Ingredient Substitutions

I am a newbie having brewed a few extract brews and am looking at branching into partial mash and recipe brewing. I have found several recipes that sound good but I cannot find the actual ingredients at the brew shops. Is there a rule of thumb to follow or a substitution calculator out there that can help in the substitutions??

post the recipes you are looking at and the ingredients you can't find
someone will help you

I realized I didn't give you much help. It kind of depends on the recipe and which ingredients you are trying to replace. There are lots of hop charts out there that will suggest substitutions. On the grain bill there may be malts which go by different names, or things that can be close. It kind of depends. That's why I said post the recipe so we can see what you're trying to make.

I am looking at a Sam Adams clone:
1 can Munton & Fison Premium kit
1 pkt yeast
2 lbs Amber DME
1 oz Hallertauer hop pellets
1 oz Tettnang hop pellets
corn sugar for priming.

I am not familiar with a lot of the specifics or terminology but if I cannot find M&F Premium or the Hallertauer hops, can I substitute?

This may not be from a local shop, but Austin Home Brew has a good list of Sam Adam clone recipes:

https://www.austinhomebrew.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=sam+adams

Munton and Fison is a brand name of extract, so you could substitute any LME (looking at the recipe I think that is a can of light extract, usually 3.3 lbs).

The Austin homebrew site doesn't seem to list the exact ingredients but I can extrapolate from a few Sam Adams clones I see online. So according to their mini-mash I think it would be something like this:

2.5 lb 2-row or pale malt
0.5 lb crystal 60
5 lb light LME (or you could use 4 lb light DME)

The amber DME in your original recipe would just be pale malt plus crystal 60. Better to use light extract and add the specialty grains yourself.

As for the Hallertauer it would be unusual for the brew store not to have any varieties - there are several types that might be labeled by another name like Mittelfruh or Tradition. Liberty could be a substitute.

BYO has a pretty good hop chart:
Brew Your Own: The How-To Homebrew Beer Magazine - Comparing and Selecting Hops

Lastly, will you be making this with lager yeast? Do you have temp control for that?

Thanks, I see i need to expand my brew stores.

I do not currently have the ability for temp control at this time. It will have to be extract or partial mash for now.

I will check into the alternate clone recipies as well.

Thanks for the help.

What I meant about temp control was for fermentation. If you're trying to do a clone you'd need a lager yeast like S-23 or wyeast 2206, which both have a fermentation range of about 48-58 degrees.

I currently do not have temp control for fermentation however living in Illinois ambient temps are below that so I could possibly do something in the garage. But would have to work on it.