Copy a brew or brew your own?

I have a friend that makes a beer that I could curl up in and just make a home for myself. I have access to it at any time and just love it. When you have a beer like this that you have tried and have access any time, do you a) try to copy their sucess until you attain that beer or b) try to make a beer that you will also enjoy which is different?

Commercial is different because it costs so "little" to brew a clone often and can produce an excellent replica. I'm talking homebrew friends whose beer you drink and not the a written recipe from a book or here.

I usually brew from my own recipes because I feel like I learn more about composing different styles. However, I'll brew from other homebrewer's recipes too if I think it's a good recipe and I'm in the mood. For example, I just brewed some of Orfy's Hobgoblin clone (for the 2nd time). The homebrewing world is too diverse to stick with one way of doing things and I think it's good to brew other brewer's creations every now and then. That's why brewing has such a great sense of community.

Me personally I like the idea of brewing things that you cant easily get in a store. I dont really understand the idea of brewing an exact clone of a beer. If Im going to spend the time and money to make a brew I would like it to be something that I couldnt just run to the local liquor store and pick up.

I am relatively new to brewing but I am liking experimenting

Experiment! Have Fun!
Make your friend's recipe just to prove that you can, then make your own... just to prove that you can.

I am playing with unconventional adjuncts and having a ball. So far nothing has turned out like I expected but every batch has been a good experience and all have been drinkable and distinctly original.

For my first batch I followed Palmer's generic recipe.

For my second batch I am looking over other recipes and forming my
own specialty grain extract recipe. I'll see how that turns out, and
make adjustments.

I'm totally interested in making my own recipes. There are few beers
that I can think of that I'd get more out of cloning than making my
own similar recipe.

Although there is merit in knowing exactly how to get a specific result.

Most great musicians didn't become great by inventing their own music and then exclusively playing it...they became great musicians by playing other musician's pieces and trying to perfect them. Then using what they learned they THEN learned to create their own great music.

It's easy to make decent beer and even easier to make beer and call it 'your own' because there are no constraints...not even a fixed target. You could make mud and say; "That's the way I designed it to be." But it's difficult to emulate another beer perfectly and in my experience...it is those difficult times where we learn the most.

To answer MattUpNorth's questions: I know this is a cop out but I would do both...try to emulate other styles/beers but also put what you learn to use to improve your own signature brews.

Everybody's got their own style of doing things. For my first two brews, I did an Arrogant Bastard clone and another ESB clone, both of which were recipes in a book from my LHBS. After that, I felt like I had the hang of it, and I've made up the recipes for my ~20 batches since (probably ~12 recipes total b/c of repeats).

Out of those, I've had probably 6 recipes that I absolutely love and will stick to for the long-haul (with minor tweaks along the way probably) and 6 that I liked, but probably won't do again.

Still have a lot of recipes, or ideas/pieces of recipes in my head now that will keep me busy for the next several years at least.

Me and Joe are brewing buddies, he makes a great porter that is always on tap and he gives me 5 gals anytime I need. I have been trying to make that porter for a while but it always comes out different. Good, but different. I am thinking of stopping making it because it is always different by just a little and there is more than enough now that we both brew it.

I usually follow some sort of existing recipe-especially ones from here that have gotten good feedback (EW's pale, octoberfest, BP's brews, etc.)...but then I make a few tweaks to make it unique. Most often I'll use a different yeast, or sub hops, while still trying to keep within the original style and metrics (OG/IBUs).

Let's use a more apt metaphor.

When cooking, you follow recipes by the word only to learn the process of cooking.
Once you understand the theory, the recipe is just a minor guideline. When you get
to know the proportions of flour, baking soda, water, eggs and salt in bread - are
you going to bust open a specific bread recipe every time you need to bake bread?

Nah. You're going to get an idea, make your own bread and modify it. Unless you
are trying to bake ONE specific, exact recipe of bread.

I'm only on my first batch, but this is how I make music, and how I cook, and how
I plan on brewing beer. I'm sure I'll consult a ton of recipes.

xxdcmast said:

Me personally I like the idea of brewing things that you cant easily get in a store. I dont really understand the idea of brewing an exact clone of a beer.

Click to expand...

Especially since you can usually buy it cheaper than making it.

Personally, I like to invent my own recipies. I dont follow other recipies, unless it totally kicks ass, and it is a freinds.

When I started brewing I made other people's recipes in the form of kits. Once I went to AG I realized how much enjoyment I got out of creating my own recipes and tweaking them.

I haven't brewed someone else's recipe for at least 65-70 batches.

0202's got it right. Once you learn from the book.. you can adapt and make your own.

I made two "kits" One a prtial mash the other an easy Malt Heff. My third I picked a recipie for beer that I like, as I couldn't get the same ingredients and made substitutions both for Mash, Malt and hops... well it's now my own and I've got it all writen down so that if it turns out great! well I can make it again the same exact way.

But as others have said, I wouldn't encourage making a clone of some Mass Market beer... Why bother?

Think about it like this... why stick to some recipie when you can make your own once you have a little knowledge? Make what you want and might like, if it is bad... well make adjustments and try again. The fun is learning as you brew!

I will take an HBT member's recipe and tweak it a bit. Based on my experiences, I think I'm going to start copying the recipe exactly the first time and then making changes. Adding a fair amount of black patent malt to Yuri's Black Project Stout made a beer that while good, wasn't what I was hoping for.