American IPA Bell's Two Hearted Ale Clone (close as they come)

bfinleyui said:

See,y you had me until you called all grain 'easy'.... I have yet to break 55% efficiency, and it's pretty darn frustrating.

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I didn't either. Until I bought a Barley Crusher. AG became more predictable and easier after i did. Aside from controlling fermentation temps I think it was the best AG investment you can make. Just my 2 cents.

jammin said:

looks like your crush is fairly coarse. If the mill is adjustable, tighten that baby up!

If not, a double crush would probably hep out a lot.

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+1

Just FYI for those in this thread who have been talking with me about my efficiency, did an AG cream ale today (2-row, pilsen, a bit of corn, late dextrose added to the boil), and hit a mash efficiency of almost 80%. The double crush, along with a longer mash and better sparge temps seems to have made a huge, huge difference. Thanks!

Also, to keep on topic, about to bottle (tomorrow) my brew of the recipe in this thread. Tastes fairly close, not quite, but I'm guessing my efficiency issues probably had something to do with that.

Hey guy's!

Have posted since I started my very first brew. Went off of a BTH clone recipe I found and converted it to an LME and specialty grain mix of my own. The smells coming from the airlock are tremendous. I am more than excited to start second fermentation and get to bottling. I wet and bought a gallon carboy set up (seven bucks including the stop and airlock!) I'm going to experiment a little. I'm going to use one gallon to add a little kick while dry hoping by adding some jalapeño to the mix. Only one gallon out of the 5.5 so I don't ruin my original plot but try something that will add a bite on the tongue. Can't wait! Og was 1.087 and the airlock is very very very slow burping right now so in a few days time I take my final og reading to figure when fermentation is complete. Thanks to all that helped me along the ay wib my first brew. Can't wait to start the second (Cascade, Simcoe, and Citra mix along with a caramel crystal grain mix and north western dark lme) when this guy goes to the second stage.

I've been reading through this thread and will continue to do so while at work, but have not come across my question yet. Has anyone tried this recipe with Citra instead of Centennial? I have three pounds in the freezer and was thinking about trying it out.

It might be good, but would certainly not taste like Bells 2H. Citra is very tropical and very up front and personal. I'm sure it would make a good IPA, but I would probably throw in another hop variety or two if it were me.

This turned out to be one of my favorite beers I've brewed so far. Thanks for the recipe!!

aknox said:

I've been reading through this thread and will continue to do so while at work, but have not come across my question yet. Has anyone tried this recipe with Citra instead of Centennial? I have three pounds in the freezer and was thinking about trying it out.

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What solbes said. It will make a good IPA, but it won't be a Two Hearted.

I started AG brewing about 3 months ago, and decided (after a couple bad brews) that my water was the culprit of bad tastes. I decided to immerse myself into the world of creating water profiles from DI/RO water, and never looked back. Beers "came alive" once I decided to do this. I recommend reading the "Primer" thread in the Beer Science section. Back on December 14th, I brewed this beer, and I am enjoying it right now. If you are someone that is, or is thinking of creating water profiles for beers, here are my additions. I used distilled water, and added 1g CaCl2 and 3g gypsum. This put my pH at 5.52 at room temp. (which is real close to 5.2 at mash temp.) I also decided to dry hop with 1 ounce Centennial AND 1 ounce Cascade for 6 days. I then cold crashed with the dry hops for an additional 3 days. Turned out awesome! The CaCl2 and gypsum additions put your Ca at 58 ppm and SO4 at 106 ppm. Many believe that SO4 is great at around 100 ppm for IPAs. Just wanted to share this for those who want to brew with DI/RO water. Cheers

mn_rookie said:

Hey guy's! Went off of a BTH clone recipe I found and converted it to an LME and specialty grain mix of my own. ....(Cascade, Simcoe, and Citra mix along with a caramel crystal grain mix and north western dark lme) when this guy goes to the second stage.

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Would you care to share the LME recipe?

That would probably help a bunch of the extract brewers.

Thanks,
Bill

I plan on making this clone this weekend. I harvested yeast from 3 bottles of Bell's Midwestern Pale Ale last night. Did a 1.023 700 ml starter, which I will bump up to a 2 l. I chose the MPA because their was way more yeast than in the 2-Hearted bottles and the lower alcohol (5.2%) would result in healthier yeast. I was under the understanding that Bell's uses their "house yeast" in all their beers. Do they use the same yeast in the 2-Hearted and the Midwestern Pale Ale? I ask, because I really didn't care for the taste of the MPA. I thought it was bread-like.

tonymark said:

I plan on making this clone this weekend. I harvested yeast from 3 bottles of Bell's Midwestern Pale Ale last night. Did a 1.023 700 ml starter, which I will bump up to a 2 l. I chose the MPA because their was way more yeast than in the 2-Hearted bottles and the lower alcohol (5.2%) would result in healthier yeast. I was under the understanding that Bell's uses their "house yeast" in all their beers. Do they use the same yeast in the 2-Hearted and the Midwestern Pale Ale? I ask, because I really didn't care for the taste of the MPA. I thought it was bread-like.

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Yes, you can use the MPA yeast. Make sure you have enough yeast built up before pitching, especially when starting with only 3 bottles worth of dregs.

I too will be brewing this weekend (Sat Feb 9th) - my 3rd run at this 2HA clone. Just for reference. I had some washed Bells yeast stored in the fridge since late November. I made a starter wort (1/2 cup DME, 1 pint water) on Saturday Feb. 2nd (1 week in advance). Last night Monday I made 6 quarts more wort and pitched the raging brew on in. On Thursday I will cool it to drop the yeast and pitch into my 5 plus gallons. This is a repeat of my process from my best batch....the bottom line....huge starter!

I harvested some yeast from Bells Smitten Golden Rye Ale. I'm hoping it's the same as their house strain? I've got some Bells yeast that I washed from an Oberon clone I made if the Smitten is a different strain. Anyone know if it is the same strain?

Two Hearted is on my list to brew for the 3rd time as well, but I'm doing my first attempt at Bells Best Brown this weekend.

I have done a fair amount of reading on this website about Bells yeast and it appears that all of their "normal" ales use the same yeast. Some of the really oddball stuff is different.

I harvested yeast from Oberon and brewed this recipe - damn near impossible to tell my clone from the original. In fact, I had 2 guys over last weekend for a brew day and gave them the test. One of them guessed right and one wrong. 50/50 odds I guess

To be honest, I really don't think (in this case) that the yeast is all too important. Using just about any highly attenuating ale yeast that does not impart much flavor seems to work very, very well. I have used Notty, US-04, US-05, and WLP-001, all to great effect. I suppose it all depends on how close you want your end product to be to the real thing. I mean...I like clone recipes to get a beer in the ballpark of good commercial beers I like. However, making it an exact replica has never been my goal. Just a strong base of a particular example within the style to build my own recipe from.

All things being equal, I think the greatest variation between the beers where I used different yeast was probably more down to slight variation in my mash temps, mash schedule and hop variation between years than anything to do with the yeast i used.

Thanks for the recipe. Mine is fermenting now. I have a question though. I've never dry hopped before so what did you do?

Do I add the hops @ 5 days and let stay in til I rack? (It's already day 7 and I plan on racking to secondary).

Thanks!

Rahahb said:

Thanks for the recipe. Mine is fermenting now. I have a question though. I've never dry hopped before so what did you do?

Do I add the hops @ 5 days and let stay in til I rack? (It's already day 7 and I plan on racking to secondary).

Thanks!

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When fermentation is complete (yes, about 5 days ) just open your fermentor and drop the hops in. I leave my beer on the dry hops for 4 or 5 days then rack to keg.

passedpawn said:

When fermentation is complete (yes, about 5 days ) just open your fermentor and drop the hops in. I leave my beer on the dry hops for 4 or 5 days then rack to keg.

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How long do you let your kegs sit before carb and serve? In the recent past I've been serving my IPA's at about 4 weeks because everyone says drink fresh. I'm starting to think they lack in balance though, they all seem one dimensional. Unless, that's the point. Maybe I just need a maltier IPA through the winter.

Just brewed this as my first all grain Brew. Hit 1.068 on the dot! It smelled amazing. Cannot wait to rack over to secondary and sneak a taste

sivdrinks said:

How long do you let your kegs sit before carb and serve? In the recent past I've been serving my IPA's at about 4 weeks because everyone says drink fresh. I'm starting to think they lack in balance though, they all seem one dimensional. Unless, that's the point. Maybe I just need a maltier IPA through the winter.

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My schedule.

1. Fermentation: 8 days. (Dry hops added around day 5 or 6.)
2. Cold Crash with gelatin @ 35C: 3 days. Then rack into kegs.
3. Keg carbonation @ 35C: 7 days.
4. Drink!

Tho, I make a lot of beer, so the kegs will probably sit a lot longer than that in my garage freezer.

BTW, I've made this recipe twice now and it's supergreat.

OT... I hear gelatin removes a lot of the hop character. Do you find this to be true? Seems like that would kill a 2H clone. BTW, Bell's doesn't use gelatin.

I used gelatin for my brew of this clone and I wish I hadn't. It cleared up too much!

I have been using this malt bill for many, many IPA recipes with a variety of hops. This is my go-to malt bill for any standard IPA at this point. It even makes a great neutral pale ale recipe if you reduce the gravity! I haven't actually brewed the all Centennial version as presented but I can heartily recommend the malt bill. N_G

nutty_gnome said:

I have been using this malt bill for many, many IPA recipes with a variety of hops. This is my go-to malt bill for any standard IPA at this point. It even makes a great neutral pale ale recipe if you reduce the gravity! I haven't actually brewed the all Centennial version as presented but I can heartily recommend the malt bill. N_G

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+1 for sure

I have done the same now since the inception of this thread. This is basically the first recipe I ever used that I found on HBT and the grain-bill has basically been the launching platform for many of my ales....both traditional and whimsical.

A question I should have asked before..

Since I've got a whole ounce left, and putting the 1/2 oz back in the freezer will likely cause them to go stale, would it change this recipe for the worse to dry hop with the whole oz? I've never dry hopped before or compared the same beer to one that had been dry hopped. I'll stick with 1/2 oz if it will be too much.

Thanks!

Rahahb said:

A question I should have asked before..

Since I've got a whole ounce left, and putting the 1/2 oz back in the freezer will likely cause them to go stale, would it change this recipe for the worse to dry hop with the whole oz? I've never dry hopped before or compared the same beer to one that had been dry hopped. I'll stick with 1/2 oz if it will be too much.

Thanks!

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Chuck it all in. I dry hop this beer with 2oz typically.

Jhoss said:

I too will be brewing this weekend (Sat Feb 9th) - my 3rd run at this 2HA clone. Just for reference. I had some washed Bells yeast stored in the fridge since late November. I made a starter wort (1/2 cup DME, 1 pint water) on Saturday Feb. 2nd (1 week in advance). Last night Monday I made 6 quarts more wort and pitched the raging brew on in. On Thursday I will cool it to drop the yeast and pitch into my 5 plus gallons. This is a repeat of my process from my best batch....the bottom line....huge starter!

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My pre-boil gravity 1.051. Post-boil 1.069.
Jhoss

I just brewed this, ended up with 5.5 gallons of 1.071 wort on my second ag excursion.

Tasted my first bottle of this yesterday, and it came out fantastic. This is by far the best IPA I have brewed. I'm going to have to try to find some Two Hearted to compare.

I used WLP051 yeast. My OG was 1.064 and my FG was 1.014. For a 5gal batch, I used 1 oz of Centennial for 3 days.

What do you think would happen if I doubled the Centennial in this recipe. I have done a Two Hearted Clone similar and it was great but I am a little curious. Would it be to over the top?

Cbrown said:

What do you think would happen if I doubled the Centennial in this recipe. I have done a Two Hearted Clone similar and it was great but I am a little curious. Would it be to over the top?

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Four hearted ale.

highgravitybacon said:

Four hearted ale.

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how very Dr Whovian of you

10 gallons of 2H clone brewed 2/9 with OG 1.065. I think that my fermentation may be stuck on one carboy. I pitched one with wyeast 1968 and the other with a cultured Bell's yeast. The 1968 finished days ago at 1.017 (high for 2H, but expected for 1968). I pitched a decanted 2L starter of the Bell's yeast (the starter actually blew out) in the other carboy. I aerated with aquarium pump and stone. The carboy Krausened hard for 3 days with a blow out. It seemed like fermentation was near done and the gravity is at 1.040. Should I see more that a bubble every 1.5 minutes in an S-type airlock? or is a slow fermentation to be expected with the Bell's yeast? I am thinking about adding some S-05. Should I re-aerate if I do, or will this cause oxidation?

Pitching Bells yeast in a couple hours in a different brew. Sticking around for any answers to the above post.

One thing I do know from bad experience is not to reairate after the yeast has started doing its thing. That would completely oxidize your pride and joy right there I'm sure. It sounds like there's some kind of a variable your not seeing. It's a good point you bring up the cultured yeast. I would definitely look more into that aspect of things. But hey, what do I know? Like the name says im just a noob

I forgot to mentioned (actually too embarrassed) that I racked to secondary. This is probably my problem. I just restarted brewing again after 12 years off from years of successful AG brewing and this is my 3rd batch. So I am kinda a noob all over again. After reading about stuck fermentations, this may be my problem. Should I re-pitch with a well attenuating yeast. I have 2 packs of S-05 and a little Bell's yeast saved from the starter in the fridge. I can re-culture the Bell's yeast into a 2 l starter, decant and pitch again or add a slurry of both packs of S-05.

Not sure I'm understanding. When you say you racked to secondary was your problem, why would that be a problem? Did you transfer too early?

I brewed up my 2nd AG version of this recipe on Saturday doing BIAB. I too used Bells yeast I originally cultured from some Bells Amber Ale and had sinced washed from a batch of an Oberon clone I brewed.

I did try something new with this last brew. Was reading my latest BYO and they had an article on whirlpool hopping so I figured what the hell and gave it a shot. I had an exta oz of Centennial so after flameout, I added 0.5 oz and since i dont have a pump, I stirred the wort for a minute and then let it spin down and settle. After 30 minutes I cooled the wort to 170 as instructed in the article and then added the final 0.5 oz and stirred again for another minute. I then let it settle for 15 more minutes before cooling down to pitching temp.

We shall see how this turns out. So far it smells awesome coming out of the airlock.

I believe you mean stuck ferment. You brewed on the 16th Saturday an on Monday your at 1040 (from 1065). I'd say, stay the course. If it still sits at 1040 on wednesday - I would add more yeast and I guess I'd go with the US05 as the Bells culture you have seems to have failed you - but this rack to secondary confuses me? Like you brewed on Sat, and racked to secondary on Sunday....? Huh? What?