How do you go about replicating a beer or kit?

[Davemc]

Not sure if this has been covered before (I did a search but couldn't seem to find anything)

I have started brewing again after a lay off of 15 years or so. I did to ag back in the day usually using a recipe from a book rather than making my own up.

At the moment I am making kits but want to move on to extract brewing and then ag again when I get the kit I need sorted. As my return to brewing I made a Festival Golden Stag, which I am delighted with. I know I could just get another kit but I would be interested in having a go at making something similar using extract or partial mash but I have no idea how to start working out which hops to use etc.

Can ayone point me in the right direction of how to work this out?

 

[Covrich]

Firstly I would like to recommend Greg Hughes book, it not only coveres the basics of brewing including AG but has a solid recipe for pretty much every style..

I dont know much about golden stag but with some light malt extract and some hops matching the style and some fresh yeast you could probably knock up someting a bit better. doing a partial mash will also help

 

[Covrich]

edit just did a search it seems it uses columbus and cascade in the golden stag so it will be like an American pale

 

[HebridesRob]

1. Search to see if anyone else has posted up a clone recipe somewhere.
2. See if there's any info on how the brewery makes the beer - what hop varieties, grain bill etc
3. Read loads of reviews of the beer to see what the consensus of how the beer tastes is.
4. Taste and assess it yourself.

Got a beer in mind?

 

[HebridesRob]

BJCP guidelines for beer competitions
http://www.bjcp.org/docs/2015_Guidelines_Beer.pdf

It seems Golden Stag is a British Golden Ale style
https://beerrecipes.org/BJCP-2015-Style/37/12a-british-golden-ale.html

Covrich says there's Columbus and Cascade in there, which fits the style.

Use some brewing software and see if you can make things match up.

From guidlines I suggest:
Extra pale malt/lager malt
Perhaps flaked Maize and/or sugar to lighten things up
Small amount of torrified wheat/wheat malt for the head
Decide on what bittering hops you want
Think about how you want to add the Cascade and Columbus for late additions/dry hopping.
SO5 yeast or similar for neutral taste
Ferment cool to keep esters down

 

[Davemc]

Thanks for the replies guys I will give Hebridesrobs suggestion a try.

 

[MrRock]

I spotted on the "Can You Brew It" podcast they had an episode talking about how to go about cloning a beer, I haven't listened to it yet, but there might be some useful tips in there.

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/post1666/