New Brewer, Recipe to win over SWMBO

Hello, everyone. I'm a new brewer, and I just finished my first beer. My cousin's been brewing for a long time, and one of my friends has been nagging me forever, and I finally broke down and tried it. I'm a pharmacist by trade, and I bought a starter kit, and yeah, I'm bit

I have to say that my first beer (a simple brown extract kit) is great. The wife likes it, though browns aren't her beer of choice. However, now that she knows that home brewing is legitimate (she was skeptical at first), she has been asking me about making a clone of SA "Black and Brew." Since it's available so limited (2 bottles in Holiday sampler), she really wants me to make a batch of it.

So, I've searched the web, the recipe forums, reviewed Papazian's recipes (LOVE Joy of Homebrewing), and I can find a number of coffee stouts, but I can't find any that seem to be the same. I found a kit of it, HERE. However, as I live in central Missouri, I'd much rather patronize a local homebrew store. None of the local stores know of a recipe, though. Thus, I wasn't sure if anyone had a clone recipe for either extract or partial mash. If not, no worries, and Barley and Vine will get my business. However, I had hoped to shop local.

Thanks again, and I look forward to my upcoming brews!

If you can find out what's in the kit, you can buy the ingredients from your LHBS. You might send an e-mail to Barley and Vine to ask what's in the kit. If that's not successful, we may be able to help whip up a recipe that will come close. It doesn't seem like an overly complex brew.

I think the Sam Adams website along with brewing software like Beersmith 2 (free 21 day trial) gives enough info for you to just make your own clone recipe that would be really close.

"Our coffee stout is a dark brew that combines roasted coffee with a rich, full-bodied stout. For the authentic coffee flavor, we use 1.5 pounds of Sumatran coffee beans per barrel, added late in the brewing process to provide the most flavor possible. This brew finishes with underlying roasty notes of chocolate, caramel, and dark fruit from our select blend of malts."

"Flavor: Full bodied with a rich, roasted coffee note and underlying hints of chocolate, caramel, & dark fruit
Color: Deep black, 80 SRM
Original Gravity: 15.6° Plato
Alcohol by Vol/Wt: 5.8%ABV - 4.5%ABW
Calories/12 oz.: 208
IBUs: 24
Malt Varieties: Samuel Adams two-row pale malt blend, Special B, Caramel 60, and roasted barley
Hop Varieties: East Kent Goldings
Yeast Strain: Samuel Adams ale yeast
Availability: Limited Release
First Brewed: 2011"

Buy her flowers and chocolate; don't let her catch you calling her 'the' wife; and then brew what you want to brew--she might like it.

Haha! Done, and done. (Was just our two-year anniversary). Actually she's the beer drinker out of the two of us, which is why it took so long for me to get the bug to homebrew. As for the brewing what I like... that's why the brown was first.

Regarding BeerSmith, thank you very much for the pushing me in that direction. I hadn't even looked into the program, thinking it was way too advanced for a new brewer like myself. It'll take some fiddling to get the numbers right, but it is far more 'user friendly' than I thought it would be. It makes me look forward to making recipes, rather than just following them. Thanks again!