Some may get into homebrewing for the “do it yourself” challenge, some may start homebrewing to simply have fresh beer around the house, but others may take the step because they’ve fallen in love with a commercial beer and thought: “I could make this.”
I know – I’m one of them.
Peruse through this website or others and you’re bound to come across dozens – if not hundreds – of recipe kits at your disposal, from coffee stouts to hoppy IPAs and everything in between. But what may pique the interest of many is the ability to make “clone” beers using ingredient kits of such iconic brands as New Belgium’s Fat Tire or Samuel Smith’s Taddy Porter.
But why clone beer? It’s a good way to put your skills to the test. With that said, here’s my perspective on developing a clone beer recipe.

Developing a clone beer recipe to learn
Using prepared clone beer kits can be a good experiment in the homebrewing process, as you have a “control beer” to test your skills. Sometimes subtle differences in mash temperature, hop utilization, and grain bill can impact the final product. By making a beer and testing it side-by-side with the commercial version, you can get a better idea of what works best during your brew day and what you may need to pay more attention to.
I once made a Bass Pale Ale clone beer kit for the sheer challenge of trying to replicate one of the most famous versions of the style. While it ended up about 1 percent higher in alcohol content than I had hoped, it taught me to pay more attention to temperatures and how I was using my grains. It was a valuable lesson for future brew days.
If you want to clone beers yourself, the key to success is to hone your palate. As you build clone beer recipes, you’ll want to know what kind of ingredients to buy and how each piece impacts the larger puzzle.
One popular way both commercial brewers and homebrewers alike accomplish this is by brewing experimental beers, like single hop pale ales and IPAs as well as SMaSH beer recipes, which stands for “Single Malt and Single Hop.” In both cases, the goal is to hone the use of a specific ingredient so you can better understand it. Breweries like Mikkeller, Flying Dog, and even Sam Adams have produced single-hop beers as a means for consumers to taste the subtle differences between two different hop varieties, like Citra and Sorachi Ace, for example.

Develop a clone beer recipe to replicate your favorites
One of the first cloned beer recipes I made was a watermelon wheat beer based off of 21st Amendment’s famous Hell or High Watermelon Wheat. Sipping the California brewery’s fruit-laced beer from the can, I thought I might like to try this beer, but with more intense watermelon taste.
To make my own personal take on the clone beer, I looked up a clone recipe. Instead of using natural flavoring, I wanted to go for the real thing, so I sanitized two watermelons, cut them up and squeezed juice from them to add to my secondary. The result: a beer that tasted quite like a boozy watermelon. Unique, for sure.
One of the best parts of homebrewing beer is the ability to experiment, and cloning gives you the perfect opportunity to do just that. We all have different palates, and the aromas and tastes we experience may be better served with a tweak or two of our favorite commercial beers.
No matter why you choose to develop a clone beer recipe, it’s one more tool in your toolbox (or is it bottle in your six-pack?) to help you become a better homebrewer. If you’re ready to take the plunge, check out “North American Clone Brews,” which offers 150 clone beer recipes for brewing beers from Anchor, Sierra Nevada, Fat Tire, Samuel Adams and more. Each of the clone beer recipes come with an extract, partial mash and all-grain version for homebrewers of any skill set.
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Bryan Roth is a beer nerd and homebrewer living in Durham, North Carolina. You can read his thoughts on beer and the beer industry on his blog, This Is Why I’m Drunk, and send him suggestions on how to get his wife to drink craft beer via Twitter at @bryandroth.

Pliny the Elder is a Double IPA and one of the top five most highly rated beers on Beer Advocate. It’s brewed by Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa, CA, and is named for the Roman scholar who reportedly gave hops their original botanical name way back in the first century AD. With enough IBUs to tear the enamel off your teeth, Pliny the Elder is extremely popular and can be hard to find – why not brew your own?
This Pliny the Elder clone beer recipe comes from the book Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer. Vinnie Cilurzo, co-owner and brewmaster at Russian River, contributed to the beer recipe specifically for the book, so you can be sure it’s close to the real thing!
The clone beer recipe below assumes a mash efficiency of 83% and a 90-minute boil time. It also uses nearly seven ounces of dry hops, so if needed, review our Quick Guide to Dry Hopping Your Homebrew. Good luck!

“Hop Hammer” – Pliny the Elder Clone Beer Recipe
(6-gallon batch, all-grain version)
Specs
OG: 1.080
FG: 1.013
ABV: 8.9%
IBU: 100+
SRM: 6
Ingredients
15.25 lbs. American two-row malt
0.5 lb. Wheat malt
1.5 lb. Corn sugar
0.5 lb. Crystal 40L malt
2 oz. Warrior hops at 90 mins (30 AAU)
2 oz. Chinook hops at 90 mins (26 AAU)
1 oz. Simcoe hops at 45 mins (12 AAU)
1 oz. Columbus hops at 30 mins (14 AAU)
2.25 oz. Centennial hops at 0 mins (20.25 AAU)
1 oz. Simcoe hops at 0 mins (12 AAU)
3.25 oz. Columbus hops, dry hop for 7-10 days (45.5 AAU)
1.75 oz. Centennial hops, dry hop for 7-10 days (15.75 AAU)
1.75 oz. Simcoe hops, dry hop for 7-10 days (21 AAU)
Wyeast 1056: American Ale Yeast or Fermentis Safale US-05
Directions: The day before brewing the Pliny the Elder clone beer recipe, prepare a yeast starter sufficient for an OG of 1.080. On brew day, mash the crushed grains at 150˚F in approximately 5 gallons of water. Lauter and sparge to collect 7.75 gallons of wort. Bring to a boil. Add hops according to schedule. Mix in corn sugar just before flameout. Ferment at 67˚F, slowly raising the temperature to 70˚F towards the end of primary fermentation. When most of the yeast has settled, transfer to a secondary fermenter and add the dry hops. Dry hop for 7-10 days. Bottle or keg for 2-2.5 vols CO₂ of carbonation.
EXTRACT VERSION: Replace the two-row and wheat malt with 10.9 lbs. of light LME and 0.5 lb. of wheat LME. Steep the crushed caramel malt for about 30 minutes at 150˚F before mixing in the malt extracts and proceed with the beer recipe.
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David Ackley is a beer writer, brewer, and self-described “craft beer crusader.” He holds a General Certificate in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is founder and editor of the Local Beer Blog.

A summer ale is just that: a perfect ale to add to your summer brewing repertoire. That’s why I thought, now, would be a good time to put together a summer ale homebrew recipe.
Based on English ales, summer ales are light in color, not too heavy or alcoholic, and moderate in the hop department. Because it’s a well-balanced style, the summer ale still lets the drinker get a good sense of the malt character. And, because Summer ales are so well balanced, they are a great beer to brew as a SMaSH ale.
What is a SMaSH ale you say? I’m glad you asked.
SMaSH stands for Single-Malt and Single-Hop. Pick a malt, pick a hop, and brew! It’s a great way to learn about the characteristics of a particular ingredient, without a lot of background noise. You may also try brewing a single malt base beer, then choose several different hops or different beer yeasts for each one. Maybe you heard about the Single Hop series by Mikkeller? That’s exactly what we’re doing here.
According the BJCP, summer ales are part of the Blonde Ale (6B) category. Therefore, we should aim for these guidelines when creating a summer ale homebrew recipe:

• OG: 1.038 – 1.054
• IBUs: 15 – 28
• FG: 1.008 – 1.013
• SRM: 3 – 6
• ABV: 3.8 – 5.5%

So here’s how we can build the recipe.

1. Pick a malt. Now, we can’t just pick any malt. It has to be a good base malt, something with diastatic power, or the ability to break down starches in the malt. Two-row malt, Avangard ale malt, and Vienna malt are all good options. Anything that has been too highly kilned, like caramel malt, won’t contain enough enzymes for a successful mash. If brewing with extract malt, try a Alexander’s, Steam Freak, or Munton’s, all high quality liquid malt extracts.

2. Pick a hop. For a summer ale recipe, I recommend Fuggles, Willamette, or Hallertau. The low alpha acids will ensure that the bitterness in the summer ale isn’t too overpowering. On the other hand, it’s your brew, so pick whatever hop you want!

3. Pick a beer yeast. In this context, an English ale yeast would be most appropriate. Good dry yeasts include Safale-S04, Nottingham, Windsor, and Munton’s. There are a lot of choices in the liquid yeast department: Wyeast 1318 London Ale III, 1968 London ESB, 1098 British Ale are all good options. Remember, we’re experimenting here, so you pick one for this batch, then pick another for your next batch and then compare the results.

4. Brew!

Here’s the recipe I came up with:
SMaSH Summer Ale Homebrew Recipe
(5 Gallons)
Malt: 9 lbs. of Avangard Ale Malt
Hops: 3 oz. of Fuggles, one each at :60, :15, and :5
Yeast: Safale S-04
Est. OG: 1.050
Est. ABV: 4.8%
Est. IBUs: 25

Have you tried any SMaSH brews? How did it go? Do you have a summer ale homebrew recipe you’d like to share? Leave it in the comments below.
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David Ackley is a beer writer, brewer, and self-described “craft beer crusader.” He is a graduate of the Oskar Blues Brew School in Brevard, NC and founder of the Local Beer Blog.

Many craft beer fans entered the world of better beer through Blue Moon. It’s an very smooth and citrusy representation of the Belgian Witbier style: pale yellow in color, somewhat hazy from the use of wheat and oats, and with prominent citrus aroma and flavor from orange peel and coriander.
One of the big differences between traditional witbier and Blue Moon is that the latter uses an American ale yeast rather than a Belgian strain. If you want a more traditional interpretation, substitute Wyeast 3942 for the strain listed in the blue moon recipe below. Keep on the low end of the fermentation temperature range to avoid excessive phenolics.
When serving, remember that Belgian wits are supposed to be hazy – try giving that bottle a swirl before you pour it to enhance the haze.
Ready to brew? Then check out these two Blue Moon clone recipes. One of the beer recipes is for homebrewing a Blue Moon using extract in a partial mash. The other is a Blue Moon clone recipe for all-grain homebrewing.

Blue Moon Recipe (Clone)
(Partial Mash Beer Recipe, 5-Gallon Batch)
Specs
OG: 1.055
FG: 1.014
IBUs: 9
ABV: 5.4%
SRM: 5
Ingredients
6.6 lbs. Wheat LME
1 lb. Two-Row Brewers Malt
1 lb. White Wheat Malt
.75 lb. Flaked Oats
1 oz. Hallertau hops (3.9 AAUs) @ :60
3 oz. Valencia dried sweet orange peel @ :10
1.5 tsp. fresh ground coriander @ :10
Wyeast 1056: American Ale Yeast
5 oz. corn sugar for priming
Directions: Prepare a 2L yeast starter. Mash the two-row malt, wheat malt, and flaked oats in 5 quarts of water. Hold temperature at 154°F. for 60 minutes. Strain the wort into the brew kettle, then rinse grains with 1 gallon of water at 170°F., collecting run-off in the brew kettle. Mix in liquid malt extract and add clean water to bring boil volume to 3.5 gallons. Bring to a boil, add hops, and boil for 60 minutes. Add the orange peel and coriander in the last 10 minutes of the boil. Chill wort, top off to 5 gallons, and stir to mix and aerate. Pitch yeast and ferment at 65F for one week, then transfer to secondary for two weeks. Bottle with priming sugar and condition for two weeks. Optional: serve with a slice of orange.

Blue Moon Recipe (Clone)
(All-Grain Beer Recipe, 6-Gallon Batch)
Specs
OG: 1.055
FG: 1.014
IBUs: 9
ABV: 5.4%
SRM: 5
Ingredients
5.5 lb. Two-Row Brewers Malt
4.5 lb. White Wheat Malt
1 lb. Flaked Oats
0.6 oz. Hallertau hops (2.4 AAUs) @ :60
3 oz. Valencia (sweet) orange peel @ :10
1.5 tsp. fresh ground coriander @ :10
Wyeast 1056: American Ale Yeast
5 oz. corn sugar for priming
Directions: Prepare a 2L yeast starter. Single infusion mash at 154°F., using 1.5 qts water per pound of grain. Sparge to collect 7.5 gallons of wort. Add hops at beginning of 60-minute boil. Add orange peel and coriander in last 10 minutes of boil. Chill wort, pitch yeast starter, and ferment at 65°F. for one week, then transfer to secondary for two weeks. Bottle with priming sugar and condition for two weeks. Optional: serve with a slice of orange.
Have you ever brewed a Blue Moon clone recipe? How did it go? Share in the comments below!
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David Ackley is a beer writer, brewer, and self-described “craft beer crusader.” He holds a General Certificate in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is founder and editor of the Local Beer Blog.

The Belgian Saison is a beer for warmer weather. Traditionally, brewers in southern Belgium would brew Saisons in the spring for consumption throughout the summer. Want to try home brewing a Saison beer for this summer? Then read on and you’ll be able to create your own extract or all-grain saison beer recipe!
Saisons, as with many Belgian beers, are difficult to place into strict style guidelines. They’re farmhouse ales, often made with adjunct grains, such as spelt, oats, and wheat, and a mix of herbs and spices — basically whatever can be found around the farmhouse. They’re a great beer for exercising creativity, and one of the few styles that lends itself to an “anything goes” approach.
Still, there are some general guidelines to keep in mind when brewing a Saison beer. According to Michael Jackson’s Beer Companion, Saisons range from “child strength” all the way up to “royal” strength, with the strongest version, la saison de mars, having an original gravity as high as 1.060. According to the BJCP Style Guidelines, a Saison should be “a refreshing, medium to strong fruity/spicy ale, with a distinctive yellow-orange color, highly carbonated, well hopped, and dry with a quenching acidity.” Further, according to the BJCP, Saisons should fit more or less within these guidelines:

• IBUs: 20 – 35
• Color (SRM): 5 – 14
• OG: 1.048 – 1.065
• FG: 1.002 – 1.012
• ABV: 5 – 7%

Here are some suggestions for ingredients to use when brewing a Saison. Just keep in mind there are probably at least as many saison recipes as there are brewers, so don’t let this list restrain your creativity.

Water

• Beer enthusiast author, Michael Jackson states that “local hard water may have helped provide the body, mouth-feel and extraction of flavors from the grains…” Consider using relatively hard water for increased body and flavor. Using Burton water salts may be appropriate. This is particularly important wine brewing a saison all-grain recipe

Grain Bill

• All-Grain: Start with a very light 2-Row Malt, such as Maris Otter or Belgian Pilsner malt. You may want to use a little Belgian Aromatic malt (20L) for color. Consider throwing in some Munich, Vienna, or Belgian Biscuit malt for added complexity. Small amounts of raw oats, spelt, or wheat can contribute additional complexity and body.

• Extract: If brewing with malt extract, use Steam Freak Light Malt Extract for your base. If brewing partial mash, consider preparing a “mini-mash” with some Vienna, Munich, and a touch of Belgian Aromatic Malt. Again, use a small amount of raw oats, spelt, or wheat for added complexity and body.

Sugar

• Belgians are notorious for adding sugars to their beers. In the case of the saison, adding some light candi sugar or corn sugar can help achieve a dry finish.

Hops

• Saisons are typically brewed with Belgian or UK hop varieties, with an emphasis on the early hop additions. Other European hops are sometimes used as well. When brewing a Saison beer consider using UK Kent Goldings, Fuggles, and Styrian Golding. Sometimes saisons are dry-hopped.

Herbs and Spices

• Just about anything goes here. You might try orange peel, star anise, peppercorns, chamomile, but try not to go overboard: herbs and spices should enhance the characteristics of the yeast and hops, rather than dominate them. Herbs and spices may be added early in the boil for bittering or late in the boil for flavoring and aroma. Herbs and spices added during secondary fermentation will contribute to aroma. Usually an ounce or so is plenty for a 5 gallon batch, but it depends on the herb or spice in question. When in doubt, use a small amount, and if you want to use more in a future batch you can do that.

Yeast

• Use a Belgian ale yeast, such as Wyeast’s #1388. To get a dry finish, we need a yeast that achieves a low FG.

• Advanced: Some Saisons are made with a blend of yeasts. If you feel comfortable with it, you could try using a couple different Belgian yeasts. If you really want to go crazy, you could try an open fermentation, but chances of a contamination with this method are very high, and therefore not usually recommended.

What ingredients and techniques do you use when home brewing a Saison beer? Do you have a Saison beer recipe you’d like to share. Share in the comments below!
Til next time…Cheers!
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David Ackley is a beer writer, brewer, and self-described “craft beer crusader.” He holds a General Certificate in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is founder of the Local Beer Blog.

The Bruery in Placentia, CA, is one of the most respected Belgian-style breweries in the US. But instead of the standard lineup of saisons, dubbels, and trippels, this brewery makes a variety of inventive brews using unusual herbs, spices, and yeast strains. Many of their beers pack a punch in alcohol content, but all of them deliver a wallop of creative flavor.
For many years Saison Rue was considered the Bruery’s “flagship” beer. The beer is now exclusively produced by the Bruery’s wild and experimental side project known at Bruery Terreaux, and Saison Rue has been re-released under that name. It’s best described as an imperial rye saison with brett – in other words, a strong Belgian ale made with a significant amount of rye malt and finish with “wild” Brettanomyces yeast.
Brettanomyces yeast is often used by craft brewers to give beers a dry, somewhat funky, “barnyard” character. Brett takes a long time to develop, initially giving notes of pineapple, but delivering more of the funky notes after 3-6 months. It’s fun to see how these Brett beers change over time.
I recently brewed this Saison Rue clone for a homebrew festival. One professional brewer remarked that it was his favorite beer at the fest. If you like strong, complex Belgian ales, this one’s for you!
The Saison Rue clone beer recipe below comes from Michael Agnew’s excellent Craft Beer for the Homebrewer, a recipe book chock-full of homebrew clone recipes of commercial beers – I highly recommend it!

Saison Rue Clone Beer Recipe (via Craft Beer for the Homebrewer)
(5-gallon batch, all-grain)

Specs  
OG: 1.072
FG: 1.008
ABV: 8.5%
IBU: 30
SRM: 10

Ingredients  
9.25 lbs. two-row pale malt 
4.4 lbs. rye malt 
6 oz. brown malt 
1 lb. rice hulls 
.55 oz. Magnum hops pellets – first wort hops
.15 oz. spearmint at :20
9 oz. corn sugar at :5
.5 oz. Sterling hops at :0
Wyeast 1388: Belgian Strong Ale yeast 
Wyeast 5112: Brettanomyces bruxellensis yeast (added at bottling)
Corn sugar for priming (use a priming calculator to determine how much sugar to use)
Directions
Prepare an appropriate starter using the Wyeast 1388, or plan on pitching two packs of yeast. Mash the crushed malt along with the rice hulls at 150˚F for one hour. Sparge with 170˚F water to collect 6 gallons of wort. Add the Magnum hops while collecting wort in the kettle, then bring wort to a boil. Boil for 40 minutes, then add the spearmint. After 15 minutes, add the corn sugar, stirring to avoid scorching at the bottom of the kettle. After five minutes, cut the heat and add the Sterling hops. Chill wort to 70˚F or below, then transfer to a clean, sanitized fermenter.
Ferment initially at 65˚F, but allow the temperature to slowly rise to 85˚F over the course of a week. At the end of primary fermentation, transfer to a secondary fermenter. After 5-7 days, transfer to a bottling bucket along with the Brettanomyces yeast and corn sugar and bottle. This Saison Rue clone beer will be ready to drink in 2-3 weeks, but the Brettanomyces character will develop over the course of several months, so be sure to save some bottles back for aging!
Are you a fan of Belgian ales? Also consider brewing this Rochefort 8 clone.  
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David Ackley is a beer writer, brewer, and self-described “craft beer crusader.” He holds a General Certificate in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is founder and editor of the Local Beer Blog.