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Recipe: Bell’s Light Hearted Ale
Packing IPA flavor into a svelte, highly sessionable, lower-calorie frame is no easy trick. To inspire your home attempts, here is the small-scale recipe for Bell’s Brewery’s highest-profile release in years.
Courtesy of Bell’s Brewery in Michigan, here is a homebrew-scale recipe for Bell’s Light Hearted Ale—a lighter, session-strength beer from the same family as the ever-popular Two Hearted Ale. For more on the tinkering and process behind this beer, listen to our podcast with Andy Farrell, Bell’s brewing innovation manager—and watch for Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® Issue 40 (August-September 2020) or subscribe.
Most of the key ingredients are widely available, but there is another option: The brewery sells homebrew kits that include the ingredients for its top recipes—both all-grain and extract—out of its Kalamazoo-based webshop, and it ships them to all 50 states. Exclusive to the Bell’s store are packets of the brewery’s house yeast strain, Imperial A62, but Farrell says that US-05 or other American ale yeasts will get similar results.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.034
FG: 1.006
IBUs: 36
ABV: 3.7%
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Courtesy of Bell’s Brewery in Michigan, here is a homebrew-scale recipe for Bell’s Light Hearted Ale—a lighter, session-strength beer from the same family as the ever-popular Two Hearted Ale. For more on the tinkering and process behind this beer, listen to our podcast with Andy Farrell, Bell’s brewing innovation manager—and watch for Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® Issue 40 (August-September 2020) or subscribe.
Most of the key ingredients are widely available, but there is another option: The brewery sells homebrew kits that include the ingredients for its top recipes—both all-grain and extract—out of its Kalamazoo-based webshop, and it ships them to all 50 states. Exclusive to the Bell’s store are packets of the brewery’s house yeast strain, Imperial A62, but Farrell says that US-05 or other American ale yeasts will get similar results.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.034
FG: 1.006
IBUs: 36
ABV: 3.7%
[PAYWALL]
MALT BILL
4.9 lb (2.2 kg) two-row pale
1.1 lb (499 g) pale ale
5.5 oz (156 g) Munich 10L
3 oz (85 g) caramel/crystal 40L
HOPS ADDITIONS
0.33 oz (9 g) Centennial [9.2% AA] at 45 minutes
2 oz (57 g) Centennial [9.2% AA] at 0 minutes/whirlpool
1.8 oz (51 g) Centennial at dry hop on Day 4
0.8 oz (23 g) Galaxy at dry hop on Day 4
YEAST
Imperial A62 Bell’s House Yeast; or Fermentis SafAle US-05 or other Chico-strain equivalent
DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains and mash at 154°F (68°C) for 60 minutes. Vorlauf until the runnings are clear, then lauter and sparge to get about 6.6 gallons (25 liters) of wort—or more, depending on your evaporation rate. Boil for 70 minutes, adding hops according to the schedule. Add the whirlpool hops at flame-out and whirlpool for 25 minutes. Chill the wort to 68°F (20°C), aerate well, and pitch the yeast. Ferment at 71°F (22°C), adding dry hops on Day 4. Allow fermentation to complete, then crash, carbonate, and package.
