Creative Homebrew is fun, but brewing an Anchor Steam clone can be just as enjoyable.
Homebrewers are generally creative people. They like to experiment when they make a batch of beer; substituting different types of hops, malted barley, and other ingredients in their recipes to see what effect the changes have on the final product. But sometimes, homebrewers like to push creativity aside and aim for a beer that is similar to their favorite commercial beer. One book designed to help with this process is Clone Brews: Homebrew Recipes for 150 Commercial Beers, a brewing recipe book written by Tess and Mark Szamatulski.
Clone Brews is a book about brewing beer similar to the other commonplace/top- selling brews from around the world. This book is sorted by geographic origin of the beers, and that means you will find, for example, Guinness Stout in the same part of the book as Harp; Budweiser in the same area as Anchor Steam; and Molson Ice in the same section as Moosehead. Appendices cover subjects such as beer style guidelines, a hop chart, and a grain and adjuncts chart. The book includes introductory information on hops, grains, water, and other essentials.
The bulk of this book is dedicated to the recipes and the cool fact about the beer recipes is that they include three different brewing options: Extract, mini- mash, and all grain. This is a great idea because it allows homebrewers at different stages and different skill levels to select a method that fits their expertise. Some homebrewers might even enjoy trying the same recipe using each of the three different methods, just to sample and enjoy the subtle differences. Most of the recipes are surprisingly simple- even for the more complex beers- and homebrewers should have no problem creating and enjoying beer that tastes very similar to classics such as Pilsner Urquell, Paulener Hefeweizen, and others.
176 pages in length, this book was originally published in 1998. It could use an updated version, especially when you consider the vast numbers of craft beers introduced since this book hit the presses. But this is still a good book for the homebrewing enthusiast. The recipes produce beer that tastes remarkably similar to the brand it is supposed to clone and homebrewers will have fun while they educate themselves on the variety of ingredients and methods that make commercial beers different from each other.
Rating: 8 Cheers out of 10
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