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

[MidTNJasonF]

Scaled the grain bill and hop level down slightly to bring it into APA territory. Used US-04 and still got it down to 1.011. I also added a half ox of Citra to the dry hop because I love Citra. Tasted amazing. Great reviews everywhere I took it. Entered it in the first round of the NHC comp and it got a 38 and 39 going to the mini BOS but did not medal.

I am brewing a full grav batch tomorrow and will be using the 1272 on this batch since I was out of US-04.

 

[jaydog2314]

I just dry hopped my batch with 2oz centennial. Gravity check was at 1.013, I was hoping it would come in lower, I'm doubting it will come down anymore by bottling time next week. I think if I had a few degrees warmer it might have...The first week was about 66 then and now it's at about 63(3 weeks in). We'll see what happens. It tasted OK but not too much like Two Hearted, we'll see what the dry hops do to it.

 

[Nightstalker]

Brewing as I type. Been a long time since I have had 2 Hearted. I do remember liking it so I am excited. I am doing BIAB and this being my third try at it I am hoping I have hones in on *some* skill of that method. I am follow the OP's recipe straight up. Except for I am using Notty as the yeast.

We will see. I just hope these **** mosquitoes don't drain me dry before I get done

 

[crawkraut]

Yeah the Two hearted IS great. Butttt it sure could use a little more hop character, just a little in the backbone, and a wallop in the aroma...

 

[MMJfan]

Yeah the Two hearted IS great. Butttt it sure could use a little more hop character, just a little in the backbone, and a wallop in the aroma...

The simplicity of Two Hearted is why I love this beer so much. By adding more hop character, it would no longer be Two Hearted...

 

[naga77777]

Brewing as I type. Been a long time since I have had 2 Hearted. I do remember liking it so I am excited. I am doing BIAB and this being my third try at it I am hoping I have hones in on *some* skill of that method. I am follow the OP's recipe straight up. Except for I am using Notty as the yeast.

We will see. I just hope these **** mosquitoes don't drain me dry before I get done

It'll be good

I did BIAB, and used Notty. How'd brewday go?

I didn't use any bags for the hops, and I had a LOT of trub in the primary. The dry hopping added to the debris. Next time I brew I'm gonna go with about another half gallon to gallon of water, depending if I get a hop bag before then or not. I didn't have a full 5gal in the keg cuz of all the trub.

 

[sivdrinks]

It'll be good

I did BIAB, and used Notty. How'd brewday go?

I didn't use any bags for the hops, and I had a LOT of trub in the primary. The dry hopping added to the debris. Next time I brew I'm gonna go with about another half gallon to gallon of water, depending if I get a hop bag before then or not. I didn't have a full 5gal in the keg cuz of all the trub.

You can get 5 gallon paint strainer bags at Lowes or HD pretty cheap, I use em and reuse them all the time.

 

[sivdrinks]

Brewed today, upped the Vienna to 3 lbs with 8lbs of 2 Row. Used Nottingham, OG of 1.062. Mash was a bit high to start, 153-149.

 

[Nightstalker]

I use the paint strainer bags also. I normally chill the wort and pour/siphon into my fermenting bucket that has a strainer bag in it. Then pick the bag up and it does a good job of getting the big stuff out of there. I will say you have to squeeze or rock the bag back and forth sometimes if there is too much particulates to clog the holes. I like this way as some say you do not get the hop utilization when using hop bags in the boil. I like my hops to be free

As for the brew day it went fine. I did miss the OG by a few points. 1.057 I mashed at 147-150 for 70 minutes. Why 70 .. I was smoking a Boston Butt at the same time and was trying like hell to get the temp stable on the smoker right around the 55 min mark on my mash LOLOL. 10-15 minutes later I look at the clock and realized I needed to get my boil going. Only thing I did outside of the OP recipe was Irish moss @ 15.

Smelled great and time will tell how this turns out

 

[TBaGZ]

Just finished bottling my second attempt at this. I dry hopped it with 2oz of centennial, one ounce loose leaf, and an ounce of pellet in a bag. Man, it smells great! Those leaf hops ate up about a half gallon though. Small sacrifice if it finishes up as good as the sample tasted. Still ended up with 46 bottles of 7.2% goodness!

 

[Jhoss]

Nice pics - looks good!

 

[periwinkle1239]

This is one heck of a recipe, but what truly makes it exceptional is Bell's yeast. I know a lot of folks use 1056 or 1272 which are good substitutes, but imo you won't truly get that "Bell's flavor" unless you harvest their yeast.

I've brewed this a half a dozen times both with and without Bell's signature yeast and there are noticeable differences when deviating. The 1056/1272 batches have always been good though.

For those of you who haven't tried harvesting yeast, it's actually extremely simple. All it takes is a little time/patience...there are plenty of threads on here on how to do so. I usually buy a 6-pack of Bell's amber and take the dregs from just a couple of bottles, some boiled/cooled DME and a few days later on my stir plate, magic happens...step it up a couple of times and you're ready to go!

My 2 cents, cheers!

 

[MMJfan]

I have to agree with periwinkle! Bells yeast makes this beer!

 

[Jhoss]

Yes, I've done both, cultured Bells yeast from Bells Amber. And used 1272.

I initially gave 1272 a try because my guy at the LHBS says "Hoss, Bells yeast is 1272". I'm like, "Horsesh*t Johnny" "Bells has a super secret house yeast", he says Bullsh*t Hoss - its 1272 and I helped set up that place and know all the peeps there and I'm telling you the house yeast is 1272."

After many batches of Two Hearted Clone and Oberon Clone - using both cultured Bells from Amber and 1272 - I can tell no difference.

 

[MidTNJasonF]

I would be willing to bet that if 1272 is their house yeast there are still enough variables like pitching rate, pitching temperatures, fermentation temperatures, head/vessel pressure, vessel shape/dynamics, and generational variance that even a moderately developed palate could pick up differences in yeast flavor in a side by side tasting with a home brewed version.

 

[TBaGZ]

Well I did this batch with 1272 so I guess we will see how it compares to the last batch that was harvested Bell's Yeast.

 

[copyright1997]

Just did a split batch of this (yesterday) with s-05 and s-04, just for grins to see the difference. Both are bubbling happily away at 66 degrees F. [Both yeasts were from previous batches after washing.] If I had some 1272 I would have tried it also, but not enough time to run to the lhbs to get some.

 

[steffie]

To save me going through 89 pages, can someone point me to the best agreed recipe for this? I assume it changed from page 1.

 

[orangemen5]

To save me going through 89 pages, can someone point me to the best agreed recipe for this? I assume it changed from page 1.

You assumed wrong! I've read through the whole thread. Everyone's basically brewing the original recipe. Granted some ppl alter it for there own liking or make different substitutes. Which still makes great beer. But the original recipe is very close to two hearted.

 

[steffie]

You assumed wrong! I've read through the whole thread. Everyone's basically brewing the original recipe. Granted some ppl alter it for there own liking or make different substitutes. Which still makes great beer. But the original recipe is very close to two hearted.

Great to hear - obviously OP did a great job. I'll just be changing the yeast. Can't get the original here in Australia to clone the yeast, so probably 1272.

 

[tonymark]

I only ordered 1 lb of Centennial in the fall and have tried to make it last so I have been bittering this recipe with other hops I have on hand. I use only a 15 min addition of Centennial and dry hop with it in either secondary or in the keg. My last batch of this I added 0.5 lb aromatic/melanoiden and dropped the caramel in half. It is still in fermenter.

 

[barhoc11]

Well I did this batch with 1272 so I guess we will see how it compares to the last batch that was harvested Bell's Yeast.

I am in the same boat, didn't have time to harvest and build up the Bell's yeast from bottle. Please let us know how your 1272 batch differs from using Bell's in your previous batch.

 

[jaydog2314]

so I cracked a bottle yesterday that has been conditioning for 2 weeks and am I so disappointed! I have NO idea what went wrong but it tastes like a regular old light beer! no aroma, no bitterness nothing even remotely close to two hearted! this is the first batch that I've had such disappointing results since some of my firsts! I have double checked my notes and I'm lost as to what went wrong.

Had a 2L starter of 1272 that was out of control, had to turn the stirplate off after about 18 hours, it was bubbling like crazy
Mashed at exactly 152.8 for 60, Sparged with 170 water
Hit pre-boil amount of of 6.75 gallons, est pre-boil gravity was 1.055 I came in at 1.058
Hit post boil amount of 6 gallons, cooled and was left with 5.5 in the fermenter
Pitched crazy yeast starter under 80, not sure of exact temp, was distracted.
Est SG was 1.064, I came in at 1.063, FG was at 1.012 (6.7) so I missed FG barely!
Blow off tube was blowing hard within 12 hours of pitching!
Primary for 3 weeks, 6 days of those were dry hopped, sat pretty much at 63-66 the whole time
Used 3.3 oz of corn sugar & .75 oz of table sugar to prime for bottling, bottled have been in a closet at close to 70

Only differences with this batch compared to others:
-1st batch I didn't transfer and dry hop in secondary, doubt that would cause the taste issues
-I did have a bunch of bubbling/issues when racking to bottling bucket but I wouldnt think at 2 weeks oxidation would even be present
-Had to used 3/4 of a ounce of table sugar with corn sugar due to not enough corn sugar on hand
-The only other thing I can think of was when I was cooling this batch, within the first 5-10 of minutes I noticed a very small amount of the cooling water was kind of sweating/dripping it's way back down the immersion chiller. I immediately stopped but couldn't fix the chiller so I had to cool old school with cold water and some ice in a sink. So my cool down took almost 45 minutes.

Now I'm leaning towards the crappy water getting back into the kettle caused this odd taste. But I'm kind of lost. I'm just surprised too that there is next to NO aroma at all. I haven't had the hops long at all either, ordered them back in April and had them vacuumed sealed within a week of receiving them.

No clue, I'm disappointed. Any thoughts?

 

[TBaGZ]

Only been in the fridge for a couple days. Carbonation seems like it will be ok once it settles into solution. I am a little let down by the aroma though. Thought I would get more out of the 2 ounces.

 

[JoeCap09]

Sippin this lovely clone on the deck.

 

[sivdrinks]

Sippin this lovely clone on the deck.

Killer glass!

 

[Rivenin]

I gotta do this one again... my last bottle was the best

 

[joeyuwp]

Made this a couple weeks ago and tweaked a little. Added 1 tsp of black pepper for last ten mins of boil. Also added the fruit and zest from 4 naval oranges after initial heavy bubbling slowed in fermentor. Kegged yesterday and taste was very interesting. Heavy orange followed by an ever so slight burn from the pepper. Really balanced the sweetness. Very dry finish though. From adding oranges and re-energizing yeast maybe?

 

[MidTNJasonF]

My most recent batch of this has been in the keg a few weeks now. I had a bottle of Two Hearted and then followed up with a glass of mine. Color is nearly dead on for this batch. Just slightly less clarity in mine than the real version, mine has just a touch of haze. Aroma is also very nearly dead on. I used some Citra in this batch so I expected differences but the aroma is very very close. Malt profile is also very close, in fact I can not pick up much difference at all. The hop profile is a little bit off though. Mine has just a touch more bitterness and a very light grassy profile that I assume is from the dry hop.

I am very pleased. I aimed for just above the original clone recipe numbers in terms of IBU and gravity on this batch. I used the 1272 yeast which seemed to work very well. If I recall all my numbers it was 1.067 O.G. and 1.012 final. I used half an ounce of Citra in place of the late Centennial addition. I also used Citra in the dry hop phase.

 

[Jhoss]

I get your description, well done - I've described this way myself. Keep in mind, this brew will mellow in bitterness. Give it a month (or two even). You'll be surprised at the difference - the quality goes way up. Time does wonderful things to this 2HA clone.