North American Clone Brews: Homebrew Recipes for Your Favorite American & Canadian Beers

Just got the book (along with 'Radical Brewing: Recipes, Tales and World-Altering Meditations in a Glass' ). It was recommended to us from a brewer in McCall Idaho. He said it was a 'must have' book when you are just starting out. The first chapter is clear and basic, it explains the process in a nut shell along with the needed equipment. The recipes are from all over North America from some very popular breweries and brands you see in stores. So far I give it a big thumbs up!

I love this book. It is informative, original and full of some very good recipes. There are great instructions for the both beginner and seasoned brewer. There is a good variety of easy recipes and just enough variety in the complex brews to keep you busy for months. Each recipe has a complete header of beer specifics. Great for the beginner who wants to move beyond the basics.

While there are mistakes in this book (as there are in Clone Brews and Beer Captured), overall this is a worthwhile book-all the recipes I have made from this book have turned out well. Much of the criticism of this book seems overdone. Beerman11, for instance, says that the extract version of the Immortales recipe asks you to continue the recipe with mini-mash recipe, and that this would require boiling 7.5 gallons. In my copy, the extract recipe asks you to use the mini-mash recipe after the boil--which would result in a boil of 3 gallons. Admittedly, some of the criticism is fair. The book does not suggest lowering the amount of hops for the all-grain recipes, which is odd. I could not find the barleywine error mentioned elsewhere (although I'm not a big barleywine fan); it is possible mistakes in the first edition were corrected. On the other hand, Russell did actually include lagering in his recipes, which the Szamatulski's did not in Clone Brews (and included only in the Helpful Hints section in Beer Captured, their latest book). Frankly, I suspect many of the problems with this book are a result of the publishing format, which applies to both of the Szamatulski's books as well. The short, one-page recipe format doesn't leave enough room to discuss technique and other issues involved with making the beer, and I think a lot of useful information is left out. However, I can get this information elsewhere.Overall, I liked this book better than the original Clone Brews and almost as much as Beer Captured.

I'm glad I read my copy of North American Clone Brews before reading the reviews in this column. Give a guy a break! The book is fine. It does what it purports in a concise and readable manner. So, yes, "White Plains", Mr Russell's book contains a typo. Obviously he did not mean to mash (by my calculations) 16.75 lbs grain in 2.5 gallons of water. Mistakes happen. As to reduce the bittering in a full boil: to many variables affect hop utilization (at best 30%) to worry about this. Keep it simple. Relax, don't worry...."White Plains" and his admirer from Texas clearly have some axe to grind. Odd that with all the "many errors" in the book both 'reviewers' point out the same two-and both got the weight wrong. The variety and scope of this book alone justify its purchase. Having examined the quality of the recipes, I plan to do my brewing this season exclusively from North American Clone Brews.

Anyone who has ever read Brew Your Own magazine knows Scott Russell. His last article in the summer issue deals with 4 classic British clones. Here in this book, he takes some of the best brews in this country and breaks them down for every level of homebrewer (extract to all grain). He covers such standards as brews from Sierra Nevada, Pike, Bell's, Redhook, Pete's, etc. Each recipe is easy to follow, and great to make. Add it to your collection, makes a great reference book!