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

This is going on 4 weeks in the keg and it gets tastier every time I try it.

still undecided whether to brew this one or DFH 60-minute, they're both just so dang tasty

seems like the last one I had is always my favorite... then I drink the other and then that one is my favorite

More carboys!

Jhoss said:

Have a nice size starter (6qts) ready to decant and pitch. Bells yeast / 1272.

Look for a pre-boil gravity of 1052 or so.

Boil it down to 1064 or so.

It will finish fermenting at 1012 or so. 7% abv or so.

(My process) 3 weeks in primary. Rack to secondary and dry hops on Sunday - have it crash cooled by the next Saturday for transfer to key or bottles.

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Why such a large starter??

No stir plate? No problem. Step up to 6qts., chill, decant then pitch.
No chance of an under-pitch which means happy under stressed good working yeast-IRS, attenuating to the max.

Brewed a batch of this on 1/21. Used S-05 because I had killed the last of my Two-Hearted's a couple of weeks before. 1.059 OG to 1.016 FG. Think it finished slightly high because it was a partial mash with extract. Dry hopped with 2 oz of centennial in the keg. I think this is one of my favorites so far, and as I got an extra lb of Centennial on accident from the brew store last time I ordered hops, I think I will make sure this one stays in rotation for a while. Looking forward to doing it all grain when this keg kicks as I finally have my mash tun done and tested, but other than being just slightly sweet, it is delicious. Brought a growler to my local brew club party after our competition this year and had people who tasted it sending lots of folks around to try it.

one-L said:

Brewed a batch of this on 1/21. Used S-05 because I had killed the last of my Two-Hearted's a couple of weeks before. 1.059 OG to 1.016 FG. Think it finished slightly high because it was a partial mash with extract. Dry hopped with 2 oz of centennial in the keg. I think this is one of my favorites so far, and as I got an extra lb of Centennial on accident from the brew store last time I ordered hops, I think I will make sure this one stays in rotation for a while. Looking forward to doing it all grain when this keg kicks as I finally have my mash tun done and tested, but other than being just slightly sweet, it is delicious. Brought a growler to my local brew club party after our competition this year and had people who tasted it sending lots of folks around to try it.

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IMHO a few thousandths high SG is good. I've never run a hygrometer on T.H. out of the bottle though. It seems like a slightly higher gravity to me.

Drinking a glass of this that I made now. It was my first AG batch and I'm so far not impressed, but I think I know what I'll change for my next AG batch after this..

I used 1056 and fermented at 60-64 degrees, so it's incredibly clean. Let it sit in primary for 3 weeks, secondary for a week, dry hops for 5 days of that week, then into the keg at 12PSI for about a week.

My mash temps were very low, in the 148-149 range for most of the mash, so this beer is very dry with little flavor other than hops. About a week ago I was ready to pour it out of the keg because it didn't smell right nor did it taste very good. Over the last week it's become drinkable, but it kind of tastes like fizzy hop water!

SG was 1.055 and FG was 1.011.

There's always next time. Me and a buddy just did our first 10G AG batch the other day and we brewed the DFH 90 clone recipe that's floating around this forum. We kept the mash temps up on that batch, more in the 154ish range. Hoping that turns out better with much more flavor! Only three days in the carboy, so I'm super excited to get a taste of this one!

DonnieZ said:

My mash temps were very low, in the 148-149 range for most of the mash, so this beer is very dry with little flavor other than hops. About a week ago I was ready to pour it out of the keg because it didn't smell right nor did it taste very good. Over the last week it's become drinkable, but it kind of tastes like fizzy hop water!

SG was 1.055 and FG was 1.011.

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Funny, I mashed my first batch of this at 149 F. With some additional 2-row I hit the OG of 1.065 (which is what 2H should be). Half got stuck at 1.032 and I had to hit it with some US-05. That dried it down to 1.008. Dry hopped for 5 days. It is really incredible with not the slightest high alcohol taste. This stuff snuck up on my wife the first time she drank it. I have made it with Wyeast 1968 a few times and that is really good. It gets a little more British yeast flavor and it holds the FG higher for a little more substance. I would try that and see what you think.

Brewin this right now! 45 min into the mash, sitting at 151f.

How many bottles should I need to harvest from for a 20 gallon batch?

You're going to have to build a large starter. You could use a few or a lot. I.e, add the dregs from 4 bottles to starter wort, ferment then decant, add more wort, ferment and decant. You could built them up big enough to do as many gallons as you want.

mike_in_ak said:

You're going to have to build a large starter. You could use a few or a lot. I.e, add the dregs from 4 bottles to starter wort, ferment then decant, add more wort, ferment and decant. You could built them up big enough to do as many gallons as you want.

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right, but I want to keep the yeast comfortable. My starters are always pretty big but I have never bottle harvested. I would imagine it would take a lot of bottles to get to a vial's yeast #s.

I don't think it would make them uncomfortable.


But if you want, use more bottles. It just means you get to drink more beer.

I harvested about 20 bottles and made a 2 liter starter for 5 gallon batch, pitched in about 36 hrs. Wish

I would have let it grow longer

Brewing this today. Trying 1272 since we don't get Bells around here.

brew2enjoy said:

Brewing this today. Trying 1272 since we don't get Bells around here.

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I want to brew this soon, prob using 1272 too if I don't harvest, I think it would be a good substitute. I got a few other IPAs fermenting with 1272 too, seems to be the go to yeast for IPAs.

I've brewed this and another clone with 1272, both of which turned out good.

Brewed this again today, BIAB with slight modifications to account for my low efficiency. 5.25 gallons of wonderful smelling wort @1.064 is now in my fermenter!

Thank you all for this recipe and the thread. After adding this to my shortlist of recipes I finally got around to brewing this back on March 29th and tried to follow the recipe as close as possible with the exception of my LHBS only having 1 lb 12 oz of Vienna in stock so I substituted 4 oz of Munich and for the yeast I used Wyeast ESB 1968. Everything went well, my AG BIAB hit 75%+ efficiency but I under-estimated and missed my final volume puting just under 5 gallons into the carboy with an OG of 1.069. The fermentation was very strong during the first three days filling the blowout tube and putting about 1/2" of trub into the plastic gallon container.

Its tough to let a batch sit so long in one stage but I left it in the primary for 15 days with temps ranging from 61 to 65 degrees. This was the first time I've used this strain so I thought it was a safe amount of time to allow the yeast to cleanup after itself. After about the 6th day of fermenting it cleared up quickly. The FG came in at 1.011, way lower then expected.. does that seem right for a yeast that has a 69% attenuation? According to my hopville recipe it has my batch clocked in @ 7.7% ABV with my gravity adjustments for temp.

Yesterday it was siphoned to the secondary and dry hopped it with an oz of Centennial whole leaf hops.

Oh well, not a perfect recipe clone for me so I'll have to just do it again. On a positive note the gravity sample tasted amazing and the color and clarity is the nicest of the 7 brews that I have under my belt so far.. I'll post a pic of the final product after bottle conditioned.

Brew day went very smooth but I ended up only hitting 1.050 OG, and it's my own fault. I ordered my ingredients from Morebeer and upon receiving them I noticed that their crush job was horrible. There were a large percentage of grains still intact and not even cracked. I decided to move forward with the brew day anyway and sure enough, efficiency was in the low 50's. Pretty ticked off but I guess it will just have to be a 2-hearted pale ale this time. I am pretty disappointed with Morebeer and surprised as well since I have heard mostly good things about them.

Just for re-assurance for you guys....I have it via a great authority that 1272 is the yeast Bells uses - and I've done both, cultured Bells yeast and 1272...exactly the same - attenuate the same (down to 1011 or so)..So good on ya and relax.

Morebeer - nothing but good things to say about them. You may want to lob in a call and test their "customer satifaction" action - I'll bet (never tested) they will bend over backwards to make it right. - They were just hung over whilst grinding your grist :cross:

Jhoss said:

Just for re-assurance for you guys....I have it via a great authority that 1272 is the yeast Bells uses - and I've done both, cultured Bells yeast and 1272...exactly the same - attenuate the same (down to 1011 or so)..So good on ya and relax.

Morebeer - nothing but good things to say about them. You may want to lob in a call and test their "customer satifaction" action - I'll bet (never tested) they will bend over backwards to make it right. - They were just hung over whilst grinding your grist :cross:

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Thanks for the advice. Maybe I'll give them a call and see what they say.

Great to hear 1272 works out this is going to be one of my next 2 brews for sure! Definitely one of the easier IPAs to clone.

two_hearted said:

I want to brew this as an APA. The way I see it, I could lower all of the percentages to bring it into pa territory or just lower the amount of base malt. I would also just lower the bittering addition. Any tips? I am leaning towards just lowering the 2-row to 8#. Thoughts?

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Did this, turned out awesome!

Perhaps this has been addressed, but what temp should the beer be fermented at--assuming one uses the 1272?

I've read a few places that you want low 60s for cleaner taste, while 69-72 yields hoppier and fruitier flavors.

Just added the yeast last night and my temps now are around 70. Just wondering if I should put it in the basement where temps are now about 62-64.

Just brewed a partial mash version with 2 lbs. Vienna, .5 lb. CaraPils, .5 lb. C20 and 5 lb. DME same hop schedule.

OG was perfect 1.060! Pitched rehydrated S-04 and fermenting at about 66F. We'll see how this goes. Thanks for the recipe.

According to Bell's the O.G. should be 1.065.

Just pitched the yeast(1272) on this clone and OG was 1.063..I'll take that! I can't wait for this to ferment out and see how close it tastes to the original!

Just tapped this one after 4 days on gas.

Followed the OP exactly, except the yeast and timeline. Primary at 18 degrees Celsius on STC-1000 for 11 days, then tossed in the dry hops (all hops were pellet). Dry hopped for a week, then kegged. Kegged 5/13/13, tapped it today (4 days later) and its freaking amazing

Not as much of an aroma as I'm used to for an IPA, but the taste is beautiful. This is my first all-grain IPA, and I'm glad it was

Yeast used was harvested Nottingham trub from a prior batch. Notes in the brew log said 1/2 pint of slurry from a centennial blonde batch.

Love it! Maybe would dry hop with a full ounce or so next time, but may not. Its good enough as is.

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.

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.

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

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...

crawkraut said:

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...

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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...

Nightstalker said:

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

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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.

naga77777 said:

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.

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

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.

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

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!