Originally Posted by daveyeah

I finally broke down and opened a bottle of Ugly Fish.

The version I did was an extract and steeped grain version of the original recipe. I think 3.3 lb of Briess light golden was the LME. Everything was cut in half for a half batch; the pale malt was cut entirely. Grains steeped at 160 degrees for 30 minutes. The hops schedule was followed the same as the original, but again, cut in half.

OG was 1050, final was 1012 or so.

Here's a gallery of shots; the pictures themselves are huge and I don't want to throw off the sizing of this thread.

http://imgur.com/a/PH9lE

At first pour, I was very impressed. Great head. Retention is fantastic; at about 3/4ths empty I still have a nice layer on top. Lacing is really good too. The color, as the OP pointed out, is a bit darker than the original.

The smell is very authentic. Not much else to say about that. My favorite part of Two Hearted is the citrus/flowery aroma between sips, and this clone doesn't let me down. The taste is authentic as well, but I feel like the original has just a bit more boldness on the aftertaste

So, my final review is an A; if you served this to me in the bar and told me it was Two Hearted Ale, I'd have no reason to disbelieve you.

Considered on its own right, this is a really good beer. I've been very reluctant to show my beer creations to friends so far, but this one I'm giving as a six pack for the holidays. Two hearted ale is the beer that got me to drinking hoppy beer, and so it's really great to have a good recipe for it. I'll definitely be back for more.

I tip my hat to you, mstev50. Thanks for the recipe.

Originally Posted by rjwhite41

I hate to be a naysayer but Two Hearted has a fruitiness from the yeast that you cannot get from such a clean yeast as you used. You either have to harvest the yeast or use wyeast american ale II 1272. Two Hearted also has a slight alcohol warmth. According to Bells website the OG is 1.064 and the abv is 7.0% which would put the FG about 1.010. That's quite a bit higher than your 5% abv which would not lend any alcohol warmth whatsoever. The original recipe posted looks a lot closer. If you put enough Centennial hops in a beer it can fool you in to thinking it is a two hearted but there are other subtleties involved. In summary the original looks close minus the yeast, daveyeah made Two Hearted's little brother instead of Two Hearted. Maybe he could call it One Hearted. By the way, Two Hearted is the only beer I have ever tried to clone, but my efforts derailed into my own IIPA (Two Hearted's big brother Three Hearted).

Originally Posted by mstev50

It isn't an exact Two Hearted duplicate. I found the beer to taste very close to the original, just as daveyeah said. That's what I was looking for. Maybe next time I'll try 1272 for the yeast to see how that works, thanks for suggesting that. (I also used silver caps on the bottles, not the gold ones Bell's uses )