Two Hearted Ale
Bell's Brewery - Eccentric Café & General Store

Age: 4 months from packaging.

Look: A Touch hazy, not crystal clear. Amber in color and beautiful head of lacey foam.

Smell: Malty hops. Pleasant.

Taste: The surprising malty background blew me away. I love a good malt but to see it shine in a IPA was kind of nuts. I enjoy the taste. The malt and hops are balanced well.

Feel: The lingering malt feel on the tongue is pleasent. There is not a bitter bite to it like you would expect, its there but not enough that you couldn't session this beauty.

Overall: I love it really. Its going in my rotation. What Ive found is that after some hazy beer, double IPA, etc, throwing this malty IPA in the mix just completes the circle. Its great. Thanks Bell's.

 

 

Pours a hazy, deep yellow with very good carbonation and a light, airy head. Aroma is citrus and pine, with perhaps a very slight hint of grapefruit. Taste is light, largely bright, perfectly balanced between bitter and refreshing. The citrus comes through strongly, followed by pine.

 

 

I’ll start by saying that I am NOT an IPA guy. I’ve tried a few but just cannot appreciate whatever is going on with that. However, I heard the hype on this and wanted to give it a short. My initial smell is heavy of pine and citrus with just a hint of malt. The flavor is the same. I get a pleasant pine taste and it reminds me of a chilly fall morning sitting in a tree stand waiting for a buck to walk by. The finish has a mild malt flavor and a medium dry finish. It’s not too bad and the only IPA I’ve been able to stomach. I bought a 6pack just for my own edification, in hopes of understanding the genre better.

The gold standard against which to judge American IPA's.

 

 

 

 

 

 

L: Hazy golden nectar with a small white head that dissipates into a film and a ring around the glass.
S: Yeast rolls, caramel, citrus fruit, pine resin, all the hallmarks of the best American IPAs.
T: Same as smell, but way more intense, as the bitterness is incredibly pronounced, as it should be with an IPA. Pine resin is popping out here.
F: Carbonation on the high side, but between that and the bitterness, the alcohol is very well masked. Medium heavy body.
O: Fantastic old-school IPA that isn't overly fruity or sweet. Highly recommend to everyone who wants a world-class IPA with no BS.

 

The gold standard of IPA’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tried at Prohibition Kitchen, 4/19/22

 

Yummmm. this is a great IPA. The favors include an initial earthy taste, finished with grapefruit zest. I like this beer very much. I first had it in the Ann Arbor. So glad they sell is locally in MA. Even after 20 minutes, the taste and look remain.

 

 

 

 

One of the better beers you can have. If you don’t like IPAs still give this a try

Great overall IPA

L: pours golden/ light amber with a little over a finger of thick rocky foam. Hazy/cloudy

S: citrus and hoppy pine are the strongest notes some malt

T: following the smell I got a light of lemon water taste at colder temps and as it warmed up I got a nice hop bitterness and a good malt body. Overall pine and citrus are the strongest with a nice hint of spice and malt.

F: perfect carbonation, good mouth feel. Definitely not watery but feels a little lighter than other IPAs I’ve had recently

 

 

Pours golden with slight amber color and white fluffy cap. Subtle back notes of spice, cinnamon, and grapefruit give this huge IPA an incredibly unique signature punch without throwing the hop forward ipa out of balance from its nicely layered malty backbone. Amazing IPA brew!

Being from Michigan I always just considered Two Hearted another option besides your Buds and Millers, albeit a slightly more expensive and tasty brew. It was the beer we had our older siblings buy us when we had something to celebrate (or lament).

Now that I'm older and my pallet is more refined I find myself always returning to this old staple. For some reason I still expect to try some new (to me) IPA and be blown away by how much better it is than Two-Heart. Well, I've tried quite a few and so far nothing has surpassed or even equaled the Michigan masterpiece that is Bell's Two-Hearted.

From a 12oz bottle, dated 01/26/22. Served in a spiegelau IPA glass.

Pours a crystalline honey-gold with two-plus fingers of fluffy white suds. Retention is exceptional - in fact, apparently infinite - with fat wads of foamy lacing.

Nose is malty, grainy, redolent of caramel sweetness.

Taste is thoroughly in line with the nose. Tasting grapefruit peel and orange, a little vaporous pine in the sinuses but, more than anything else, an overwhelming caramel malt sweetness. I get a little apple juice character in the finish and beyond which I’m attributing to the yeast(?)

Feel is smooth and round, medium-dense bodied with ample carbonation.

Overall, not well balanced to my palate, all malty-sweet smoothness with very little hop bite. Nothing wrong with it, per se, just not quite my cup of tea. I’ve waited a long, long time to find a (relatively) fresh bottle and I’m not going to lie, I’m a little disappointed.

Hardly a point to reviewing such an iconic beer. There's a zillion IPAs with colorful inscrutable labels and clever names. Some of them are great, most of them are serviceable, some are terrible. Then there's Two Hearted. Perfectly balanced, deceptively simple. Honestly I don't bother with other beers anymore unless I'm at a brewery.