fat tire clone

[hopshead]

I just bought byo's clone magazine. In it is a clone for fat tire amber. I also have scott russell's book, north american clone brews and I remember in that book was a clone for fat tire ale. The recipe's were so drastically different. In the book the fat tire ale had an abv of 5.9% and used either recultured fat tire yeast or a belgium strain from wyeast. In byo the fat tire amber ale was 5.0% abv and used I think california ale yeast. My question is are these two totally different beers or has fat tire changed their recipe that much?

[HogieWan]

I don't get fat tire very often, but I wouldn't put a belgian strain in there. It's sort of a low gravity belgian malt profile with a hops balance and clean American-style fermentation.

The original BYO article (http://www.byo.com/recipe/685.html) with that recipe includes hints from the brewmaster (including a clean yeast strain). The book is probably a guess and most of those "clone" books are hit-and-miss with the recipes.

[brazilhead]

I just cooked up the BYO version (as close as I could to it) on Saturday and as I was suspecting, that .5 lb of chocolate really made things a lot darker than I remember Fat Tire. Oh, and I couldn´t resist bumping up the hops a bit. Tasted great going into the primary.

[dparsons]

Seems like a good way to boost sales. Take a guess at how a popular beer is made and sell a clone. Perhaps even brew a couple batches to get closer to the actual. I've seen clone brews that make an honest attempt and clone brews that, whether the attempt was honest or not, don't match.

It does make a good starting point - a recipe for a recognizable taste you like. Then you think "a little more hops and some chocolate malt will make this beer supreme!" After that its your recipe and you call it "Phat Supreme" because it isn't a clone any more.