One way or another, every homebrewer has said to himself or herself, "I wish I could make a beer like..." For many of us, in fact, that's why we got into homebrewing in the first place, to make our own version of our favorite commercial brew, or one that we could rarely find (or rarely afford!). This is the most common lead-in to conversation in my homebrew supply store (Seven Barrel Brewery Homebrew Shop, West Lebanon, N.H.) as well. Customers are always coming in and asking, "How can I make a batch of..." and I proceed to put together a recipe that will replicate their favorite. I've gotten very good at it, and you can, too, with a little research and practice.

The general theory of "cloning" goes like this: Figure out what ingredients the commercial brewer uses and how. Then get the closest ingredients that you can and copy their procedure as closely as possible. Some words of warning: Many successful commercial brewers don't particularly want everyone to be able to copy their beers, for obvious economic reasons, so it may be difficult to figure out some of the secrets. Some ingredients (such as yeast) remain secret, so you may have to approximate. Also, big breweries, even with the same ingredients and the same brewing procedures, will generally produce a different product than homebrewers just by sheer numbers -- volume, efficiency, consistency, and so forth. Your version at home may be better because you can tailor the original to your distinct taste!

The first place to start if you want to get to a particular beer is the beer itself. Do a focused study of the beer, take notes on its color, appearance, fragrance, taste, bitterness. With a little brewing experience, most of us can figure out roughly what gives a beer its flavors and aromas, or at least how to produce similar results with ingredients we know. You should also read the labels. Many brewers, especially American craft-brewers, are proud to let you know which grains and hops they are using (I've even read labels that give the grain percentages, which makes it easy to calculate the grist bill for a five-gallon batch).

For older beers, or foreign breweries' products, you may need to rely on published research materials. I often start with Michael Jackson's New World Guide to Beer and Beer Companion, Dave Line's Making Beers Like Those You Buy, and articles and books by Roger Protz of CAMRA (Britain's Campaign for Real Ale). Line and Protz's works include old recipes for classic British and Scottish beers (and others) that may be impossible to duplicate with American ingredients, but they are a great place to at least get directions. From Jackson I often can get, if not recipes, at least an indication of hops and specialty grains, as well as quirks in brewing procedures that might otherwise be overlooked.

The last source to consult for information is the brewery itself. If you get a chance to visit, ask questions. Take notes, mental or otherwise.

The Ingredients

Grains are the relatively easy part -- you can pretty much fake color and body by playing around with crystal and dark malts, malt extracts, and so on. Hops are trickier. I can identify with almost complete accuracy only three or four hops. With a little knowledge of beer styles, however, it's possible to narrow the choices to certain classic hop varieties. Getting the right degree of bitterness, flavor, and aroma is more a matter of guesswork and trial and error than anything. You may have to brew the same recipe a few times, tweaking the amount of hops and the boiling schedule each time until you get it right.

Yeast can be the hardest part or the easiest to figure out. If you can pinpoint the yeast, especially if you can use the same yeast (recultured out of a bottle-conditioned beer, for example), you may well hit the style and the brew pretty darned close. If you can't get the yeast, you'll need to think about what different yeast strains can and will do under different fermentation conditions to decide which one to use.

If you do luck out and get the real thing, pitch big. My worst failed experiments have been the result of underpitching, so now I try to always build up my yeast (over the course of almost two weeks, usually) to at least three pints (1.5 quarts) of starter, more if I have time.

Keep in mind that yeast starter should be made up of roughly the same type of wort that the beer will be (i.e. color, relative strength, hop level) but in miniature. For example in brewing a dry stout, make up a starter with dark malt extract at about the same original gravity of the beer, with some roasted barley steeped in and some of the same bittering hops you will use in the beer. Condition the starter at the same fermenting temperatures that you will use for the beer, too.

A particular beer's water, mash conditions, and fermentation and aging procedures can be very difficult to nail down. Emulate what you can find out through research, make an educated guess on what's missing, and then start experimenting through trial and error.

The Recipes

These five are recipes that are at once fairly straightforward and yet a nice coup to pull off. The version I've given is the way I've brewed it, but all-extract or all-grain versions are possible too, of course.

OLD PECULIER

5 gallons, extract and grain

OG 1068

The first ribbon I ever won in a regional competition was with this beer, entered into the "old ale/strong ale" category. It was inspired by one of my favorite British brews, only I made it a little stronger. The real secret here is getting real English treacle. Molasses is just not the same thing. Treacle is available at many homebrew supply stores and at gourmet food and baking stores.

Ingredients:

• 0.5 lb. roasted barley
• 0.5 lb. dark crystal, 120° Lovibond
• 1 lb. crushed two-row pale malt
• 1 can (3.3 lbs.) Munton's Old Ale kit
• 3.3 lbs. unhopped dark extract
• 1 can (10 oz.) black treacle
• 2 oz. Willamette hop pellets, 1 oz. for 45 min., 1 oz. after boil
• 1 qt. to 0.5 gal. slurry of British ale yeast such as Wyeast 1098
• 3/4 cup brown sugar for priming

Step by Step:

In 3.5 gals. cold water steep roasted barley, dark crystal malt, and two-row malt. Raise heat gradually to 170° F and remove grains. Sparge grains with about 0.5 gal. very hot tap water. To kettle add Old Ale kit, dark extract, and treacle. Bring to a boil and add 1 oz. hop pellets. Boil 45 minutes. Remove from heat and add another 1 oz. hop pellets. Chill, top off in fermenter to 5.25 gals., and cool to 75° F. Pitch yeast slurry (1 qt. is minimum, 0.5 gal. is better). Ferment around 70° F for 10 days, rack to secondary, and condition at 65° F for three weeks. Prime with brown sugar and bottle. Age at least six weeks, more if you have the patience.

ADELSCOTT MALT LIQUOR

5 gallons, grain and extract

OG 1060

This beer is hard to find in the United States. Brewed by Fischer in Schiltigheim, France, it is a sweet and strong reddish-amber ale with a smoky nose and a whiskey-like flavor. The peated malt gives the smokiness, and the Dutch dry malt used in this recipe finishes more full bodied and sweeter than English or American dry malt extracts to keep the character of the original. The Irish ale yeast will also help to leave some residual sweetness.

Ingredients:

• 0.5 lb. dark crystal malt, 90° to 120° Lovibond
• 0.25 lb. Munich malt
• 0.5 lb. peat-smoked malt
• 6 lbs. Dutch unhopped light dry malt extract
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 0.5 oz. Brewer's Gold hop pellets (4% alpha acid), for 45 min.
• 1 oz. Hallertauer Hersbrucker hop pellets (3% alpha acid), for 15 min.
• 1 qt. or more of an Irish ale yeast (Wyeast 1084)
• 2/3 cup corn sugar for priming

Step by Step:

In 2.5 gals. cold water steep dark crystal, Munich, and peat-smoked malts. Bring water up to 170° F and remove grains. Rinse grains into kettle with 1 qt. hot tap water. Add to kettle extract and brown sugar and bring to a boil. Add Brewer's Gold hop pellets and boil 30 minutes. Add Hallertauer Hersbrucker hop pellets and boil 15 minutes more. Turn off heat. Chill, top off to 5.25 gals. with pre-boiled chilled water. At 75° F pitch yeast. Ferment at 70° F for three to five days. Rack to secondary, condition at 60° F or so for 10 days. Prime with corn sugar and bottle. Age 10 to 14 days.

BLANCHE DE CHAMBLY

5 gallons, extract and grain

OG 1049

There are many Belgian witbiers. Most are shimmery and pale with a sprightly, refreshing orangey-spicy aroma. One of the best that I have ever tried comes from a medium-size brewery near Montreal, Unibroue, makers of La Fin du Monde (The End of the World) and Maudite (Damned), Belgian-style strong ales that have earned numerous international gold and platinum medals. I don't know if the brewers use the same yeast in all their brews, but I have had great luck reculturing their yeast and brewing with it. They don't reveal what particular combination of spices they use, beyond the traditional coriander and orange peel, but I like to add ginger.

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs. Belgian pilsner malt
• 0.5 lb. flaked wheat
• 0.5 lb. flaked oats
• 3 lbs. unhopped wheat dry malt extract
• 1 oz. Saaz hop pellets, for 40 min.
• 0.5 oz. cracked coriander seed
• 0.25 oz. dried cura*ao bitter orange peel
• 0.125 oz. grated dried ginger
• 1 qt. slurry of recultured Blanche de Chambly yeast (or Wyeast 3944 or 3942, if you can't get the real thing)
• 7/8 cup corn sugar for priming

Step by Step:

Mash pilsner malt, flaked wheat, and flaked oats in 2 gals. of water at 150° F for 60 minutes. Sparge with 10 qts. water at 168° F. To kettle add extract. Boil 10 minutes. Add hop pellets and boil another 30 minutes. Reduce heat to simmer, steep (in a fine mesh bag or muslin hop bag) coriander, orange peel, and ginger for 10 minutes. If desired, other spices could be added, such as cumin, cardamom, black pepper, and paradise seeds. Remove from heat and chill, removing spice bag. Top off in fermenter to 5.25 gals. and cool to 75° F. Pitch yeast. Ferment for eight to 10 days at 65° F or so. Rack to secondary and condition for three weeks at 60° F. Prime with corn sugar, bottle, and age four weeks.

CHIMAY CINQ CENTS

5 gallons, grain and adjuncts

OG 1068

Deep copper to light brown, fruity and rich, there just isn't a better beer in the world than this Belgian Trappist ale. This is essentially an all-grain recipe, although there are some sugar adjuncts for higher alcohol content. The yeast is essential. I carefully saved the dregs from an entire six-pack of the White Label and a 22-oz. bottle of the Cinq Cents (which Michael Jackson says are the same thing) and built up to a half-gallon starter. Golden syrup is an English sweetener (increasingly easy to find here; check your gourmet bakery shop if your homebrew supplier isn't carrying it yet), which is essentially invert sugar.

Ingredients:

• 9 lbs. two-row pale malt
• 1 oz. black patent malt
• 1 lb. brown sugar
• 10 oz. golden syrup
• 4 plugs (2 oz.) Hallertauer hops, for 60 min.
• 2 plugs (1 oz.) Kent Goldings hops, for 60 min.
• Chimay Cinq Cents yeast
• 5/8 cup brown sugar for priming

Step by Step:

Mash malts in 12 qts. of water for five minutes at 148° F. Add in 3 qts. boiling water to raise temperature to 152° F. Hold 85 minutes, then sparge with 12 qts. water at 170° F. Add to kettle brown sugar, golden syrup, and hops. Boil 60 minutes or until reduced to 5 gals. Cool and pitch yeast. Ferment warmish (68° to 72° F) for two weeks and rack to secondary. Condition at roughly 65° F for three to four weeks. Prime and bottle. Age six months.

ANCHOR STEAM

5 gallons, extract and grain

OG 1046

The classic pioneer-spirited, West-Coast-hoppy, all-American brew that restarted it all. Make it light in color but with cara-pils to give it more body, and hop it well. Anchor reportedly uses only Northern Brewer hops, to bitter, to flavor, and for aroma. Yumm. The only yeast I have ever tried this with is Wyeast 2112.

Ingredients:

• 0.5 lb. cracked cara-pils malt
• 0.25 lb. cracked wheat malt
• 0.25 lb. toasted pale malt (toast it at 350° F for 15 min. on a cookie sheet)
• 1 can (3.3 lbs.) Munton's unhopped extra-light malt extract
• 2 lbs. British or American unhopped light dry malt extract
• 2 oz. Northern Brewer hop pellets (8% alpha acid), 1 oz. for 45 min., 1 oz. for 15 min.
• 0.5 oz. fresh whole Northern Brewer hops, after boil
• 1 qt. starter of Wyeast 2112 (or other warm-tolerant lager yeast)
• 7/8 cup corn sugar for priming

Step by Step:

In 2.5 gals. cold water steep carapils, wheat, and toasted pale malts. Raise the water gradually to 170° F and remove the grains. Add extracts to the kettle. Bring to a boil and add 1 oz. hop pellets. Boil 30 minutes and add an additional 1 oz. pellets. Boil 15 more minutes. Remove from heat and steep fresh whole Northern Brewer hops as the wort cools. Chill, top off to 5.25 gals., and remove aroma hops. At 70° F, pitch yeast. Ferment warm (68° to 72° F) for a week. Rack to secondary and condition cool (40° to 50° F) for three weeks. Prime with corn sugar, bottle, and age four weeks.