Amazing how similar to bells two hearted this tastes even without full bottle conditioning. This isn't quite ready yet, but I couldn't wait to give it a taste.
not sure what to make of this yet. has an alcohol flavor. dry. hoping it mellows with some bottle conditioning. holding back final judgment for a couple weeks. smelled great when bottling.
Definitely done fermenting. Racked to secondary to clarify. Tough to tell how close this will end up to Bell's Two Hearted. Still a bit dry tasting, but the ABV ended up close to target, but certainly a drier beer than intended. Hoping the dry hopping adds some character and aroma to balance the dryness and alcohol flavors.
discovered fermentation was not stuck. faulty refractometer. hydrometer reading down to 1.004. now I have a drier brew than intended due to AE that probably wasn't needed. Will rack to secondary this weekend for final clarification and dry hopping next week. Tastes a bit dry and the alcohol comes through sharply. I wonder if the refractometer was off on brew day too? If this was 1.055 and now 1.004, I have a 6.7 ABV brew, which shouldn't be so pronounced with alcohol flavor.
Fermentation stopped again with SG only down to about 1.023. Stirred trub back into solution last night hoping to get fermentation started, to no avail. Tastes good, but I think i'm going to add some nottingham to try to get this down closer to 1.011-15 before attempting to bottle after another couple weeks. My starter culture of bell's yeast just may not be strong enough to get the job done now that the alcohol is at least up to 4.2 ABV or so.
Fermentation appears to be stuck at 1.030. Added Amylase enzyme, stirred up yeast and started to bubble again. On a positive note, this is tasting like Bells Two Hearted.
