Two-Hearted Ale for the first time

[heywolfie1015]

I am in Michigan visiting my in-laws. My father-in-law is a big fan of hoppy beers, but doesn't know much about different breweries. So, the last time he was out to visit us, I told him he might like Two-Hearted, based on comments from this board.

Cut to half a year later and he has a six pack waiting for me when we came in yesterday. I'm not even a big IPA guy, but this beer is fantastic. Perfect hop flavor and bitterness, and a great balance. People in Bell's distribution range are extremely lucky.

 

[hoppymonkey]

I love Bells two hearted. We get it down here, but it runs out quick.

 

[Seven]

Two Hearted Ale was one of the beers that inspired me to start learning about home brewing.

 

[Ranger9913]

I brewed a Two Hearted Ale clone recipe from the last edition of Zymurgy and it came out fantastic. They only thing I would do different is to transfer to secondary and cold crash before bottling or kegging. Maybe I wasn't that careful with the auto-siphon but I have a lot of hop floaties from dry hopping in the primary.

 

[robtotten]

It's one of my favorite beers. Beers in the style seem to get more and more hop heavy / unbalanced, Two Hearted has plenty of bitterness, flavor and aroma and the body balances it out very well.

 

[heywolfie1015]

The balance is what I appreciated most. Extraordinarily well done beer.

 

[phenry]

I brewed up eschatz's clone of it last night (in the Recipes section), and I hit way higher efficiency than I'm used to. No idea where that extra 5% came from, but I'm just going to end up with a maltier version I guess. I would rather have closer to the original, but oh well.

 

[DoubleAught]

Have a two hearted clone in the secondary being dry hopped as I type

 

[Maxkling]

It was my first all grain, and best beer to date Ive brewed.

 

[Seven]

I brewed a Two Hearted Ale clone recipe from the last edition of Zymurgy and it came out fantastic. They only thing I would do different is to transfer to secondary and cold crash before bottling or kegging. Maybe I wasn't that careful with the auto-siphon but I have a lot of hop floaties from dry hopping in the primary.

Thanks for posting this. My version of the Two Hearted recipe was quite a bit different than the one you posted. Now I need to brew the Zymurgy recipe to see if it's any better than the one I've been making.

 

[ApexBrewWares]

Ive been making it for a year or two now. It is hands down my favorite IPA. If you havent tried, harvest yeast out of a 6er of it, and make a starter. The difference between the wyeast 1056 or white labs 001 is night and day when you actually use their yeast.

 

[Redbeard5289]

subscribed!

I love this beer and look forward to making it soon

Redbeard5289

 

[King of Cascade]

Balanced????......wwwwwwwhahahahaha

 

[robtotten]

Explain yourself, sir!

 

[Schemy]

I just had this beer while on vacation on the Outer Banks. I drank close to a case of this over the week I was there. I kept wanting to try some other beers, but this was so good, kept coming back to it. I will be brewing a clone as soon as I can.

 

[phenry]

Balanced????......wwwwwwwhahahahaha

Balanced beer in general? No. Balanced IPA? Yep.

 

[KayaBrew]

I've been brewing this recipe for about a year now: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f69/bells-two-hearted-ale-clone-close-they-come-91488/

It's one of the best IPA recipes out there.

 

[King of Cascade]

Balanced beer in general? No. Balanced IPA? Yep.

Agreed....No Ipa is balanced but Two Hearted has a maltiness that supports the hops and provides the best balance it could.

 

[robtotten]

Gotcha, that makes sense

 

[JasonG]

I've been brewing this recipe for about a year now: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f69/bells-two-hearted-ale-clone-close-they-come-91488/

It's one of the best IPA recipes out there.

Has anyone brewed both the recipe from Zymurgy posted earlier in this thread and the recipe linked above and compared them?

I absolutely love two hearted, but can't get any Bell's out here. I've never tried brewing a clone of this, but I think it is going to be my next beer.

In particular I was surprised by the lack of late hop additions in the Zymurgy recipe - although there is a lot of dry hopping so maybe that makes up for it. It seems like the big difference in these two recipes is the late hop additions and the size of the dry hop.

Any thoughts on which recipe to go with? Thanks

JG

 

[Homercidal]

I brewed the one on this forum and it was very good. I didn't compare side-by-side to the real thing, but it was close. The one in the magazine was by some guys who work at the Bells LHBS. Granted, they probably have access to better information, but I don't know if they are listing a recipe any truer than what some other have done.

I would say either one would be close. Based on the color and flavor, I'd guess that the 40L is at least correct. And I know they use 100% Centennial hops.

A clean American ale yeast is a must, but for true accuracy, you can easily harvest Bells yeast from the bottle.

 

[Tinga]

Two Hearted is my back up beer at most restaurants around here. But to those they don't distribute to do not despair as bell's is constructing a larger brewery so they can ramp up production. Hopefully that doesn't make it worse for me though.

 

[teresalgl]

Northern Brewer Dead Ringer is a great clone!

 

[cclloyd]

Food for thought - I made a Vienna / Centennial SMASH a while back and I had no less than 4 different people comment on close it was to 2 Hearted. I didn't know at the time that Centennial was the hop in this beer so it wasn't intentional but I'll take a compliment like that anytime.

 

[Acoma]

I only had 2 Hearted once and I was extremely disappointed. I'm going to have to try it again to see if the one I had was just a dud. I'm a fan of IPAs but just wasn't feeling this one. Feel like I'm left out of the party because I'd much rather drink Racer 5. Maybe from everything I heard my expectations were set too high.

 

[doctorRobert]

I'm with acoma not impressed. I too love racer 5

 

[beersteiner2345]

I only had 2 Hearted once and I was extremely disappointed. I'm going to have to try it again to see if the one I had was just a dud. I'm a fan of IPAs but just wasn't feeling this one. Feel like I'm left out of the party because I'd much rather drink Racer 5. Maybe from everything I heard my expectations were set too high.

Maybe try it again. I have never heard anyone who likes IPAs at all dislike this beer.

 

[doctorRobert]

Maybe try it again. I have never heard anyone who likes IPAs at all dislike this beer.

there is a difference between not being impressed and disliking it.

 

[logdrum]

I've had a couple of sixes that must have been out of date, but fresh, especially on draft, it is exceptional-and I've had Racer 5 on draft at Bear Republic

Sent from my iPod touch using HB Talk

 

[King of Cascade]

Maybe try it again. I have never heard anyone who likes IPAs at all dislike this beer.

I’m a big fan of IPA’s but I do think two hearted taste a little soapy…I also like racer 5 but if you ever get to Ohio you got to try Columbus Brewing companys IPA. It is a little small for the style but it is one of the best I ever had.