I can agree about not wanting to disclose recipe secrets but in the whole scheme of being in a service industry, an email response back saying "no" is better than nothing. I guess it's a wash.
Plus, even if each of us were given a recipe and ingredients to all make the same beer, how many do you think would be 'spot on' side by side in tastings? Probably not many. Maybe I'm wrong though Thoughts?
On one hand, I think that 20 different brewers in 20 different areas of the country using 20 different processes on different equipment and possibly slightly different ingredients... are going to make 20 different but similar beers. But it's possible that someone at a brewery had an idea for a beer and picked up all the ingredients and brewed the beer 10 times on a pilot system and did something magical (use your imagination) that all of the test-tasters thought was phenomenal and it could possibly be a big commercial success. How much of that information is the brewery willing to give out? Do they give out some but not all? Do they tell you the ingredients but leave out a key part of the process (like you dance in a circle when you add the last hop addition
) or just say, "Sorry... can't give that out". When I went on the New Glarus tour, some buds of mine told me that they answer any and all questions but when I got there and asked some deeper questions, I got little-to-no feedback. At the beginning of the tour, the guys says, "Okay, who are the homebrewers!? There's always at least one!" and my wife points to me. I'm the only one. I asked about various things like "Do you adjust your water based on the style of beer?". Long stare and then... "Mmmm, no". Whatever. I hear that the Careys (Deb and Dan) were never homebrewers so maybe they don't have that connection like some other brewers.