the book to tweak recipes to accommodate their own taste preferences. The recipes are organized by geographic origin. The result is (and this may be the books biggest weakness) that there are a relatively large number of recipes for contemporary light lagers (e.g. Tiger, Singha, Foster, Molson Ice, Maccabee, Tsing Tao, etc.). Although more homebrewers are becoming interested in brewing CAPs, I'm not sure how many out there want to brew up a batch of Molson Ice. . . .maybe I'm out of the loop, after all, the Szamatulskis own a homebrew supply shop; I don't even own all of my car. I suspect the authors were simply attempting to be judicious in their representation of beers from around the world. Unfortunately, there aren't many places where one can drink a beer that diverges from the adjuncty, pasteurized, pale lager style that has swept the world after WWII. There are plenty of German, British, Belgian, Dutch and American craft brewery clones, however, to keep classic style purists happy. The book came at just the right time as I'd gotten some yeast ready to brew this weekend and have been lackadaisical about working on a recipe. In looking for something within my yeast's profile, I also noticed another of the book's limitations: quite a few of the beers listed are not readily available to me. I thought about brewing the Shepherd Neame IPA recipe, but I have never tasted that beer nor can I get my hands on it even in the swanky liquor store that stocks lots of swell beers. Now, if your purpose is solely to brew some good beer, who cares if you can't pony up a bottle of the namesake to compare. But then, the book seems to anticipate a bit of competition--you against the defining standard clone--but a potentially educational kind of competition, as I've already mentioned. If you have access to lots of different kinds of beers and/or have tasted many of them near their places of origin, this limitation won't exist. The graphics on the page are modern and user friendly, a bit like frames on a web page or like contemporary magazine graphics. Each recipe is presented with a little blurb describing the flavor profiles of the beer at the top of the page. A partial mash recipe dominates most of the rest of the page with easy to read instructions on mash schedule, hop additions. In two right margin side bars appear "mini-mash" (base malt substituted for some of the extract) and all grain mash recipes. Access to a wide range of ingredients is implicit in all of the recipes. Perhaps the best part of each recipe is a prioritized list of yeast selections. Each recipe has at least two yeast suggestions, all liquid or bottle cultures. The book also contains a short introduction with some crucial technical data--an explanation of their use of HBU figures instead of IBUs and how to calculate HBU, extraction rate (70%) at which all grain recipes are calculated, etc. Several handy flavor profile tables and calculation tables appear in the back of the book. I think this information makes the book attractive to homebrewers with a wide range of technological savvy. All in all a cool book, worth the money. I find myself gravitating more and more to single brewer recipe books. I have several collections of award winning beer recipes, but I've grown a bit tired of calculating each brewer's extraction rate then reinterpreting the recipe into my system's capacities. That's just pure laziness on my part, though. More legitimately, however, I'm always a bit stumped by bizarre and missing information in some of these collections--recipes with strange or no hydrometer readings, no mash or hop schedules, etc. For homebrewers with even an intermediate knowledge of brewing techniques, the absence of this information makes the recipe unappealing. The Szamatulski's book, on the other hand, gives homebrewers a solid base from which to brew their clone beers, a potentially educational premise for any homebrewer.

I have been brewing beer for 9 years and this book has been by far the most helpful. The beer I brew now is better than anything I've made before.The recipes are easy to follow and Mark and Tess are very helpful with providing the required ingredients. I have tried at least 6 different recipes and the results have been excellent. If you are a beginner and want to learn how to brew good beer fast I would definately recommend buying this book. Try the Bass Ale, it's simple and you will be amazed at how similar it tastes to the real thing. Thanks, Mark and Tess for broadening my homebrewing experiences.

This book is primarily a recipe book, though it does contain some useful information (such as reculturing yeast from bottles) in the ten pages devoted to the brewing process. The recipes comprise the bulk of the book and are divided by region, then country of origin. All of the recipes are approximations of commercial beers (top-notch ones, though), so don't look for micro-brews or THE exact recipe here. That being said, each recipe includes a brief paragraph about the beer, step-by-step brewing instructions (using malt syrup), and a side-bar containing mini-mash and all-grain alternate brewing instructions. Finally, this book contains a useful appendix that includes a chart of beer characteristics, a hop chart describing various hops, charts describing various grains and sugars, and a beer style index. This appendix makes it relatively easy to figure what grains to buy for which beer style, and vice versa.

Overall, I highly recommend this book as a companion to one that covers more of the brewing process and equipment, such as William Moore's Home Beermaking.

I wanted to give this a higher rating and it does have a lot of better ratings from many others, but I just couldn't do it. There are quite a few recipes and I have made a few. If I hadn't done so, my rating on this would be higher. The book is well written, instructions are clear, but it is not for a complete novice, as some of the recipes are in need of revision. The yeast parings are questionable on a few recipes, as are a few of the recipes themselves. There was a recipe for one beer I know how to make quite well, and it was quite off.

A few notable items that are due to the books age: their knowledge of yeasts is limited and the brand of extract has long since changed their name. Muntons & Fison is now just Muntons. These are small things, but they show this book would benefit from an update.

Don't get me wrong, this book is good, but I would suggest that it is better for those brewers that have enough experience to adjust the recipes as needed. I know it was written about a decade ago, but if you are buying this book, you should know what to expect. I'm hoping for better things in Beer Captured.

I have been frequenting Maltose Express for about three years now. If you have never had the opportunity to see a real Home Brew store, make the effort to see this one in Monroe Connecticut. It is unlike any other Home Brew store I have ever seen. The shelves are always well stocked and the ingredients are fresh (No waiting 4 days for a packet of yeast to rise because it is 8 months old). Mark and Tess are extremely knowledgeable when it comes to brewing beer. The book Clonebrews says it all!! The recipes in the book are incredible. The first recipe I brewed was New Castle Brown Ale. After waiting many weeks for it to finish fermenting, I finally got to taste it. I could not believe how great it tasted. I actually thought I was drinking the real thing. As I do with all my beers, (thanks to Tess) it was kegged. I brought it to a party and told everyone it was New Castle Brown Ale. No one even knew the difference until I told them! The information and recipes in this book are worth their weight in gold. This book is not just for the very experienced home brewer, but for the beginner as well. This is a MUST have!! Cheers to Tess and Mark!! Can't wait for the next book!

If there's one thing you get out of reading the reviews for this book it should be that all recipes include an extract, partial mash, and all-grain version. I'm brewing strictly extract beers now, but I plan on advancing my skills, and this book will not be outdated. Lot's of notable domestic beers(US), british, and big section of belgian, along with some obscure (to me) beer from around the world. Great book!

I am a Beer Judge and Brewer. I have been brewing for over 16 years. The recipes that are in this book come out exactly like the commercial beers. I just won two awards in the Best of Brooklyn competition on 2/26/2000. I won a first place with their recipe for Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout and a second place with their Affligem Tripel. The book makes it easy to create incredible beers. The comments that the judges give are great: "Nice beer, right on to the style".

The recipes in this book really do come out tasting like the store bought versions of these beers (but homebrew is always better than the stale old store-bought stuff). Each recipe gives a brief description of the beer so you can read about different beers, then sample the brewery version of any that appeal to you and see if you like it enough to make 5 gallons of it. I have even won several competition medals brewing these recipes. There is a good reference section with specifications on beer styles and brewing ingredients (including grains, sugars and extracts, hops and yeast). Highly recommended. Also check out "Beer Captured" by the same authors.

I have been getting my homebrew supplies from Mark & Tess' homebrew shop (Maltose Express, in Monroe CT.) for several years now & thus have had ample opportunity to try their recipes & get their advice on how to achieve a certain style in a homebrew. With this book, those homebrewers not fortunate enough to live nearby now have access to Mark & Tess' expertise. A big question often asked of homebrewers is whether or not they can make a beer like Heineken, Guinness, Bass,etc., etc. Now with this book a brewer can approximate the taste of his or her favorite beer at home. Thus far I've brewed nothing but good batches w/Mark & Tess' recipes. (Those who can ought to try their "Never Fail Pale Ale" in the June 1997 of "Brew Your Own" magazine.) Homebrewers can either follow the recipes in this book exactly, or experiment around some (at the very worst, you still have beer). Another item unique to this homebrew book, is that each recipe includes extract, mini-mash, or all-grain versions. That way, regrdless of which level you brew, from novice to all grain, you can pick up this book a start right away on any recipe. I also know that a great deal of reseach went into finding these recipes. For example, for Elm City Connecticut Ale, Mark & Tess spoke to two former brewers of the New Haven Brewery, as well as the man who created the recipe. I highly recommend trying this book and enjoying a fine clonebrew.

I own about a dozen recipe books and have used this book more than all the others combined! Recipes are broken down for extract, partial-mash and all-grain brewers. You can't go wrong with this book.

Phil (President, New York City Homebrewers Guild)