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

[farmbrewernw]

So I've had this kegged for a week now. Still a little green in my estimation as I brewed it a month and a half ago but it's getting there. I dry hopped with Cascades as that was all I had, I'm thinking now I probably should have used Centennials, anyway it finished kind of sweeter than I would have wanted, I mashed a little high probably around 155-56, I think I'll mash lower at like 150 next time to try to dry this beer up a bit. It's good I just think it may be a tad more bitter than I would like and it needs to be dryer. I don't generally make IPAs these days but this is still one of the better ones I've ever made.

 

[Baja_Brewer]

Just stumbled across this. Checked my inventory and I may just have to brew this one up tonight. I have a Stone IPA clone in a keg right now, DFH 60 Min clone in two primaries (the one that I remembered the Irish Moss for is A LOT clearer after just one week) and I believe if I made this I would have an IPA trifecta.

Don't mind if I do

 

[gingerdawg]

I did a 3 gallon BIAB batch kinda following this recipe. I just racked to secondary, and the hydrometer sample tastes GREAT! I used
5# pale 2-row malt
1# vienna
.5# cara-pils
.5# Carmel/Crystal 40L

.5 Centennial 60 min
1 Centennial 25 min
.5 Centennial 2 min
1 Cascade dry hop (in a week or so)

I used yeast cultured from a Bell's bottle.

OG was around 1.056

I cracked the first bottle tonight (bottled for two weeks, can't wait anymore). Wow! Superb! I really like the flavor of the centennials!
I still have a couple of bottles of Bell's Two-hearted, I'm gonna chill them and do a taste compairson.
Thanks for the recipe eschatz!

 

[joety]

Bump, have to do this one next. Anyone know the best places to order Centennial from these days?

 

[Baja_Brewer]

Bump, have to do this one next. Anyone know the best places to order Centennial from these days?

Freshops has them but if you are planning on brewing more than one batch I'd say check out hops direct or Niko Brew

 

[joety]

Freshops has them but if you are planning on brewing more than one batch I'd say check out hops direct or Niko Brew

Thanks, Hops Direct looks great.* I'll have to check with some of my local HB buddies on a big order.

 

[gingerdawg]

I just did my side by side comparison. Wow, is this good. They are really similar. Mine is slightly darker in color, and just a little different mouth feel (smoother?). The hop profile is the same between the two. I like mine better.
SWMBO picked out mine in a blind test. She said Bells was just a little harsher. She is not much of a hop head.

 

[-TH-]

Here's my 3 gal extract recipe:

Recipe Gravity 1.063 OG
Recipe Bitterness 60 IBU
Recipe Color 11° SRM

Ingredients

0.50 lb Crystal 10L Grain Steeped
4.00 lb Light D.M.E. Extract Extract

0.62 oz Centennial Pellet 60 minutes
0.62 oz Centennial Pellet 25 minutes
0.62 oz Centennial Pellet 5 minutes
0.62 oz Centennial Pellet 1 minutes
0.50 oz Centennial Pellet - Dry Hop

1.00 unit American Ale yeast Yeast US-05

It turned out very well, although I'm still fighting a slight chlorophenol problem.

 

[diatonic]

I'm brewing this tomorrow... I made a couple of slight changes to the recipe based on my equipment. Will post a review when it is drinkable

Recipe: Bell's Two Hearted Ale Clone
Style: American IPA
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0) 

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.50 gal      
Boil Size: 7.73 gal
Estimated OG: 1.067 SG
Estimated Color: 6.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 46.4 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount        Item                                      Type         % or IBU      
11.00 lb      Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)            Grain        75.86 %       
2.50 lb       Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)                     Grain        17.24 %       
0.50 lb       Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)              Grain        3.45 %        
0.50 lb       Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM)     Grain        3.45 %        
1.00 oz       Centennial [10.00 %]  (60 min)            Hops         26.7 IBU      
0.50 oz       Centennial [10.00 %]  (Dry Hop 5 days)    Hops          -            
1.00 oz       Centennial [10.00 %]  (15 min)            Hops         13.2 IBU      
1.00 oz       Centennial [10.00 %]  (5 min)             Hops         5.3 IBU       
1.00 oz       Centennial [10.00 %]  (1 min)             Hops         1.2 IBU       
1 Pkgs        Nottingham (Danstar #-)                   Yeast-Ale                  


Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Light Body
Total Grain Weight: 14.50 lb
----------------------------
Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Light Body
Step Time     Name               Description                         Step Temp     
75 min        Saccharification   Add 18.13 qt of water at 161.4 F    150.0 F       
10 min        Mash Out           Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min         168.0 F

 

[joety]

Ok, if I make a starter out of Two Hearts dregs, how far in advance do I need to make it? For a smack pack I generally go 48 hours but I'm thinking longer.

Also, should I use two bottles or is one enough?

 

[hukdizzle]

Anyone tried using Pacman yeast on this? I was thinking about harvesting from the bottle but the beer cost more than a smackpack of pacman. I am thinking it would probably give the attenuation needed to pull this beer into the alcohol range it needs and it's a pretty clean yeast.

 

[farmbrewernw]

Two questions to answer here about yeast. The first one if you make a starter with the dregs of a couple of Two Hearted bottles you will need to step up the starter over time that is to say you will need to feed it wort a couple of times over the period of probably a week to get what I would consider a large enough colony of yeast cells. I'd suggest searching for bottle harvesting and see what comes up.

Second question; you could use pacman I don't see why this would be bad at all, pacman is a very versatile yeast so I'm sure it would be great for this beer. Pacman has distinct character that I have always liked, just make sure that if you bottle harvest you step up the starter to get a sufficient yeast colony.

 

[joety]

Two questions to answer here about yeast. The first one if you make a starter with the dregs of a couple of Two Hearted bottles you will need to step up the starter over time that is to say you will need to feed it wort a couple of times over the period of probably a week to get what I would consider a large enough colony of yeast cells. I'd suggest searching for bottle harvesting and see what comes up.

Second question; you could use pacman I don't see why this would be bad at all, pacman is a very versatile yeast so I'm sure it would be great for this beer. Pacman has distinct character that I have always liked, just make sure that if you bottle harvest you step up the starter to get a sufficient yeast colony.

Thanks, I'll try that search parameter. I have a stir plate I use with a filtered flask (no airlock). If I make the usual 1200ml or so of wort (1 cup DME) would I still need to step up as the 02 should help the yeast multiply out.

One more question, I couldn't find Two Hearted yesterday, but I have a few bottles of Hopslam left. Do you think they use the same yeast?

 

[diatonic]

I brewed this yesterday. I've never had the original, and can't get it in Idaho. Will have to try it the next time I go east. I did a FWH with the 60 min centennials... and hit an OG of 1.067 which should give me an ABV of 7.45% if the nottingham can take it down to 1.010.

Cheers!

 

[eschatz]

Thanks, I'll try that search parameter. I have a stir plate I use with a filtered flask (no airlock). If I make the usual 1200ml or so of wort (1 cup DME) would I still need to step up as the 02 should help the yeast multiply out.

One more question, I couldn't find Two Hearted yesterday, but I have a few bottles of Hopslam left. Do you think they use the same yeast?

That Hopslam yeast would be stressed out. You wouldn't want to use that. Two Hearted would give you a better sample.

 

[joety]

That Hopslam yeast would be stressed out.

Funny, when I drink Hopslam it has the opposite affect on me.

 

[eschatz]

Hopslam does bad evil things to me. They won't serve it by the pitcher at my local pub anymore because of me and a couple of guys.

 

[farmbrewernw]

I can't get Bell's beers over here either but I got a couple Two Hearted Ale's this Christmas from my secret Santa and through a trade with the ever lovely Yooper

 

[conpewter]

Hops Direct is a great place to get the Centennial. I ordered 1 lb from them and got a few ounces more than I paid for. Also I love whole hops so I like Hops Direct.

 

[joety]

Off and running. Planning on stepping up in 48 hours.

 

[diatonic]

I'd love to get a couple bottles of the original of this... it seems pretty legendary. It would also be nice to compare to the clone I'm brewing . If anyone has local access to it that would be interested in swapping for something available on the west coast, PM me.

 

[joety]

Did someone mention Pliny?

 

[LooyvilleLarry]

Ok, so this is in my queue now. Maybe the weekend !

What is the procedure for getting the yeast from the TwoHeart bottles? Just pour a couple of glasses and save the bottom oz or so? Then use a starter as usual?

 

[diatonic]

I'll send someone a 22oz bottle of this, if they'll send me 2 12oz bottles of Bell's Two Hearted Ale. The Hop Henge Experimental IPA is 8.75% ABV and 95 IBU - The 22oz bottle sells for $5.35 here in Boise. PM me if interested.

 

[dontman]

I just christened my keg of 2 Hearted clone last night. Dead ringer, sort of, I bumped up the malt and IBUs to compensate so it tastes just like the original, only more.

 

[AJ_in_HD]

I just christened my keg of 2 Hearted clone last night. Dead ringer, sort of, I bumped up the malt and IBUs to compensate so it tastes just like the original, only more.

what is the original IBU? I don't think I ever found that out...don't think it's listed on their site.

 

[joety]

Ok, so this is in my queue now. Maybe the weekend !

What is the procedure for getting the yeast from the TwoHeart bottles? Just pour a couple of glasses and save the bottom oz or so? Then use a starter as usual?

That's sorta what I did, but I started with about 300ml or so and am bumping it up tonight to 1200. I don't know whether I'll be successful yet so I'm keeping a pack of Nottingham at the ready.

 

[jawats]

Okay - I am making this right now. I realized 30 mins in that because of my low water volume (5 gal pot) I had to take 1/2 of the grains out. I finished steeping half at 150 for 30 mins, strained (ended up with 2 instead of 4 gallons) and then steeped the remainder of the grains for another 30 mins at 150. I ended up with about 3.5 gallons. I drained the grains through a strainer.

What do y'all think? Weak beer because of the loss of water?

--Jonathan

 

[LooyvilleLarry]

500ml Starter w/ dregs of 3 TwoHearts in there. We'll see if it takes off.
If it does, I'll create a 1.5l on Saturday, planning to brew on Sunday.

EDIT: This worked! There was barely a coating on the 500ml starter, but I figured what the heck. So I dropped it into the 1l starter, and let it rip. The next day, there was gas bubbles, and about a 1/4 of yeast on the bottom (after I settled it down off the stir plate).

Damn if my plans didn't change, so it is in the fridge for a day.

 

[avaserfi]

I just ordered the ingredients for this and they came today. Just my luck, I ordered an extra 1.5lbs of carapils for a total of 2lbs rather than 0.5lb. All the grains are in a single bag mixed together.

I am going to brew with it either way, but am wondering how big a deal this is? I haven't used carapils before so I don't really know its effects.