If Two Hearted isn’t in your area....

Founders Centennial imo is so very close, it’s a great beer, but Two Hearted here is always fresher.

 

Two Hearted Ale is a very well-executed Centennial showcase with a solid malt backbone. Centennial-oriented IPAs used to be very common but now seem to be rare in much of the country, and many of the remaining ones are West Coast IPAs instead of Midwest IPAs (I'm referring to the substyles, not the region of origin). Yeah, I'd guess that Founders Centennial is going to be the best and often only reasonable (if inevitably imperfect) substitute in most of the country. To brewers: More Centennial-oriented and Midwest IPAs, please!

 

Cool, useful post. Founders Centennial used to be my go-to IPA. Now it seems much harder to find fresh. Or maybe I'm just buying more seasonal stuff as it appears because I know it's fresh without having to check the label.

Side note: LOVE your Dead Guy Ale glass. Need to get me one of those.

 

Founders Centennial is still one of my all-time faves. It was one of the first IPA's I ever loved.

Come to think of it, I haven't had that beer in quite some time.

I'm happy I can get 12 packs of Two Hearted fresh. Always a great purchase.

 

Huge kudos on a well done side by side by side by side. Have enjoyed Two Hearted for years and now curious abut the others.
Again, thanks for doing my homework. Must have been grueling.
Edit: How great is it to have knowledgeable, local shop keepers?

 

While i can get two hearted when i want, i agree centennial is a good alternative.

 

If you can get it fresh, Big Eye from Ballast Point is somewhat similar. It's not 100% Centennial hops but I've always considered it a similar beer (when fresh!!!)

 

I grew up in Michigan and I feel like most of my friends who were into craft beer after we reached drinking age were either 2H, centennial or Short's humalupalicious people. Huma isn't very similar to the others but also had a solid malt presence that's reminiscent of the others.

I prefer two hearted and most Bell's beers, especially ales, to the founders alternative which is probably because of the yeast strains Bell's uses. I say this specifically because of how similar centennial and 2H are otherwise.

Time for hyperbole: Two hearted is a national treasure.

 

Not hyperbole. In a world of hazy juicebombs (that I love btw) Two Hearted is a welcome reminder of subtlety and balance, while still punching you in the face with hops.

Nothing beats a fresh, West coast style IPA on draft. Having Two Hearted and Sculpin on draft changed me. The fact I can get Two Hearted fresh in cans in f'ng New Hampshire just blows my mind.

 

Two Hearted is practically the quintessential Midwest IPA. I'd never call it a West Coast IPA, if that's what you're implying. I agree that it's a great beer.

https://beerandbrewing.com/the-middle-way-midwest-ipas/
https://www.pastemagazine.com/artic...-challenge-final-four-spotlight-bells-tw.html
https://oct.co/essays/regional-guide-american-ipas

 

Two Hearted is a fantastic beer ... I love it !
But for $2 less I can buy CBC ipa and it is an equally good beer in my opinion.

 

What is the rule on distribution hiatus before Bell's can re-enter? I think they have an ongoing legal situation with Reyes too now that they've dropped out.

I'm fortunate enough to be close enough to DC that I can get Two Hearted if I really want to.

 

I thought the post was going to be ‘move to another area’.

 

It's been a while since I had it, but New Holland Mad Hatter might be worth a shot. Similar in style to Two Hearted, though Centennial is only one of three hops used.

 

Nice to see Ballad Brewing getting some air time. My hometown; they do a nice job for where they are.

 

I can find it under 30 days in grocery stores here, it’s really tough to beat the quality, freshness, price ratio it deliverers, and Imo better on tap, but not by much.

 

I always felt Centennial and Two Hearted were similar in flavor, however I always choose Centennial over 2 reasons. 1 Centennial tends to be cheaper at $15 a 15pk vs $17.99 12pk for two hearted. Now you can get a case of Two Hearted at $33 from Costco which becomes $8.25 a 6pk but $15 for 15pk of Centennial is a $1 per beer so I find Centennial to be a better value.

2nd Centennial can age whereas Two Hearted can't. Two Hearted has a shelf life of 120 days and is always best fresh. Centennial is best fresh but at a year aged it turns into a completely different beer that has a honey forward barleywine flavor in which a year later centennial is still drinkable. Two Hearted is a near drain pour after a year. To me Centennial wins on these two reasons. But what makes Two Hearted great is its tangerine hop flavor however I'm more a fan of pine flavored hops which is more prevalent in Centennial.

 

Well sure, if we want to further split hairs it's a "Midwest IPA". But it utilizes hops harvested in the Pacific Northwest and is a relatively bitter IPA with a nice malt balance. For a guy in New England, it's a West Coast IPA.

 

New England IPAs also mostly use hops harvested in the Pacific Northwest. Midwest IPAs are heavily influenced by both late 20th century West Coast IPAs and old-school East Coast IPAs about which hardly anyone seems to talk anymore, and they also have a multi-decade independent evolution from cross-brewery influence within the substyle (hence the many western Michigan Midwest IPAs). There's actually quite a bit of variation within the substyle, with the golden Two Hearted Ale and the dark amber Surly Furious often held up as the two pillars, but Midwest IPAs always emphasis both the malt character (unlike West Coast IPAs) and bitter hoppiness with West Coast American hops and thus often are praised as well-balanced and flavorful. It's a great substyle that too often gets ignored because it doesn't fit into simplistic narratives about the American IPA and because it's little represented in the population and media centers of the east and west coasts.