In my attempt to clone beers like Fuller's London Pride, Young's Winter Warmer etc I have visited several English beers forums where the posters are also trying to clone beers such as these.
Look at one of the classic "clone brews" books too: David Line's Brewing beers
like those you buy. Even the CAMRA
book has "comprehensive recipes for recreating some of Britain's best-loved beers". Sounds like a clone to me. [USA
version available soon!]
So the assumption that this is only an American thing is bollocks.
I did, however, spend 3 years in Warwickshire, UK, and can attest to the fact that it is (or was 20 odd years ago) pretty much a beer wasteland. No local craft brews spring to my mind. There were some good pubs though. And, of course, the Student Union where the beer was at least cheap if not good.
As to why I clone beers: I am trying to recreate some of the beers from my homeland that I can not find here. I have only been brewing for a year, and figure I am using this to try and get a better feel for the ingredients. If I know what a beer tastes like when these ingredients are used in their "correct" proportions, then I can use that knowledge to try and tweak it for the second or third batch.
Or, if I am simply looking for a good recipe, I might use a clone. For example, Yooper's DFH 60 min. Many people have brewed Yooper's recipe and loved the result, and its a great commercial IPA. It is a safe recipe to start from. I have made it 3 times so far, varying things each time like yeast, hops, mash temps etc. Was my last batch, using Wyeast 1967, and with a tweaked grain bill a true clone? I dunno, but it did win silver in our local homebrew contest.
So when cooking, johnnyboy, did you NEVER follow a recipe someone else had made?