[Hand of Dom]

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

[69franx]

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