Brewing a Two Hearted Ale Clone

One of the most regarded beers by homebrewers nationwide and a showcase of what can be done with just a single hop has inspired me to brew a version of my own. A great test for my BIAB setup that’s been in use for the last year and a chance to have a terrific beer to have on tap for friends. Maybe I’ll get a bit more street cred and not tell them what this beer is at first. Will they ever guess?

While my research showed that there are a few variations on the recipe online, I didn’t see the reason to stray away from the recipe that was given to the AHA by Bell’s Brewing. Here it is – Bell’s Two Hearted Ale Clone.

Brew Day

I sourced the recipe from AHA, but had to scale it down to my 5.5 gal kettle. Here’s what I planned on brewing:

3.25 Gal Batch with 75% efficiency

6.0 lb Rahr Pale 2-row

1.7 lb Rahr Pale Ale malt

0.3 lb Briess Caramel (40L)

0.78 oz Centennial pellets (45 min)

0.78 oz Centennial pellets (30 min)

0.78 oz Centennial pellets (Whirpool)

2.00 oz Centennial pellets (Dry Hop 4 days in)

OG: 1.068 FG: 1.016

I went with Centennial pellets available at my local Homebrew Store with 9% AA. Although recently, I learned that Bell’s do sell their own Centennial pellets that I assume are the very same hops that they use in Two Hearted, likely sourced somewhere in Michigan. These may be worth a try when I brew this beer next.

And yes, Whirlpool hops are not suggested in the AHA recipe, but I’ve made some amazing beers with whirlpool additions so to hell with it all!

Yeast – Safale US-05 American Ale

The lack of availability of White Labs yeast in Chicago area led me to my yeast choice, but I’ve had great results with US-05 recently.

Water Chemistry

Started out with Chicago tap water and made the following additions of Lactic Acid, gypsum and sulfate.

Lactic Acid	3 ml
Gypsum	6.5 g
CaCl	1 g

Water Profile

I have a feeling that Calcium is a tad high here, but other values are right where I wanted them to be. I went for a higher than usual west coast IPA water profile to accentuate the Centennial additions as well as the dry hop additions, but keep the mouthfeel level on the dry side at the same time.

Doing some basic chemistry

Water ready, pH measured and the grains are ready to go in. I mashed in a 150F per recipe directions for 60 min.

Pre-mash pH measured

Time to mash

After the mash was complete, it was time to start the boil. Added the first hop addition at 45 minutes, second at 30, and a little bit at flameout for whirlpool for 20 min.

My setup ain't much, but the beer is good!

Hop additions

Boil finished, whirlpool all done, now time to chill down to 70 degrees.

The wort was then added into fermenter along with the US-05 1L starter and left to ferment for 2 weeks.

Well, I definitely hit my OG. Recipe told me that I should hit 1.070 but I don’t think my efficiency numbers are quite there yet. Not bad at all!

1.072 (sorry about the poor pic, I had a little accident)

And into the fermenter! The fermentation was done within a week, but I took an extra week to do a diacetyl rest. Beer was primed, bottled, and let sit for two weeks.

OG: 1.072
FG: 1.014

Tasting and Impressions

Three weeks after bottling, my very own Two Hearted Ale was good to drink.

Left: my clone | Right: Original Two Hearted Ale

Initial thoughts are that the beer turned out slightly darker than the original, but not too far off at all!

Overall, I'm very happy with this beer. The taste is slightly less dry than the original, but the malty flavors were on point. The bitterness is there, the smoothness is amazing, but it does lack that very distinct pungent Centennial aroma that Two Hearted has.

One thing is I will try next time is using a little less Crystal/Caramel malt. This will help lighten up the color slightly, but also help reduce the carmel-like sweetness that my beer has. I believe this contributed to my beer being less dry. The lack of fresh centennial flavor is ultimately the biggest thing I could really work on. Next time, I will definitely look into buying the hops straight from Bell's Brewing store, or try to get them fresher.

Is it possible that Bell's buy fresh Michigan hops, while my hops came from Yakima Valley in Washington? Email me at the email below and let me know what you think!