The Clone Beer category in the BJCP Guidelines is misunderstood. It’s not meant to be for that time you brewed a perfect replica of Firestone Walker Union Jack: beers that already fit in a style should be entered in that style, so your stellar FWUJ belongs in American IPA.
It’s also not meant to be evaluated on how perfect a copy of the target beer it is: that would be impractical, because it would require you to submit a bottle of said beer for the judges to evaluate at the same time.
Instead, the Clone Beer category is to provide a landing pad for those looking to emulate the key attribute, style, and/or impression of a beer that doesn’t really fit anywhere else in the guidelines. This week’s post will take a quick walk through how to produce one obvious example of this style (a certain pale Belgian ale from Florenville) as an example of how to approach clone beers more generally.