cloning a beer if i know ingrediants

[metaltim]

I want to clone two commercial brews, both are BJ's brewhouse beers. They have their grains, hops and more info listed on their website, so that's obviously probably most of what you need.. however, i haven't done an all grain yet (going to do my first one this or next weekend) so i have no knowledge of how to come up with estimated proportions.. could anyone help out?

First, their hefeweizen (swmbo loves it):
Style: Bavarian Hefeweizen
Alcohol: 4.9% by volume
Malt Varieties: Wheat, 2-row Pale, Vienna
Bitterness (IBU): 15
Starting Gravity: 1.048
Hop Varieties: Perle, Hallertau

and their 'strong' red ale (I can't get enough of it):
Style: Irish Ale
Alcohol: 7.3% by volume
Malt Varieties: 2-row Pale, Munich, Belgian Crystal Malts, Chocolate
Bitterness (IBU): 25
Starting Gravity: 1.070
Hop Varieties: Northern Brewer


that's quite a bit of info they give so they obviously aren't guarding the recipes too close.. could a pro out there piece it together for me?

5 gallon, all grain, I use beersmith.

Thanks in advance.

Tim

http://www.bjsbrewhouse.com/list.aspx

 

[dcp27]

The way I try to clone a recipe without knowing amounts is first taking the base malt and adding that up to the correct OG. Then having other knowledge of the beer (SRM, taste, etc), substitute the base malt for the other known malts.
So in the case of the hefe, it takes about 9-10lbs (depending on your efficiency) of wheat to get to 1.048. Hefes are usually around 50-60% wheat, so give half of that to the 2-row. I've never had this beer, but I'd guess theres about 1lb of the vienna in there, which I'd take away from the 2-row. So that ends up with a bill like 5# wheat, 4# 2-row, 1# vienna, or 5# wheat DME and 1# vienna malt if you want extract and steeping grains.
For hops, I usually do the flavoring and aroma first, and then add bittering to get me to the appropriate IBUs. In the case of a hefe, there isn't much flavor/aroma from the hops, so i'd do like 0.5oz of hallertau at 10-15mins and flameout. then I'd just get up to your IBUs using the perle at 60mins, so like 0.65oz if you do a 2.5gal boil.

 

[brewagentjay]

Some of the online suppliers here will clone it for you if they haven't already. I'd ask Austin first so if you going to buy the ingredient from them I'm sure they'd help.

Also not sure your area but my LHBS does clones and takes reuqests as well.

I haven't gotten good enough to clone anything yet so I have to rely on the HBT & Suppliers on HBT and LHBS.

 

[joety]

Did you try calling the brewmaster? You'd be surprised how much they are willing to share.

 

[Houblon]

Even knowing the grains/hops/gravity/IBU/SRM/mash temps/fermentation temps/times still means your going to have to spend alot of time doing test batchs.