Category Archives: clone

Old Speckled Hen Homage

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As a semi-mass-market English ale, Old Speckled Hen is one of my favorites. I think it’s mainly due to the name and associated nostalgia of my early days of better beer exploration, but in any case it’s something I come back to from time to time. A decade ago, I attempted a clone, which turned out okay but not great. This beer has been kicking around in my head ever since, and I even buy a bottle (or can) from time to time. It’s a legitimately enjoyable beer! Given that continued fascination, it was time for another attempt.

My new version is based on two recipes posted online, somewhat different from the previous template I used. The current edition leans into a more complex malt bill, reducing the previous substantial addition of crystal 120 and adding a major addition of crystal 40. I also used this as a chance to try out a dry version of WLP066 (London Fog Ale Yeast), which seemed to target much of what I was looking for in yeast character. A constant is the use of Maris Otter as the base malt, along with Lyle’s Golden Syrup to provide another flavorful fermentable.

Old Speckled Hen Homage

  • 9.5 lb. Maris Otter pale ale malt (Thomas Fawcett)
  • 1 lb. crystal 40 malt (Great Western)
  • 3 oz. caramel 120 malt (Briess)
  • 11.4 oz. Lyle’s Golden Syrup (added to boil)
  • 1 oz. Challenger hop pellets (5.6% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 1 oz. East Kent Goldings hop pellets (5.4% alpha), 20 minute boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 5 minute boil
  • 1 oz. East Kent Goldings hop pellets (5.4% alpha), 5 minute boil
  • 1 pkg. London Fog ale dry yeast (WLP066)

Target Parameters

  • 1.054 s.g., 1.013 f.g., 35 IBU, 10 SRM, 5.3% abv
  • Full volume mash with 60 minutes at 156° and 10 minutes at 168°; 60 minute boil
  • Claremont tap water, with Campden tablet added

Procedure

  • I heated 7.35 gallons of water to 162°, adding a Campden tablet to remove chloramines. I added the grains with 5.5 mL of 88% lactic acid, and let them mash at 156° for 60 minutes. Next, I raised the mash temperature to 168° for 10 minutes and then pulled the grains.
  • In total, I collected 6.25 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.046, for 73% mash efficiency.
  • I brought the mash to a boil, adding hops and finings per the recipe. After a 60 minute boil, I turned off the heat and chilled to 70° before transferring to the fermenter.
  • I brewed this beer on 24 December 2025. Starting gravity was 1.052; I am fermenting at ambient, around 65°.
  • I kegged the beer on 7 February 2025, adding 2.5 oz. of corn sugar to the keg dissolved in 0.5 cup of boiling water.
  • I let the keg sit for around 2 weeks before chilling down to ~35° until a free space opened up on my keezer.
  • Final gravity was fairly high, at 1.019, for 4.4% abv.

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • A very clear, light amber beer, which pours with a thin ivory head that quickly subsides. It’s a bit lighter in color than the original inspiration.
  • Aroma
    • Caramel notes are most prominent, with a little bit of candy, and a touch of light fruitiness behind that.
  • Flavor
    • Caramel and malty notes are at a moderate level. Medium-high bitterness. The hops, especially in initial tastes, have a woody and moderately herbal quality, in addition to a touch of earthiness. I don’t particularly care for the herbal notes here. I’m guessing they are coming from the hops; it doesn’t match EKG, so perhaps the Challenger is the culprit?
  • Mouthfeel
    • Moderate carbonation, medium body, smooth and slightly dry finish.
  • Would I Brew This Again?
    • This is definitely closer to what I want for an Old Speckled Hen clone, but the hops need a rework. I would probably ditch the Challenger and lean in on EKG entirely, or find another hop to sub in. The herbal notes I get here are more than I care for, but not something that totally wrecks the beer; it’s just not to my personal taste. It might be something with this lot of EKG (if that’s the true culprit), because I didn’t have that concern previously. The malt and yeast all do well, although I might go 50/50 on the crystal 40 and crystal 120 in order to round out the malt profile and deepen the color. I love the gentle fruitiness on the yeast and also how it dropped so clear. This is a very pretty beer!
  • Overall
    • 6/10

Pfriem Pilsner 2024

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I have done a version of this three times previously, usually with some minor variations for hops or yeast. This time, I decided to do the hop varieties and timings exactly as written (with adjustments for alpha acid), to follow the original Pfriem Pilsner clone recipe from Dave Carpenter’s Lager book. Without further ado, here’s what I did.

Pfriem Pilsner 2024

  • 9.75 lb. pilsner malt (Rahr)
  • 6 oz. Carafoam malt (Weyermann)
  • 0.5 tsp. BrewTanB, in mash
  • 0.75 oz. Perle hop pellets (6.3% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 0.5 oz. Tettnang hop pellets (2.4% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 0.5 oz. Tettnang hop pellets (2.4% alpha), 10 minute boil
  • 0.75 oz. Saphir hop pellets (2.3% alpha), 10 minute boil
  • 0.5 oz. Spalt Spalter hop pellets (4.3% alpha), 10 minute boil
  • 0.5 tsp. BrewTanB, 10 minute boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 5 minute boil
  • 1.5 oz. Tettnang hop pellets (2.4% alpha), 10 minute whirlpool
  • 0.75 oz. Saphir hop pellets (2.3% alpha), 10 minute whirlpool
  • 0.5 oz. Spalt Spalter hop pellets (4.3% alpha), 10 minute whirlpool
  • 2 pkg. Diamond dry lager yeast (Lallemand)

Target Parameters

  • 1.046 s.g., 1.007 f.g., 5.1% abv, 4 SRM, 38 IBU
  • Full volume step mash, with 45 minutes at 142°, 45 minutes at 156°, and 10 minutes at 168°; 70 minute boil
  • Water built up from RO, to hit target parameters of 62 ppm Ca, 11 ppm Mg, 121 ppm SO4, and 51 ppm Cl, with RA=-50 ppm

Procedure

  • I built up my mash water from 7.5 gallons of RO water, with 3 g calcium chloride, 3 g epsom salt, and 4 g gypsum. Then, I heated it to 146° before adding the grains and holding at 142° for 45 minutes, with recirculation. Then, I raised the mash to 156° for 45 minutes and finished up at 168° for 10 minutes.
  • After the mash, I pulled the grains. I collected 6.8 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.041, for 74% mash efficiency.
  • I brought the runnings to a boil, boiling for 10 minutes before adding the first round of hops and proceeding with the rest of the recipe as written. In total, this was a 70 minute boil.
  • At the end of the boil, I turned off the heat, added the whirlpool hops, and whirlpooled for 10 minutes before continuing with the rest of the chill.
  • Once the beer was down to 72°, I transferred to the fermenter and chilled down to 46° in my fermentation chamber, before pitching the yeast.
  • I brewed this beer on 28 October 2024, and the starting gravity was 1.049.
  • The starting fermentation temperature was 48°, and I held it here until 3 November 2024, when I raised the temperature to 52°. On 17 November, I raised the temperature to 54°, and then to ambient (~62°) on 24 November 2024.
  • I kegged the beer on 25 November 2024. Final gravity was 1.009, for 5.3% abv.

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • Clear, but short of brilliant; there is just a tiny touch of barely visible haze. It is a straw-colored beer that pours with a fine and persistent white head, which leaves some nice lacing on the glass.
  • Aroma
    • Light notes of cracker and honey in the malt, and a pleasant light floral hop aroma, with a touch of fresh hay. This beer smells awesome!
  • Flavor
    • Medium-high bitterness, grainy sweet malt character; hop flavor is lightly herbal. Minerally feel to finish out the flavor.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Medium carbonation, medium light body, dry finish. Minerally, but not unpleasantly so.
  • Would I Brew This Again?
    • I am feeling pretty good about this recipe overall. It is perhaps a touch more bitter than I prefer in all of my pils, but I like the hop aroma and malt character; the overall aroma is amazing! I wouldn’t mind a touch taller head (but that may be in the pour), and I also must ding the beer a bit for its clarity. I wonder if the persistent light haze is from the large dose of whirlpool hops? I could have used some finings, and might do that next time for a pilsner-type beer, because clarity is something important to me for these.
  • Overall
    • 8/10

Bear Butte Porter

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Porters are a classic homebrewing style, and they are an accessible entry point for newer brewers because their rich flavors are simultaneously enjoyable and also able to cover the results of overheated fermentations. As my brewing has progressed, and my fermentation temperature control has improved, I come back to them again and again as an enjoyable winter beer.

Last year I made a Sierra Nevada Porter clone, and this year I delved into a clone recipe for Deschute Brewing’s Black Butte Porter. The version I had was pulled from the Brew Your Own Big Book of Homebrewing (2022 updated edition), with some small modifications for hops and yeast on-hand on-hand as well as some very slight malt quantity adjustments. Instead of Galena as the bittering charge, I subbed in Chinook, which seemed like a reasonable swap, and I used Mangrove Jacki’s M36 Liberty Bell ale yeast instead of Lalbrew’s Verdant strain. Again, this seemed to be a reasonable swap that would get me into the same flavor zone. Interestingly, I learned via David Taylor’s Yeast Master List that M36 is a blend of M42 (New World/Nottingham) and M15 (Empire/Windsor); the reported fruitiness of the strain seemed like a good fit for this particular batch.

It’s interesting to note that the BYO clone recipe is very different from an AHA clone recipe. The AHA version uses chocolate wheat malt instead of chocolate malt, 80L crystal instead of 60L crystal, and a bit of dextrine malt, and it also calls for WLP002. Hops include Hallertauer instead of Tettnang. I’m not sure which version is more “authentic,” and I suppose it doesn’t really matter in the end! As another aside, I brewed a version of the AHA recipe back in 2021, as Turtle Toe Porter.

Because this is not a direct version of the clone recipe, and in honor of a landmark in my home state, I have called this batch “Bear Butte Porter.” I also used some South Dakota-grown hops from my dad, another fitting addition to the beer.

Bear Butte Porter

  • 10.25 lb. 2-row brewer’s malt (Great Western)
  • 0.75 lb. crystal 60L (Briess)
  • 0.75 lb. chocolate malt (Simpsons)
  • 0.35 oz. Chinook hop pellets (12.3% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 2 oz. Cascade whole hops (3.5% est. alpha), 20 minute boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 5 minute boil
  • 2 oz. Tettnang hop pellets (2.4% alpha), 5 minute boil
  • 1 pkg. Liberty Bell ale yeast (Mangrove Jack’s M36)

Target Parameters

  • 1.052 s.g., 1.012 f.g., 5.4% abv, 33 IBU, 33 SRM
  • Full volume infusion mash, held at 152° for 60 minutes and 168° for 10 minutes
  • Claremont tap water with Campden tablet, with approximate ppm of 110 Cl, 50 SO4, 40 Ca, 156 HCO3, 12 Mg, 87 Na

Procedure

  • I heated 7.5 gallons of Claremont tap water, with Campden tablet, to 158°, before adding the grains as well as 6 mL of 88% lactic acid to adjust the mash pH. I held the mash at 152° for 60 minutes, with recirculation, before raising the temperature to 168°. After 10 minutes at the mash-out temperature, I removed the grains and heated the runnings to a boil.
  • In total, I collected 6.7 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.043, for 68% mash efficiency.
  • Once the runnings were boiling, I added the hops and finings per the recipe. After 60 minutes on the boil, I turned off the heat and chilled to 78° before transferring to the fermenter and dropping to 66° in the fermentation chamber.
  • Once the beer was at 66°, I pitched the yeast.
  • I brewed this beer on 25 October 2024; it had a starting gravity of 1.057.
  • I fermented the beer at 66° until 28 October 2024, when I pulled it to ambient (~70°). Active fermentation seemed mostly done, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt it to sit at ambient for awhile.
  • I kegged the beer on 16 November 2024. Final gravity was 1.016, for 5.4% abv. This was around 71% measured attenuation. It’s on the lower end that Mangrove Jack’s reports for the strain (74% to 78%), but in my experience I’ve often had lower attenuation with the Windsor strain that comprises part of this blend.

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • Deep, deep brown beer with dark garnet highlights, very clear. Pours with a persistent and creamy tan head. Beautiful! Great lacing down the side of the glass.
  • Aroma
    • Moderate dark chocolate: coffee aroma, a touch of earthy hop character.
  • Flavor
    • Slightly roasty and bitter chocolate malt character, a bit of dark sugar character; medium bitterness. A medium bit of dark dried fruit yeast character, but it’s in the background.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Medium carbonation, medium-full body, off-dry finish.
  • Would I Brew This Again?
    • I love this beer! It’s a perfect American porter, and wonderfully drinkable. Porter is such an underappreciated style; this version looks great and tastes great!
  • Overall
    • 10/10

Levitation Ale Homage

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I like my session beers, and I’m always looking for something creative and interesting. This is the core philosophy of Stone Brewing, so I was excited to see a recipe for their Levitation Ale. I’m not sure I’ve ever sampled it “in the wild,” but a session amber ale sounded pretty neat.

A few versions of Levitation Ale are floating around, and I used a version from Jennifer Talley’s Brewing Session Beers book. My version is a parallel rather than a clone, with some different hops and malts. The original recipe called for crystal 75, so I mixed crystal 60 and crystal 80, tilting towards the former because I was running low on the latter. I also adjusted the hops, so that I had Mt. Hood and Mandarina Bavaria, rather than Simcoe and Crystal. I also dropped the black malt, because it made the beer too dark. Finally, I used WLP001 versus an English ale yeast. With all of those changes, I should definitely deem this an homage (a la Denny Conn) rather than a clone. Either way, it was an interesting beer.

Levitation Ale Homage

  • 8.5 lb. 2-row malt (Briess)
  • 12.5 oz. caramel malt 60L (Briess)
  • 12 oz. caramel malt 120L (Briess)
  • 1.4 oz. caramel malt 80L (Briess)
  • 0.5 tsp. BrewTanB (mash)
  • 0.7 oz. Magnum hop pellets (12.6% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 0.5 oz. Amarillo hop pelletrs (10.4% alpha), 10 minute boil
  • 0.5 tsp. BrewTanB, 10 minute boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 5 minute boil
  • 1 oz. Mandarina Bavaria hop pellets (6.7% alpha), 10 minute whirlpool
  • 1 oz. Mt Hood hop pellets (4.0% alpha), 10 minute whirlpool
  • 1 pkg. American West Coast Ale Yeast (Lallemand BRY-97)
  • 1.5 oz. Amarillo hop pellets (10.4% alpha), dry hop in keg

Target Parameters

  • 1.046 s.g., 1.011 f.g., 4.5% abv, 48 IBU, 15 SRM
  • Full volume infusion mash, held at 154° for 60 minutes and 165° for 10 minutes
  • Claremont tap water adjusted to hit 72 ppm Ca, 12 ppm Mg, 87 ppm Na, 127 ppm SO4, 110 ppm Cl, 156 ppm bicarbonate, RA=69

Procedure

  • I started with 7.75 gallons of water, treated with a Campden tablet and 4 g gypsum, heated to 159° before mash-in. I added the BrewTanB just before adding the grains, and then added 6 mL of 88% lactic acid to adjust the mash pH.
  • I held the mash at 154° for 60 minutes, with recirculation, before raising to 165° for a 10 minute mash-out. Then, I pulled the grains and brought the runnings to a boil.
  • I collected 6.9 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.039, for 72% mash efficiency.
  • I brought the runnings to a boil, adding hops and other finings per the schedule. The boil was 90 minutes long total, so the first hop addition wasn’t until 30 minutes in.
  • After the full 90 minute boil, I turned off the heat and added the whirlpool hops, whirlpooling for 10 minutes at just below boiling. Of course, it chilled down into the 180s relatively quickly.
  • After the whirlpool finished, I removed the hops and continued chilling.
  • I transferred the wort to the fermenter, chilled down to 68°, and pitched the yeast.
  • Starting gravity was 1.050. I brewed the beer on 24 August 2024.
  • I kegged the beer on 4 September 2024, with a final gravity of 1.014 for 4.8% abv. I added the dry hops in a bag, intending to remove them after a few days and add gelatin. Unfortunately, I forgot that they would sink, and so I couldn’t recover them. Ah well.

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • Deep amber beer with moderate haze; persistent but thin ivory head
  • Aroma
    • Light caramel malt notes with a good dose of citrus. a touch of pine
  • Flavor
    • Medium caramel malt flavor, against a strong orange/citrus and moderate pin character from the hops. Delicious! Medium-high bitterness.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Medium-light body, moderate carbonation, slightly dry, somewhat thin finish.
  • Would I Brew This Again?
    • This is a wonderful session amber ale, bursting with hop flavor and aroma. The haze is a minor flaw, but the flavor and aroma totally make up for it. I would love to try this with the original malt and hop combos, to see how it is. I might also add the black patent back in, to darken the beer. The malt body comes across as a little thin, so for a future version I might try Vienna or Maris Otter instead of plain 2-row, and/or mash at a higher temperature. Overall, this is a very drinkable beer!
  • Overall
    • 8/10

Sierra Nevada Porter Clone

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I love American porters, and they are among the first beers I ever brewed (all the way back to 2009!). Sierra Nevada’s porter is a great one, a classic in the American porter style, as listed by the BJCP 2021 style guide. The BJCP also indicates that this style is “becoming increasingly hard to find.” That’s a good reason to make a homebrew version!

I did some searching to find an appropriate recipe, which landed on one that is allegedly directly from Sierra Nevada. I adjusted the grains very slightly to get more even amounts, and I also upped the Carafa Special III and black malt, in order to darken the beer. Oddly, the grain-only version was lighter than consistent with the style (noted by folks at the original link), so I added Sinamar to bring things into line. The original recipe called for Sterling and Aurora hops, neither of which I had on-hand. So, I substituted Mandarina Bavaria and Elixir. They’re not the same, but should be enough in the ballpark.

This was an enjoyable recipe to brew. It didn’t require dry hopping or whirlpooling, and I didn’t bother with a closed transfer. Other than using Sinamar, the ingredients and techniques were dead-basic.

Sierra Nevada Porter Clone

  • 10.25 lb. 2-row malt (Briess)
  • 1 lb. Munich I malt (Weyermann)
  • 0.5 lb. caramel malt – 60L (Briess)
  • 0.5 lb. chocolate malt (Bairds)
  • 1 oz. black malt (Briess)
  • 1 oz. Carafa Special III (Weyermann)
  • 1.5 oz. Sinamar (added at end of boil)
  • 1 oz. Mandarina Bavaria hop pellets (6.7% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 1 oz. Elixir hop pellets (5.1% alpha), 15 minute boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 5 minute boil
  • 1 oz. Elixir hop pellets (5.1% alpha), 5 minute boil
  • 1 pkg. California ale yeast, dry version (White Labs WLP001)

Target Parameters

  • 1.056 s.g., 1.014 f.g., 5.7% abv, 35 IBU, 40 SRM
  • Full volume infusion mash, held at 154° for 60 minutes and 168° for 10 minutes
  • Claremont tap water with Campden tablet

Procedure

  • I heated 7.5 gallons of water to 160°, and added the grains for a mash temperature of 154°. I added 5 mL of 88% lactic acid to adjust the pH, and held the mash at 154° for 60 minutes.
  • After 60 minutes, I raised the mash to 168° for 10 minutes, before pulling the grains and heating to a boil.
  • The mash yielded 6.5 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.050, for 71% mash efficiency.
  • I boiled the wort for 60 minutes, adding finings and hops per the recipe.
  • After the boil, I chilled to 70° and transferred to the fermentater.
  • I brewed the beer on 2 December 2023. Starting gravity was 1.058, just a touch above target.
  • I fermented the beer at 66°, and kegged on 31 December 2023. Final gravity was 1.016, for 5.5% abv.

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • The beer is a deep, deep brown, almost black, with a persistent tan head.
  • Aroma
    • Dark chocolate and coffee–very roasty! Resiny hop character. Very nice!
  • Flavor
    • Rich, chocolate and coffee malt notes. Medium-high bitterness with a resiny and piney character.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Medium body, moderate carbonation, slightly dry finish.
  • Would I Brew This Again?
    • Yes! This is a fantastic American porter, simultaneously rich and drinkable. It has interesting character, and is just a nice beer. I don’t know how it would stack up against Sierra Nevada’s product, but even on its own this recipe is pretty nice.
  • Overall
    • 10/10