Craft Beer Copy Cats

[rwyarbrough]

Hi ya'll.

Short time reader, first time poster -

Not sure which forum to post this to, so I assume I should start here in the general section and ask.

Sometimes food recipes will blatantly admit to being a knockoff of a well known fast food chain or restaurant dishes. Is this also a phenomenon in the home brewing world or is it frowned upon?

I've not been able to get my hands on this commercially produced limited edition brew to try it and frankly, if I was to like it, since it is such a limited release, I might not ever get to enjoy it again even if I did really like it. Here is the marketing fluff for the commercial brew -

Our latest Brooklyn Quarterly Experiment is Tripel Burner, a strong Belgian-style tripel ale brewed with licorice spices and aged in white wine barrels. Believe us, this isn’t the gummy, bottom-of-grandma’s-purse licorice you might remember. The beer is chock full of warming spice, with notes of fig, oak and cinnamon that will make you realize why licorice has been treasured for so long. White wine barrels, a licorice spice blend from the famed spice wizard Lior Lev Sercarz, and a strong Belgian-inspired tripel base create Tripel Burner, a heady, aromatic ale that reaches a higher state of serenity.

Take a sip. Do you feel it? A certain warmth, a dry palate opening onto a fleeting impression of sweetness, a rush of figs, a touch of vanilla, a whisper of mint, a transportation of the mind?

Style: Licorice-spiced tripel aged in white wine barrels
Malts: Pilsner
Additions: Licorice spice blend from Lior Lev Sercarz
Hops: Perle, Aurora
Yeast: Our House Belgian Yeast
Original Gravity: 20.5° Plato
(from http://brooklynbrewery.com/brooklyn-beers/bqe/tripel-burner)

Instead of copy/pasting the reviews here, the links to the reviews that really describe this beer well can be found here.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/45/237592/

So the question here is three.... no, not three... Four (for you Monty Python fans!) fold:
1) Has anyone here tasted that limited release and would it be easy to duplicate in a home brew recipe?
2) Are there any other commercial releases that is very similar in taste?
3) Anyone have a home receipe that is close or matches the descriptions/actual taste of this brew?
4) Is "reverse engineering" of a commercial brew possible/hard/big no no??


Thanks in Advance,

Robert

 

[filthyastronaut]

You're describing a clone recipe, and those are everywhere. A quick google turned up no results for that beer, I'm afraid. I bet you could get something similar making a Tripel with similar specs, malts, and hops and add spices and oak and some form.

 

[treacheroustexan]

A lot of people have had success reaching out to the brewery themselves for advice on cloning one of their beers. A lot of breweries are pretty cool and will tell you what is in the beer. They probably won't always give you the exact recipe, but if you get the grain bill and find out what hops they use, it's a great start to reverse engineering a recipe.

Oops: i just reread the first post and see all of the ingredients are pretty much listed already. I would get beersmith and plug in the pilsner malt, and the perle and aurora hops until you get something that looks close. It would be a good start. Input the pilsner malt until you get a similar gravity reading. The licorice blend may give you the most trouble. Still reach out to Brooklyn and see if they can give you any more information.

Brooklyn Tripel Burner is bottle conditioned, so you could harvest the yeast from the bottom of the bottle and make a yeast starter and use that (if you can get more bottles). Or see if you can find another bottle conditioned belgian beer of theirs that might not be as limited. It looks like Brooklyn Local 1 is available year round and uses the same belgian yeast.

Hopefully this post makes sense. I've edited it a million times to add more stuff I've thought about.

 

[Sammy86]

Hi ya'll.



Short time reader, first time poster -



Not sure which forum to post this to, so I assume I should start here in the general section and ask.



Sometimes food recipes will blatantly admit to being a knockoff of a well known fast food chain or restaurant dishes. Is this also a phenomenon in the home brewing world or is it frowned upon?



I've not been able to get my hands on this commercially produced limited edition brew to try it and frankly, if I was to like it, since it is such a limited release, I might not ever get to enjoy it again even if I did really like it. Here is the marketing fluff for the commercial brew -



Instead of copy/pasting the reviews here, the links to the reviews that really describe this beer well can be found here.



https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/45/237592/



So the question here is three.... no, not three... Four (for you Monty Python fans!) fold:

1) Has anyone here tasted that limited release and would it be easy to duplicate in a home brew recipe?

2) Are there any other commercial releases that is very similar in taste?

3) Anyone have a home receipe that is close or matches the descriptions/actual taste of this brew?

4) Is "reverse engineering" of a commercial brew possible/hard/big no no??





Thanks in Advance,



Robert

1. Never tasted it but it sounds unique and frankly delicious

2. Considering this beer is a special release I would think it's hard to find another commercial brewery that's going to age their beer in white wine barrels with the same spices and hops. Barrels aging can be very hard to replicate mainly because of where it comes from I.e who made what was in it previously.

3. The recipe is very basic, 100% pilsner malt and then the hops...the trick would be to figuring out how much and when to add them. Unfortunately, I do not have a similar recipe.

4. Yes, reverse engineering is possible as many do it on this forum. However clone recipes (recipes based off a commercial brew) sometimes can be very difficult to replicate mainly because the types of malts and hops available to the home brewer can be drastically different than that of a commercial brewer who has contracts with maltsters. Also, this one would be challenging to clone because of the aging in wine barrels...I personally don't know how easy it would be to get your hands on the exact barrel they used for their aging.

What a lot of people do is contact the brewery (head brewer if possible) and see what information they are willing to give up. From what I've seen here on the forums is that some breweries will give you all the goods while others won't give you a thing.

I've visited DFH quite a bit when I lived in southern Delaware and Harpoon (Boston, MA) they were always nice enough one on one to discuss recipes (not whole group).

My advise contact the brewery see what they are willing to give you for a hop schedule and move on from there.

Cheers!

 

[bobeer]

It's definitely not a no-no to reverse engineer a commercial beer. That's part of what makes homebrewing fun and awesome. You can make whatever you want to make.

With that said, no I have not had the beer you're asking about and I do not have any recipes that would come close to it. If I were you I'd find a recipe that used all Pilsner malt and see if you can find any reviews about how the yeast character is and try to find a strain that come close to that. Then research the best way to add the adjuncts or even contact Brooklyn and ask how they go about adding them. Cloning a rare beer like this will require a lot of homework if you want to get it close. IMO though, since you've never tasted it and will no know how close you come to the real thing, I'd just make a triple with all the adjuncts and just enjoy what you get out of it.

If you decide to brew it let us know what recipe you go with and how it turns out!

 

[rwyarbrough]

IMO though, since you've never tasted it and will no know how close you come to the real thing, I'd just make a triple with all the adjuncts and just enjoy what you get out of it.

Exactly - who knows I might like mine even better. Sometimes the first tasting bias your taste buds anyway. That might even make for a better first time home brewing experience. I can make it how I like it and not worry about copying it exactly.

That is unless I'm biting of more than I can chew. I don't even have one batch to my name yet.

If you decide to brew it let us know what recipe you go with and how it turns out!

You bet I will!

 

[bobeer]

That is unless I'm biting of more than I can chew. I don't even have one batch to my name yet.

I would have said in the past that I agree with you but with recently witnessing big beers brewed as first beers I'd say go for it. I got someone at work into homebrewing because he's a very, VERY, talented DIY'er and I knew he'd be a natural homebrewer. His first beer was a clone of Stone's RIS and he nailed it. I would have never said to a new brewer to brew up a huge all grain clone of a beer but he pulled it off quiet well.

I'm not sure of your level of DIY ability but you feel like you'd be a naturally talented homebrewer then I say go for it. If you're unsure of the process and how'd you'd go about conducting a brew day then I'd say brew a smaller more standard beer to get you started. I'd hate to see you spend a bunch of loot on the grist, hops and yeast, only to get a beer that is sub-par to what you could do with a beer or two under you belt.

Good luck!