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

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Can anyone tell me if this beer is similar to Stone Ruination? I was thinking of brewing
both but not sure if this is the better recipe?

Thanks.
 
I've actually made both recently. They're quite close, with ruination obviously being the more bitter of the two. But the centennial flavor comes through clearly in both.
 
MMJfan said:
I have been upping my dry hop additions to 2 oz from the OP's recipe for quite some time now. I follow his hop additions in the boil but I just felt like .5 oz in the dry hop wouldn't be enough and I've found 2 oz to be a nice fit.

What is interesting is that when you add up all of my hop additions in the recipe I use it adds up to 6 oz total and when you add up the hop additions from the Bell's General Store recipe it checks in at just under 6 oz of total hops (5.9)

I think I'm going to change things up and give this Bell's General Store recipe a try on my next go around of brewing this tasty nectar and see how it compares to my current recipe. :mug:
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I think the oz. at 60 makes for far to much throat bit bitter in this case. I was delighted to see the brewers recipe didn't include a 60m addition as I do not feel the grain bill supports it.

Edit: I tasted this going to secondary, OP's grain bill Bell's hop schedule....I hope the tasty goes through to the final, omg so good.
 
What are your thoughts on doing 10 lbs of marris otter instead. It what I have on hand already...and a lot.of it.

I realize it is deviating so I don't expect it to be a clone...just wondering if this is no a good idea...all other ingredients will be the same otherwise

Thanks
 
Last edited:
Please disregard. Don't have enough Cent. hops.

Going to brew something entirely different. Basically it's "What Ever Is On Hand IPA".


Mofoa said:
What are your thoughts on doing 10 lbs of marris otter instead. It what I have on hand already...and a lot.of it.

I realize it is deviating so I don't expect it to be a clone...just wondering if this is no a good idea...all other ingredients will be the same otherwise

Thanks
Click to expand...
 
70 seems high... Rough calc I get somewhere around 53-55 IBU.

BTW thanks to the person that posted the zymurgy recipe. I've made the original recipe in this thread several times with great results. I'm intrigued now to brew this version and compare...
 
Untapped has it listed at 50, but I swear I read somewhere it was 60. Different IBU scales will yield different numbers too. I like to use Rager and I would target 60. Love this beer.
 
I had the wrong AA % in the software. When I adjusted it to 9% it brought the IBU down to 62.
 
I'm going to brew this weekend. After reading a few pages of this thread there are a lot of different yeast suggestions. I have access to S-05 and Nottingham. Any suggestions on which I should go with?
 
Garmoni said:
I'm going to brew this weekend. After reading a few pages of this thread there are a lot of different yeast suggestions. I have access to S-05 and Nottingham. Any suggestions on which I should go with?
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If I were brewing this with dry yeast, I would try to use what was listed in the original recipe, S-04 - English Ale. Otherwise, I would use Nottingham over US-05.
 
I keep eyeing my Centennial hop vine with a lack of patience. Thing went bonkers in year 2, so a 10 gallon batch of 2 hearted it is!

Maybe brew this in a week or two. Time to step up some dregs from my 2H sixer as well.
 
I have brewed this with wlp001 and 1968(wlp002). The wlp002 has more character and is a little more malty, I prefer that yeast. The wlp001 is cleaner and dryer and the alcohol is a bit higher.
 
I brewed this up last night using the OP's recipe except for the yeast, i used US-05, and had to substitute Some Cascade in the bittering addition as I was a few ounces shy on Centennial. I messed up a bit on the 15 minute hop addition and didn't get it in until 13 minutes to go. One thing though, the color seems a bit lighter than Tow Hearted. I had one the other night on tap and it was a few shades darker than what this has turned out to be. I'll maybe swap the Crystal 20 for Crystal 40 next time around. It smells awesome though, looking forward to this one.
 
Garmoni said:
I'm going to brew this weekend. After reading a few pages of this thread there are a lot of different yeast suggestions. I have access to S-05 and Nottingham. Any suggestions on which I should go with?
Click to expand...


If you don't have the bell's yeast you can use cascade for bittering as it has some similar characteristics to the house yeast in the final beer. I'd go with US-05 and cascade bittering myself. But everyone has their own opinions on how it should be done.
 
I'm brewing up a batch of this with a mix of the recipes. I'm sticking with the grain bill from the OP but I'm going with the hop schedule from the recipe that was posted in Zymurgy.

For yeast, I've always thought that Wyeast 1272 was the closest you could get to duplicating Bell's house yeast without harvesting from their bottles.

I brew clones of Oberon and Hop Slam and use 1272 in all of them and I like the results... :mug:
 
Garmoni said:
I have never dry hopped before. At what point do you add this addition?
Click to expand...

after fermentation is done. I wait about 2 weeks. I dry hop for about 5 days. you can add it straight into the primary if you want. I usually cold crash afterwards to drop the hops to the bottom.
 
Accidentally did the 15 minute hop addition at 30 minuets...Wasn't paying attention to the recipe. So I skipped the 15 minute and did the 5 minute and 1 minute addition.

Can I sort of compensate for this by doing more for the dry hop?
 
MikeyLXT said:
Accidentally did the 15 minute hop addition at 30 minuets...Wasn't paying attention to the recipe. So I skipped the 15 minute and did the 5 minute and 1 minute addition.



Can I sort of compensate for this by doing more for the dry hop?
Click to expand...


You'll get more aroma out of the dry hop but not really flavor. I'd add more dry hops anyway. What you need to do first is figure out your new IBUs. That change from 15 minutes to 30 minutes could be significant. I'd definitely taste the gravity sample before tossing in your dryhops to make sure it isn't too bitter and a waste of hops (though this recipe should be fine with a few more IBU).

Also, you are supposed to get some different flavors from The hops if you add at the tail end of active fermentation so you could experiment with that.
 
I have 8 oz of homegrown whole leaf Cascade hops that I would like to try using so I am going to try this recipe but substitute all Centennial for all Cascade and see what happens. This is only be my second all grain batch so hopefully I don't screw it up too badly! I plan on using WLP001 as some research I have done seems to lean to using that yeast. I'm also going to try and use some gypsum in my water as I have extremely soft water where I live.

If anyone has any suggestions as to any adjustments to they think I may need to make let me know. I'll update the thread as time goes on as to my progress and what the final result is like.
 
Sotbas said:
I have 8 oz of homegrown whole leaf Cascade hops that I would like to try using so I am going to try this recipe but substitute all Centennial for all Cascade and see what happens. This is only be my second all grain batch so hopefully I don't screw it up too badly! I plan on using WLP001 as some research I have done seems to lean to using that yeast. I'm also going to try and use some gypsum in my water as I have extremely soft water where I live.

If anyone has any suggestions as to any adjustments to they think I may need to make let me know. I'll update the thread as time goes on as to my progress and what the final result is like.
Click to expand...

Welcome to HBT!

If you plan on using your homegrown Cascade for bittering too, and since you don't know the AA% of it, I would double the bittering portion, making sure you have enough left over for the flavor, aroma, and dry hop additions.

In case you'd run short on your homegrown Cascade, use some commercial Cascade or add a little Magnum, Warrior, or Nugget to the bittering charge to get to the recipe's IBU.

If you're set on using a liquid yeast, WY1272 works beautifully for this beer, much more interesting than WLP001/WY1056/US05.
If you decide on WLP001, you may as well use the dry equivalent (US05) to keep it simple, as it saves you from making a starter.

Agreed on using some extra Gypsum.
 
IslandLizard said:
Welcome to HBT!

If you plan on using your homegrown Cascade for bittering too, and since you don't know the AA% of it, I would double the bittering portion, making sure you have enough left over for the flavor, aroma, and dry hop additions.

In case you'd run short on your homegrown Cascade, use some commercial Cascade or add a little Magnum, Warrior, or Nugget to the bittering charge to get to the recipe's IBU.

If you're set on using a liquid yeast, WY1272 works beautifully for this beer, much more interesting than WLP001/WY1056/US05.
If you decide on WLP001, you may as well use the dry equivalent (US05) to keep it simple, as it saves you from making a starter.

Agreed on using some extra Gypsum.
Click to expand...



Thanks for the advice! I had read a bit about not knowing the AA on the home grown hops affecting the brew so I think I'll try bumping it up like you suggested. Also, thanks for the yeast advise. I know my local home brew supply store does not carry Wyeast but they do carry White Labs. According to a website I found it said that WLP051 is equivalent, which I had used on my first all grain. I plan to make a starter with that one.

To be clear, for upping the hops, would you suggest just at the 60 minute boil and keeping the rest of the additions the same?
 
WLP051 is a similar if not the same strain. Even better if you harvested it from your previous batch. How old is that? stored in fridge? You may not even need a starter if it isn't older than a month or 2 and you've got enough of it.

Yes, just double up the 60' (bittering) hops if you use your homegrown, keep the others the same or add a bit more for good measure. Taste it before dry hopping, so you can add more if need be. I'd count on saving 1 or 2 oz for dry hopping. It's gonna be good!

Lately I've been bittering straight with Magnum or Nugget, leaving the more flavor/aroma ones for additions at 10, 5 and 0 minutes. The 0-minuted hops are actually hopstand/whirlpool hops added when the wort has cooled to 180-190°F. They are recirculated (or stirred) for 30-60 minutes, then chilled to pitching temps. Keeps more long lasting flavor and aroma. Then the dry hop adds the finishing aroma for a week before packaging. I actually dry hop in the keg, for as long as the keg lasts.
 
Sotbas said:
I have 8 oz of homegrown whole leaf Cascade hops that I would like to try using so I am going to try this recipe but substitute all Centennial for all Cascade and see what happens. This is only be my second all grain batch so hopefully I don't screw it up too badly! I plan on using WLP001 as some research I have done seems to lean to using that yeast. I'm also going to try and use some gypsum in my water as I have extremely soft water where I live.



If anyone has any suggestions as to any adjustments to they think I may need to make let me know. I'll update the thread as time goes on as to my progress and what the final result is like.
Click to expand...


If they are fresh/wet then that's roughly 1.5oz worth of dried hops with the same alpha acidity, which you have no way of measuring. I'd keep them late because of this and use hops from the homebrew store earlier to at least be close to your expected bitterness otherwise it's a guess and hoping you get lucky.
 
brewski09 said:
If they are fresh/wet then that's roughly 1.5oz worth of dried hops with the same alpha acidity, which you have no way of measuring. I'd keep them late because of this and use hops from the homebrew store earlier to at least be close to your expected bitterness otherwise it's a guess and hoping you get lucky.
Click to expand...


The hops have been dried and are currently sealed in bags in the freezer. Not knowing the AA content for the bittering addition I think may be an adventurous part of the brew. I know pellets will be much more predictable but who knows, maybe tossing in the whole leaf will produce a better result. For me, it's not like it will ruin the batch (I hope!). I honestly don't know exactly what to expect so hopefully that means I won't be disappointed!
 
Just tapped a keg of this today. My first beer keg hopping. I put 2 oz of centennial in a fine mesh bag and racked on top of it and left it at room temperature for 5 days. Four weeks since brewday and it's the finest tasting and smelling IPA I've made yet. It's on tap at one of the local watering holes and I've never had such a smack in the face of flavor or aroma from it. They go through it pretty quick too.

Do hop oils enhance lacing in the glass? It's much better than normal in this beer.
 
I'm going to try to brew this this coming weekend. Ordered the ingredients today and made a starter tonight from the dregs of three bottles. I don't know what the strain is, but it's savage. I've never seen this kind of activity 20 minutes after pitching. Bottling was 2.5 months ago.

View attachment 1449368992908.jpg
 

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