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

Woops, it was Saturday the 9th that I brewed. Edited to correct. So 8 days seems like most of the fermentation should be done not just 20 points.

Yeah, generally, fermentation should be complete after one week, so racking it to secondary after 8 days wouldn't be your problem.

I've never had a problem with a stuck fermentation (knocking on wood) so I don't want to give you bad advice on what you should do now. I had a Wyeast pack I left out in the sun last summer to warm it up. Well, I forgot about it and it got cooked. I was already into my brew so I tried pitching it anyway. After about 4 days with no signs of any fermentation and no change in my gravity readings, I bought a new pack of Wyeast and re pitched and the brew turned out fine. But my circumstances weren't the same as what you are dealing with...

tonymark said:

Woops, it was Saturday the 9th that I brewed. Edited to correct. So 8 days seems like most of the fermentation should be done not just 20 points.

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Did you try putting your 2ndary in a warmer location? Maybe the yeast are just cold.

Did you calibrate your hydrometer? Maybe you're getting a bad reading.

It just doesn't seem likely that the yeast would crap out after 25 points or so in a normal environment.

jmf143 said:

Did you try putting your 2ndary in a warmer location? Maybe the yeast are just cold.

Did you calibrate your hydrometer? Maybe you're getting a bad reading.

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Moved near wood stove. It's now at 69 F. Took reading with second hydrometer and same reading. A new cake is forming, so I guess it's going slowly.

tonymark said:

Moved near wood stove. It's now at 69 F. Took reading with second hydrometer and same reading. A new cake is forming, so I guess it's going slowly.

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I'd pitch a new pack of S05 or the dregs of a finished by you six pack of 2 Hearted. If there's fermentable sugars in there it should start. Try carefully stirring the cake with a racking cane to stir things up. The other thought would be your thermometer is off and you mashed higher than you thought.

Just picked up the ingredients for this last night for tomorrows brew day. picked SafAle 05, I can already taste it.

Just bottled 5 gallons of this brew. 2 packs of US05 got me down to 1.009!!! Wowzers. It tastes amazing. Will definitely brew again, good job to the recipe maker. Probably 10 Gallons next time
:cheers:

Bry97 got me to 1.012 will report back after itsbottled and ready.

I chose this to be my first all grain brew and made this today.

I live in a condo, so I was gong to try and brew this entirely on the stove. I used BrewSmith to convert this into a 3 gallon batch and ended up with about 7.9 pounds of grain.

First off, I know some things now that I need to do to improve my process.

BrewSmith came up with a 9 quart mash, with a strike temp around 167. I'm using a 48 quart Igloo rectangular cooler as a mash tun, so I poured 9 quarts of water in the mash tun and then added my grain slowly. Unfortunately I missed my temp by about 12 degrees - my mash ended up being about 140, instead of the 152 I was shooting for. I ended up adding about 1.25 gallons total of 160 degree water but this was doing little to bring up the temp. I didn't want to keep thinning out my mash, so finally I decided to open the valve and take about 2 quarts and bring it to a boil on the stovetop and add it back to the mash. This got my temp up to about 150, which was good enough for me at the time. I ended up having to do this two or three times throughout the mash. Once I got it to temp, I started the timer and kept it at about 150 for the full 60 minutes.

Since there was so much empty space above my grains, I think that's why I had to keep heating up wort. With the sparge, I ended up with right about 4 gallons or wort according to the line on my bucket.

I found out the other day my stove will boil 5 gallons of water, but not vigoursly. I figured that I could get 4 to a nice vigorus boil, but no such luck. It would roll, but after 15 minutes I never got a hot break. I finally gave up on the stove and set up the turkey fryer on the balcony. I was leary, but the thing never even melted the snow under or around it, but it sure did put the boil to the wort!

After boil and chill, I put slightly less than 3 gallons in the fermenter. Since I didn't culture the yeast from the Two Hearted, I went with Wyeast 1056. Was going to do the 1272, but the LHBS owner said this would be less fruity than the 1272 - I'm not a fan of the fruity taste so I went with it.

Just checked my cooled sample, to my utmost surprise I hit 1.055 on the nose. I'm floored!!!

This will also be my first kegged brew was well. Very stoked, but now the wait is killing me!

One more Q.. Is 60-61 too low of a ferment temp for this? I want it to be clean tasting with as little fruit as possible, but I also want good attenuation.. Already bubbling after 2 hours at about 61.5 degrees.

DonnieZ said:

One more Q.. Is 60-61 too low of a ferment temp for this? I want it to be clean tasting with as little fruit as possible, but I also want good attenuation.. Already bubbling after 2 hours at about 61.5 degrees.

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I just kegged a batch of this done with 1056 and fermented at 60 for five days then raised to 64 until completion. It finished at 1.008 so attenuation won't be a problem. And it tastes great. Good luck.

I had an OG of 1.065 on my last batch and it fermented around 66. I used Bells yeast and just took a fermometer reading yesterday and it came in at 1.012 which seems like some pretty good attenuation!

I have a question. If fermentation is complete what is the benefit of leaving it go in the fermenter for another 2 weeks before bottling as opposed to just dry hopping now that fermentation is done and bottling in a week?

MMJfan said:

I have a question. If fermentation is complete what is the benefit of leaving it go in the fermenter for another 2 weeks before bottling as opposed to just dry hopping now that fermentation is done and bottling in a week?

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I like to give the yeast some time to clean up any by-products they may have produced during fermentation. I typically let this brew go 2-2.5 weeks in primary before dry hopping (which I do in the keg).

DonnieZ said:

One more Q.. Is 60-61 too low of a ferment temp for this? I want it to be clean tasting with as little fruit as possible, but I also want good attenuation.. Already bubbling after 2 hours at about 61.5 degrees.

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Kind of a weird choice for someone looking a Two Hearted clone. Two Hearted definitely has a citrus/grapefruit/centennial flavor.

mike_in_ak said:

Kind of a weird choice for someone looking a Two Hearted clone. Two Hearted definitely has a citrus/grapefruit/centennial flavor.

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I will admit that my brewing knowledge is ever expanding, however as I understand it there's much difference between the fruit flavors that are imparted by hops than those imparted by yeast.

I've made beer that was fermented at the higher end of the rated temperature range for 1056 and I wasn't a fan of some of the flavors present, and from what I described to others it was a "fruitiness" imparted by yeast. I guess I'll find out this time.

DonnieZ said:

One more Q.. Is 60-61 too low of a ferment temp for this? I want it to be clean tasting with as little fruit as possible, but I also want good attenuation.. Already bubbling after 2 hours at about 61.5 degrees.

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Using the Bell's yeast, you want to ramp up the fermentation to around 70 towards the end. That's what gives it the distinct 2HA flavor. Low 60's should be the sweet spot for 1056 for a neutral yeast profile, if that is what you want.

I ramp mine to hit 70 at the end too with the Bells yeast. I find the extra fruitiness blends great with the all centennial hop. I would say it has more fruit than the original however, so maybe 66-67 would be your eventual target temp (near end).

If you maintain temps around 60, it will be tasty but different than the original.

Just brewed a similar recipe from 365, only reason initially I didn't brew this one was because I thought the abv off. Finally got around to reading thread and I think I'll brew this one with the 1272 from last batch. Can never have too many two hearted clones to drink.

Brewed this a few weeks ago using 7c's instead of centennial and wlp001. Transferred to secondary today. Already smells great! Next I want to try it with all summit hops.

I want to brew this as an APA. The way I see it, I could lower all of the percentages to bring it into pa territory or just lower the amount of base malt. I would also just lower the bittering addition. Any tips? I am leaning towards just lowering the 2-row to 8#. Thoughts?

When I did it I added carapils for head and mouth feel

My version(s)

The first one was a lot better than the second attempt. The second one had a LOT of flowery hops in the nose.

Just tried this after 3 days in the keg. Good already. Thanks again for the recipe.

Almost out of the first batch, and I hope the next one comes out as good as this one did.

So are people going with the recipe as shown in the first post?

I did.

10 lbs. Pale (2 row) US
2 lbs. Vienna (3.5SRM)
.5 lbs. Carapils/dextrine (2 SRM)
.5lbs. Caramal/crystal 20L

5 oz. Centennial total

1 oz at 60
1 oz at 15
1 oz at 5

2 oz dry hop.

Go Now!

Have a nice size starter (6qts) ready to decant and pitch. Bells yeast / 1272.

Look for a pre-boil gravity of 1052 or so.

Boil it down to 1064 or so.

It will finish fermenting at 1012 or so. 7% abv or so.

(My process) 3 weeks in primary. Rack to secondary and dry hops on Sunday - have it crash cooled by the next Saturday for transfer to key or bottles.

Jhoss said:

Have a nice size starter (6qts) ready to decant and pitch. Bells yeast / 1272.

Look for a pre-boil gravity of 1052 or so.

Boil it down to 1064 or so.

It will finish fermenting at 1012 or so. 7% abv or so.

(My process) 3 weeks in primary. Rack to secondary and dry hops on Sunday - have it crash cooled by the next Saturday for transfer to key or bottles.

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Great notes. Recipe looks spot on.

TBaGZ said:

I did.

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Me too...

Went with recipe in first post for 10 gallons. Did half with Wyeast 1968 and half with Bell's yeast. The 1968 attenuated really well and the keg was gone 3 weeks after brewing. It was really good and was just beginning to taste fantastic at 3 weeks. I dry hopped the 5 gallons of the 1968 with 1.25 oz Centennial for 5 days in secondary.

This recipe (now long gone) is delicious! Thank you.

Planning to brew this beer this weekend as a partial mash with 6 lb total grain and 4.5 lb DME. I had a nice starter going with harvested Bells yeast, but came home to find my cats had knocked it over and I lost most of it. I'm going to still try to keep that Bells yeast growing for a possible future batch, but now I'm going to use WY1272 for the brew this weekend.

Be careful with 1272. I would use a blow off tube straightaway if you don't already. In my experience it ferments violently.

Spinrathen said:

Be careful with 1272. I would use a blow off tube straightaway if you don't already. In my experience it is a ferments violently.

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Thanks for the advice. I typically do use a blow-off for 5+ gallons. The only time I don't is when I'm only making my 3 gallon batches. Nice to know I should be watching this one closely though!!

Brewed this morning! Hoping my top off water wasn't mixed in good because I'm only getting an OG of 1.053 for 5.25 gallons. I did a partial mash on the stovetop with 3lb two-row, 2lb vienna, 8oz crystal 20, and 8oz carapils and then added 4.5lb of DME. Beersmith says I should have had 1.065 with 75% efficiency at 5.5 gallons, but my OG is telling me I got less than 50%. Pitched a nice 1.5L starter of 1272 at 66 degrees. Should still turn out to be a good beer regardless.

I haven't really brewed too many IPAs. Would a lot of hop debris throw off a gravity reading? I'm just trying to figure out what caused my OG to be off by so much.

I have never taken yeast from a bottle so can someone walk me through it please

thanks
Jim

Anyone know the best volume to carb at? I just got a scale so I'd like to use it

Taken from another forum.

Bell's Two Hearted Ale.... from the horses mouth:

"We carbonate our kegs to 2.5 volumes of co2

Gary S. Nichols
Quality Assurance & Control
Bell's Brewery, Inc."

Sounds right.. thanks dude

kodyind said:

I have never taken yeast from a bottle so can someone walk me through it please

thanks
Jim

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This helped me when I first harvested yeast for a bottle:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/entries/harvesting-yeast-from-commercial-bottles.html