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

So I did a side by side blind taste test on my version of this recipe and the real thing. Both were bottled within 2 weeks of each other (late Oct/early Nov). Both my girlfriend and I said they were pretty much indistinguishable in taste. Mine was actually clearer, but it could have been due my pour. We both don't love the 100% centennial hops, but both said it was the best IPA I've made and I attribute that to the mineral additions I made. I added 8 g gypsum to this batch (ended up with ~200 ppm sulfate). It was the first time I've added minerals to my beer. I didn't make it without the minerals to truly know if it was the gypsum, but we both thought the hops "popped" more and were "brighter" than my other hoppy beers I've made. Thanks for the recipe!

mtnagel said:

So I did a side by side blind taste test on my version of this recipe and the real thing. Both were bottled within 2 weeks of each other (late Oct/early Nov). Both my girlfriend and I said they were pretty much indistinguishable in taste. Mine was actually clearer, but it could have been due my pour. We both don't love the 100% centennial hops, but both said it was the best IPA I've made and I attribute that to the mineral additions I made. I added 8 g gypsum to this batch (ended up with ~200 ppm sulfate). It was the first time I've added minerals to my beer. I didn't make it without the minerals to truly know if it was the gypsum, but we both thought the hops "popped" more and were "brighter" than my other hoppy beers I've made. Thanks for the recipe!

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I should try adding some gypsum on my next IPA batch

Just out of curiosity: How much did you dry hop with?

Thanks.

2 oz for 5 days.

Making the page 1 recipe, got all the stuff from my LHBS and brewed on a day off. ended up using Nottingham Ale yeast-no time for a starter. Not looking for a Bell's clone(never had it), just a good drinking IPA. Sipping a Victory Hop Devil right now, if you like hoppy beers and live near Pa I'd recommend Hop Devil its like liquid crack!! Only variation I'm making from the original is I'm dry hopping with 1oz pellet. OG was in the 1.070 range, mislabeled my brew kettle and mashed about 6.5 gallons and ended up with less than 5 after my boil. So I topped off with a little water to drop the OG into the high 1.060's

The Two Hearted recipe was released a few years ago in Zymurgy magazine. You should be able to track it down with a Google search, but I’ll give you the highlights you’re looking for:

80% 2-row
20% Pale Ale Malt
0.5 lbs. Caramel 40L

SRM is somewhere around 10.

The Nottingham yeast really went to town, it was down to 1.004 after about 4 days, was shocked to see it ferment that low especially since my OG was so high and my ferment temps were down around 62 degrees. Let it stay in the primary for a week. Dry hopped with 1oz today. Will let it sit for 5 days then cold crash for two and I'll bottle it next Sunday.

Is the cara pils/dextrine nessesary in this recipe ? I know it adds a little extra body. I brewed this recipe once with it. Was going to brew it a second time without it. See what the change is.

Bottled it today, the sample I tasted was amazing. Very hoppy and tasty even flat. Can't wait

Finally tasted this after 3 weeks of conditioning. I think the the northern brewer dead ringer is better clone IMOO.

I brewed a batch of this Saturday, definitely my most uneventful brew day to date!

The only issue I ran into was when I went to pitch my starter of yeast collected from a real Two Hearted, it smelled pretty funky, very phenol-y. I have had issues with collected yeast before, so I decided to play it safe and pitched a 1056 American Ale I had instead. Hopefully it still turns out well!

BrewCityBaller said:

I brewed a batch of this Saturday, definitely my most uneventful brew day to date!

The only issue I ran into was when I went to pitch my starter of yeast collected from a real Two Hearted, it smelled pretty funky, very phenol-y. I have had issues with collected yeast before, so I decided to play it safe and pitched a 1056 American Ale I had instead. Hopefully it still turns out well!

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I harvested some two hearted yeast also that smelled very phenol-y. So I toss the yeast cause it was brown and from an old bottle. I reharvested again from a bottle that was a few weeks old and it still smells phenol-y. This ones nice and white and creamy. So I'm going to pitch it and see what happens.

orangemen5 said:

I harvested some two hearted yeast also that smelled very phenol-y. So I toss the yeast cause it was brown and from an old bottle. I reharvested again from a bottle that was a few weeks old and it still smells phenol-y. This ones nice and white and creamy. So I'm going to pitch it and see what happens.

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Will you let me know how it turns out? I was really on the fence about not using it, but I didn't want to see a whole batch go to waste becasue of some bad yeast. If that's how the stuff smells and it ferments okay, then I will know for next time!

I'm brewing it up tommorow. I'll definitely post back results.

I've had this happen too with harvested Bells yeast. I pitched it even though it had a phenol-y smell and my batch never came around. I chalked it up to an infection somewhere while I was harvesting. That was my first and only batch I hat to dump.

I've since given up trying to harvest yeast and just use 1272 which still makes for a great IPA...

MMJfan said:

I've had this happen too with harvested Bells yeast. I pitched it even though it had a phenol-y smell and my batch never came around. I chalked it up to an infection somewhere while I was harvesting. That was my first and only batch I hat to dump.



I've since given up trying to harvest yeast and just use 1272 which still makes for a great IPA...

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Thanks for the info. Your making me wonder if I should not use my harvested yeast. I tasted the wort from the starter and it didn't taste bad. I've got a nice amount of yeast built up. I stepped it up from one bottle 3x. What happened with your batch when you said it didn't come around.

I would give it a try. Starter wort often smells/tastes off because it becomes oxidized (a consequence of aeration, which is helpful to yeast growth). With a starter, you are not trying to make delicious beer, you are making yeast.

Put the starter in the fridge for at least 24 hours to get the yeast to flocculate, then pour off the starter wort and pitch the slurry.

Anyone heard anything about not being able to harvest yeast from Bell's Two Hearted bottles?

I've heard it from 2 people now - one at my homebrew club meeting and one in the Commercial harvest thread.

I was able to harvest yeast from a Two Hearted bottle in Oct and I used it to make this clone, but now I'm worried it may be a bottling strain and not the primary fermentation strain.

I did find this on the Bell's website:

since we don’t filter any of our ales either, you can harvest it directly from the bottle.

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They don't specifically mention Two Hearted (probably because of the higher alcohol content making it not as good of choice as their lower alcohol beers for harvesting). But at least they gives me hope that what I have is their house primary fermentation yeast and not a bottling yeast.

orangemen5 said:

Thanks for the info. Your making me wonder if I should not use my harvested yeast. I tasted the wort from the starter and it didn't taste bad. I've got a nice amount of yeast built up. I stepped it up from one bottle 3x. What happened with your batch when you said it didn't come around.

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I just think it was infected. I actually had 2 batches in a row I tried brewing using harvested Bells yeast not turn out great. One turned out ok after about a month of conditioning, but it was far from the best batch I made do this clone. The last batch I made using harvested yeast was un drinkable. It conditioned for over two months and then I started having bottle bombs so it became time to just dump it.

I had been successful in harvesting yeast for several previous 2 Hearted clones as well as several Oberon clones. But when I had not one, but two batches not turn out, I just decided it wasn't worth it to take the time and effort to harvest yeast if it isn't going to turn out. I've read several accounts that say 1272 is pretty close to the Bells yeast strain and I would concur with that opinion since brewing my last batch of Two Hearted with success using 1272.

I'm not saying you can't harvest their yeast as I have done it successfully in the past. I've just been burnt two batches in a row and these were my only batches of the almost 2 years of brewing beer that didn't turn out for me so it isn't worth the risk for me to continue harvesting and hoping I have a successful harvest...

Dose anyone have a 1 gallon recipe for two harted? I ended up having to leave most. Of my 5 gallon stuff behind with my dad and started my 1 gallon batches again and if its not worth trying. 1 gallon I'll have to get a 5 gallon kettle to work with thanks for any help

You can do a 3 gallon batch in a 5 gallon pot with BIAB.

I use Beer Smith to scale recipes. Works well.

OK thanks I'll check that out

Brewin up a gallon batch of this right now

Do you happen to have the recipe for the 1 gallon batch that I might be able to have

I just divided everything by 5 and ended up with
2 lbs - 2 row
.4 lbs - Vienna
.1 lbs - Cara-pils
.1 lbs - Crystal 20L

1 oz of Centennial hops

Your 4 hop additions at 60,15,5 and 1 minutes are all 5.6 grams (1/5 oz) and you should have 5.6 left to dry hop (which would be equal to dry hopping with an oz in the original recipe).

I am using 3 grams (about 1/4 pack) of safale s-05 yeast. I'm still pretty new but I've read it finishes cleaner than s-04 and am not ready to harvest yeast or have a stir plate to make starters. I plan on comparing with a two-hearted when it's done so hopefully I can detect the differences.

schweedo said:

I just divided everything by 5 and ended up with
2 lbs - 2 row
.4 lbs - Vienna
.1 lbs - Cara-pils
.1 lbs - Crystal 20L

1 oz of Centennial hops

Your 4 hop additions at 60,15,5 and 1 minutes are all 5.6 grams (1/5 oz) and you should have 5.6 left to dry hop (which would be equal to dry hopping with an oz in the original recipe).

I am using 3 grams (about 1/4 pack) of safale s-05 yeast. I'm still pretty new but I've read it finishes cleaner than s-04 and am not ready to harvest yeast or have a stir plate to make starters. I plan on comparing with a two-hearted when it's done so hopefully I can detect the differences.

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S-04 is English Whitbread and US-05 is American Ale/Chico. The 05 is a more neutral strain for sure. Just keep the temps under control on both of them.

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At this point all my fermenting is happening in my basement where the temp stays in the mid 60s, I know the temp will rise during the first stage of extremely active fermentation so I'm hoping that they don't go high enough and/or long enough to produce much if any off flavors. I actually haven't even been able to taste a finished, conditioned batch but the 2 I have bottled so far have tasted great from the bottling bucket so I'm very optimistic about the outcome on them

I am going to have to try this out when ever the bank let's me buy my house until then all my stuff is on hold

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Brewed this with conan and a little apollo, good beer, but totally different. Def not cloned. Ha!

shuckit said:

Brewed this with conan and a little apollo, good beer, but totally different. Def not cloned. Ha!

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Yeah, not a clone of an all centennial beer but I bet it was delicious. I really like this as a base to play around with different hop schemes.

Just ordered the AG ingredients for my first attempt at a clone of Two Hearted. It will be a challenge but well worth it, if I can get it right.

Anyone have this finish a little high say around 1.015. I brewed this once with us05 got it down to 1.012. The second attempt was with harvested bells yeast. Started with a little higher og 1.067. Stopped at 1.015. Still got 78% attenuation. Not sure what attenuation bells yeast gets. Warmed it up but didn't budge was hoping to get a few more pts out of it. But it is what it is.

Just wanted to say "thanks" for the recipe. It tasted great and I used this as the base (with a couple slight modifications) for my first homebrew competition entry (Upper Mississippi Mash Out). The two judges gave it a 43 and a 40, with some great comments pointing towards the need for a little more malt and body. Makes total sense because I mashed on the low end, finishing more like 148. Excited to try again!

RedShirt said:

Just wanted to say "thanks" for the recipe. It tasted great and I used this as the base (with a couple slight modifications) for my first homebrew competition entry (Upper Mississippi Mash Out). The two judges gave it a 43 and a 40, with some great comments pointing towards the need for a little more malt and body. Makes total sense because I mashed on the low end, finishing more like 148. Excited to try again!

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Congrats. Those are some nice scores. Most ppl on this site say the brewer gets the scores not the recipe. So props to you.

Can I ask if you used harvested bells yeast or some other yeast? And what was your og and FG. I'm trying to figure the attenuation of bells yeast. Thanks.

I used harvest yeast from a Bell's Two Hearted for my clone and I got 85% attenuation with that yeast in this recipe.

Thanks for the info. That's some good attenuation. We had a cold snap here (0 degrees for 2 days). My yeast dropped out at the end before I had a chance to warm it up.

orangemen5 said:

Thanks for the info. That's some good attenuation. We had a cold snap here (0 degrees for 2 days). My yeast dropped out at the end before I had a chance to warm it up.

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Warm it back up and gently stir it. It should kick back into action. It's been near zero here for the better part of the month.

Is US-04 an acceptable yeast to use with this clone? Or is an American yeast preferable as it's a domestic craft brew?


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catdaddy66 said:

Is US-04 an acceptable yeast to use with this clone? Or is an American yeast preferable as it's a domestic craft brew?


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Sounds like the us-05 would be more accurate, but I think the s-04 would still be a strong year for this. I find it to be highly flocculent in my experience though so take that into account on your recipe

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orangemen5 said:

Can I ask if you used harvested bells yeast or some other yeast? And what was your og and FG. I'm trying to figure the attenuation of bells yeast. Thanks.

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Not sure if this was in response to my post, so apologies if not, but I had previously brewed an APA using Wyeast 1272. I used about 1/2 the remaining yeast cake to brew the IPA. I likely overpitched, hence the comment on the beer's body, but I got great attenuation and a very clean/dry beer.