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Italian beer

cathlabrob

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Has anyone come across any recipes that imitate an Italian Perone or Menabrea beer?  I have searched without success.  I'm also interested in a Sam Adams Octoberfest clone.  Any help is appreciated.
Sincerely,
Rob Williams
Cathlabrob@cox.net
 
Perone is produced by SABMiller so it's hard to tell what's in it. It's know to have corn which is common in adjunct mass produced lager so it is buffering for something perhaps 6 row malt. It's also described as bitter which may mean Saaz hops. Much of the taste will come from the ingredients good luck finding Italian grain and water.

It's frustrating to clone a favorite commercial beer what I suggest is is making a beer that you can say this my beer instead of this is kind of like a Perone. Find out what you like. Lager looks so simple to make but I've found it to be a challenge to do it right.
 
The Peroni web site says:

MALT - 2-row spring European malted barley
HOPS - European noble aromatic hops
MAIZE - Quarter Italian maize, of which 40% is Nostrano Dell’Isola (a variety grown exclusively for Peroni Nastro Azzurro in the north of Italy)

I'd go with pilsner malt, 25% flaked corn, and a touch of carapils. The OG should be about 1050. I'd hop with saaz to about 20 IBU and use a clean German lager yeast.

The Peroni Red Label is slightly darker with a more pronounced malty and hoppy flavour than the Peroni Nastro Azzuro. The Red Label also comes in a brown bottle to stop it going skunky, unlike the Nastro Azzuro.
 
Roadrocket said:
The Red Label also comes in a brown bottle to stop it going skunky, unlike the Nastro Azzuro.

I hate skunky beer (ala, heineken, et. al.)!

When I travel to SE Asia, I'm sometimes stuck with heineken or similar beer.  Many of my coworkers in SE Asian seem to think beer is supposed to taste like that!  If those breweries are trying to make it skunky on purpose, I have to wonder if they've ever tried a good beer!!
 
Green bottles are seen as 'cooler' looking than brown nowadays. It's all about marketing. An awful lot of people don't care how foul and skunky their beer tastes like as long as they look good drinking it.

In the UK a lot of beers are now being sold in supermarkets in clear bottles. Women still do most of the shopping and research has shown they are far more likely to choose beer in clear bottles than brown because they think it looks better, especially if it's a nice golden colour.

The big breweries will never care how bad their beer tastes as long as people buy it. Good marketing is worth a lot more than good quality to them. Some commercial beers taste so bad they can't be marketed on quality anyway.

My local supermarket used to sell a Chinese made beer that came in a green bottle shaped like a Buddha. I was stupid enought to buy one to see what it tasted like. It was absolutely foul. They no longer sell it because nobody ever bought more than one bottle.

 
Try this for a jumping off spot for Sam Adams Octoberfest.  I made this extract brew and many people have told me it tastes very similar.

6 lbs munich malt extract
2 lbs vienna malt
1.5 lbs extra light dry extract
8 oz victory malt
1 oz roasted barley
0.5 oz columbus (tomahawk) @ 60 min.
white labs WLP029 German Ale/Kolsch yeast.
 
Thank you all for the recipes.  I am relatively new to brewing and my extract and partial mash kits have been good but not as good as the beers I like to buy.  I will be trying my hand at some all grain brewing and wanted a reference point to research in Beer Smith for some of the beers mentioned.  Thank you again all!
 
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