If you could have the recipe for one commercial beer...

[system]

The Schlitz information was summarized by Chris Colby here:

Brewing American Pilsner - Brew Your Own

This is a beer formulated with some information I received about how Schlitz was brewed back in 1975. I simplified this formulation by using flaked maize and specifiying that the beer be fermented at working strength, rather than using high gravity brewing.

The question remains - How was Schlitz brewed before 1967 as that’s the when the original recipe changes were made.

Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company

By 1967 the company’s president and chairman was August Uihlein’s grandson, Robert Uihlein, Jr.[9] Faced with a desire to meet large volume demands while also cutting the cost of production, the brewing process for Schlitz’s flagship Schlitz beer was changed in the early 1970s. The primary changes involved using corn syrup to replace some of the malted barley, adding a silica gel to prevent the product from forming a haze,[9] using high-temperature fermentation instead of the traditional method, and also substituted less-expensive extracts rather than traditional ingredients.[14] Schlitz also experimented with continuous fermentation,[15] even designing and building a new brewery around the process in Baldwinsville, New York. The reformulated product resulted in a beer that not only lost much of the flavor and consistency of the traditional formula but spoiled more quickly, rapidly losing public appeal.

[Hooper]

Bone-A-Fide Pale Ale

[war2112]

I would have to say Sam Adams Boston Lager though that recipe is out there. Anyway, a very good facsimile is out there.

I’d love to do something like Beck’s. That’s one I’d like to have.

[skotrat]

@war2112

I would have to say Sam Adams Boston Lager though that recipe is out there. Anyway, a very good facsimile is out there.

I’d love to do something like Beck’s. That’s one I’d like to have.

The original  Boston Lager was quite amazing. Some of the older recipes out there for it get you rather close to the malty hoppy goodness that Boston Lager once was.

[system]

@jeffy

I’m with Denny on this.  Clone is a poor choice of words, because it means exact genetic copy of the original.  Unless you are growing a beer from the base beer’s embryo, it isn’t going to happen.

Really ‘Clone’ might be the best word for it.  If you clone your pet dog, you get a genetically identical dog (i.e. the ingredients & proportions are the exact same), but the personality will be different (like brewing on different equipment).

And to be on point, I really want the recipe for whatever I’m drinking at the moment!

[beersk]

@skotrat

For those of you contacting me concerning the Schlitz logs; Please stop. I will not share them.

I have shared them with a few people over the years that I have confidence in concerning their integrity and the fact that they will keep the information confidential.

Thanks

Because that beer is THAT good that it MUUUUUUST be kept a secret.

[AmandaK]

After reading this whole thing - I’m with jeffy. I wish I could brew any beer as good as Firestone Walker. Pivo Pils in particular.

[Hand_of_Dom]

I would like a recipe for a brew that would turn out very similar to Hercule stout.

[69franx]

@klickitat_jim

@hopfenundmalz

@santoch

@denny

Don’t you think there’s a difference between “have the recipe for” and “make a beer as good as”?  I think we’d both agree that recipe is a minor component.

Exactly. The recipe is important, but the subtleties all come from the process and the large scale equipment.  For example, thermal mass during whirlpool makes a difference that cannot be duplicated at homebrew scale.

Edit - trentm was that guy way before me.

OK, I will be “that guy” and say a recipe is the ingredients and procedures to process those ingredients. The process would include equipment.

Yes, but at least on this and most forums, and in Zymurgy, and etc etc, usually “recipe” is grain bill, usually not maltster specific, mash temp, hops amounts and times, yeast strain, fermentation temp. Thats it.

Whirlpool means a hundred different things, fermenter could be anything from a Homer bucket to a corny to a conical… Usually its who knows what for water.

Tiny details can make as much difference as punctuation and spacing

I saw abundance on the table
I saw a bun dance on the table

Jim, I like the abundance reference. Another thought is personal bias or expectation. I attended a seminar once upon a time where the main focus is that we hear what we know and the example given was " As I walked down the beach, I passed a pair of sunned lasses." Now when asked what was passed, every American in the room said sunglasses, because we dont often call young girls lasses. The same can be seen in recipe interpretation as discussed all over this thread: equipment, water, temp, etc. No critique, just another factor to throw off a clone