Anybody know a good bud light clone?

I'm exhausted wading through the foolishness in this thread. Do you have temperature control, if not you really can't get that close. Contrary to popular belief it's very difficult to make an American Lager, people bash what they themselves could never make.

I do a classic american pilsner that passed the test of more than a few that would NEVER drink anything but BL, not an exact clone, but one of the best warm weather beers you can make. Once again if you can't properly lager, just but them the BL.


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wildwest450 said:

I do a classic american pilsner that passed the test of more than a few that would NEVER drink anything but BL, not an exact clone, but one of the best warm weather beers you can make.

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Is this the one you brought over on Memorial Day? If so, one of my buddies was talking about how good it was just last week. You mind sending a recipe up this way?

wildwest450 said:

Contrary to popular belief it's very difficult to make an American Lager, people bash what they themselves could never make.

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My point exactly.


OP, here is a recipe that will work for you, and any of the bashers that chimed in that actually want to put their money where their mouths are.

downtown3641 said:

I couldn't consistently build a crappy car. However, a lot of manufacturers can. Consistency does not equal quality.

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I just figure if a company can one of the hardest styles of beers to make than they are probably more than capable of making a style that is less difficult. If random Joe can make a quality beer I would think one of the top 3 would be able to replicate a quality beer with ease.

Back to the main subject,
Here is what I plan on following if I ever do a light beer clone.


8lbs 6-row
1lb rice syrup solids
0.5 oz willamette 60 minutes

lager in the 40s

I received this recipe for an old brewer I met when I first started, actually was fairly comparable to the BMC beers out there. He stated that he had used minute rice and prefered the rice syrup solids

maffewl said:

Is this the one you brought over on Memorial Day? If so, one of my buddies was talking about how good it was just last week. You mind sending a recipe up this way?

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(Yes) Not mine, I've made it with the 2035 and it finished at tad drier, which I liked. The bittering addition could be cut down, it does have a small hop presence, but no one has ever minded it. This is a very good beer.


https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f58/schmipielschaerheingoldter-97553/


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Here is a recipe I posted previously for a quick easy extract beer I make for the wife.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/bud-like-281855/

Cream of Three Crops original recipe is very light tasting and I have found it pleases the new-to-homebrew friends. Even when I have started to adjust it with Amarillo hops or a few medium crystal grains they still like it.

In short, it is a recipe that can easily make a very subtle-flavoured beer.

/B

If it were me, I wouldn't necessarily clone the BL. I would make a nice pilsner, maybe a Bohemian Pils, then have him do a side by side. Tell him, this is what you wanted me to make (BL), and this is what I can teach you to make (Homebrew).

I've thought about doing this for my BMC swilling brother in law every time he criticizes my beer choices. However I don't know if I want to waste the grain, yeast, and time to try and shut him up.

Good luck in whatever you choose to do.

maffewl said:

Seriously? Does this hijacking have to happen every time someone utters the word Bud, Miller, or Coors and has the audacity to even think about the word clone?

I see there are some recipes posted, I'm curious how close these are as well. I would like to try to do this, not to save money, but to test my abilities. I brewed a Light American Lager in early October (recipe posted below) and I am very happy with the results, but can't say that it is a clone of any particular beer. But if anyone has an actual clone (or something very close), I'd be interested in making an attempt.

Light American Lager Swill:

5.5 G batch
75% efficiency
4.2 ABV.
11.9 IBUs

5 lb. Pilsner
1 lb 8 oz. Flaked Corn
1 lb 8 oz. Flaked Rice
1.3 oz. Munich

0.3 Cascade 60 min.
0.3 Cascade 30 min.
0.2 Cascade 5 min.

WLP840 American Lager Yeast

Mash @ 151
Ferment @ 52

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Thanks man I'll give this a try. Your 100% right. It truly would be a test of skill.

HolidayIF1488 said:

Thanks man I'll give this a try. Your 100% right. It truly would be a test of skill.

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Good luck brother,
I would suggest keeping a close eye on the gravity and make
sure it completely ferments out before you keg or bottle or you will end up with sweet beer.
Have some Amylase enzyme on hand just in case to use in the secondary.

Tim

HolidayIF1488 said:

Thanks man I'll give this a try. Your 100% right. It truly would be a test of skill.

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Sounds good man, there have been several other recipes posted that I believe I may try as well. I used Cascades because I wanted a hint of the spicy, grapefruit character they can impart... to make it closer to style, you may want to substitute Saaz and add maybe a hair more to keep the IBU's about the same. This recipe is on the upper range of the style.

HolidayIF1488 said:

Thanks man I'll give this a try. Your 100% right. It truly would be a test of skill.

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Good man. Go for it! Just make sure to mash on the low end- around 150F, so that you have as many fermentables as possible, and your beer is on the dry side. Good luck, and HAVE FUN!!!!!!!

Andrewtherooster said:

1. Brew a pilsner.
2. Fill a glass halfway with water.
3. Fill the rest of the way with said pilsner.

Voila! A Bud Light clone.

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I would laugh but I think your right!

Bernie Brewer said:

Good man. Go for it! Just make sure to mash on the low end- around 150F, so that you have as many fermentables as possible, and your beer is on the dry side. Good luck, and HAVE FUN!!!!!!!

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Thanks Bernie B. Headed to LHBS now.

Watching an episode of "how beer saved the world" and you can clearly see in one shot of their brewery a pallet if Cascade hops. Hope that helps... At least one. If not all of the hops are cascade.

Based on IBUs, is say very little hops needed.

Mongrel said:

Not even comparable. Show me a home system where you can select your current brew on your laptop, and the grain starts moving from the silo...


I've had a few chances to look into the computer system at Deschutes, last night being the most recent. It's part of the scale of things. There are only a couple of valves the brewer has to open by hand, and they still have to do their kettle salt and hop additions when the computer tells them it's time.

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I've been to New Glarus - their new brewhouse is pretty much fully automated.

If you didn't mind spending the money, there's no reason you couldn't put ridiculous levels of automation in at home. The PLC software that runs my plant is all Windows-based. I sit across the hall from the automation guy at my cheese plant, and he's shown that anything is possible with money and time. I could probably go to my company's idle assets warehouse and scrounge enough stuff to make a bonafide commercial micro-brewery, no problem. With a few silos or supersack of grain, rotary valves, some automated scales, and a pneumatic convey system, automated malt delivery to a mill and then into a mash tun would be easy compared to the stuff we do.

Good practices, good people, and good ingredients = good products. Add automation, and you've got good products in mass quantities - but only if you still use good practices, people, and ingredients. I'll put our regular cream cheese up against anyone's (and we routinely do in competition), even if we are churning out tens of tons every hour (a light day of production requires the milk from 10-20,000 cows). All of the milk is locally sourced, yada yada yada.

Even with all of the automation, the human touch is still in play. Automation just makes it easier. It's fine to dislike SABMiller, AB/Inbev, and the others because you don't like the beer they make, but just saying that bigger = badder is arrogant at best.

HolidayIF1488 said:

Thanks man I'll give this a try. Your 100% right. It truly would be a test of skill.

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Just wanted to check in and see if you had a chance to brew this yet? I'm drinking mine right now and am excited to see how yours turns out.

maffewl said:

Just wanted to check in and see if you had a chance to brew this yet? I'm drinking mine right now and am excited to see how yours turns out.

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As a matter of fact I did. Only I used simcoe hops @30min instead of only cascade(I like cascade but I love simcoe) it was fantastic but I bottle as well as keg and the bottled just keep getting better. Cascade&Simcoe age very well in bottles. My friend really enjoyed it his words: ("this is way better than bud light! You made this? Really!? You gotta teach me!") so to answer you question yeah it was a hit. Of corse, I gave most of the credit to HBT.