The glass on the left is my Dead Ringer, the glass on the right is real Two Hearted ale. The DR is a bit dark. I did not scorch the wort BTW. What’s good is the real thing does not have the hop nose and is a little less hoppy. I like the clone better than the original.
The kit could use lighter extract maybe?
I prefer Dead Ringer over Two Hearted also. I think my DR comes out a little lighter than yours. I’ll take a picture in about four or five weeks. Have a DR on day 2 in the fermentor.
I sacrificed a Dead Ringer testing the effectiveness of oxygen absorbing caps. The Dead Ringer was bottled 2/19. Poured it yesterday. Classic sherry flavor of oxidation. Could only put down about 4 ounces doing the taste evaluation.
What was your test method
Test was just holding a bottle at room temperature nearly two months longer than any other batch of DR before drinking.
Is the “Gold” LME more than 4L?
How fresh was the 2h compared to the DR?
The gold malt with the Dead Ringer ingredients is branded as Maillard Malts Gold Malt. I believe this is Briess Golden Light. Both are listed at 4°L.
I’ve been meaning to do a side-by-side. I’m sure the AG Dead ringer is a lot lighter than that, but maybe not as light as the two hearted.
@hd4mark I should have said some of my Dead Ringers come out lighter in color. We’ll see how the current one turns out.
New topic tomorrow. Changes I’ve made in brewing and fermenting the current Dead Ringer.
The grain is listed as Briess caramel 40, LME as “gold”. It’s labeled Mallard like most of NBs. I don’t really care that it came out dark It was the last of my winter snowbird kits so I just used it up. Pretty tasty.
I just fished the bottle out of out returns (5 cents back in NY) dated 12/29/16 so its 6 months old. I got it in one of those build your own 6 packs. Not real fresh, not real stale. Would have been better last Jan.
Never think to check the date but at $9 a sixer, I get some good beers.
When you get up to 7% ABV, I think the hops last a bit longer than a smaller brew… But I believe you are spot on with it being fresher sooner rather than latter… Haven’t done a 2H for a long time, my malt was 50/50 marris otter and base malt… Sneezles61
My all centennial IPA is an amped up 2H, with a lot more aroma. Recently when I’ve had a 2H somewhere, even on tap, I’m a little disappointed. Much less aroma than I’d like. I’m not sure if Bells consistency is off or if I compare it unfavorably to my higher IBU version.
My grist for most of my IPAs is about 82% 2 row, 13% Vienna or Munich, and 5% c40 bittered to 26 IBU with magnum then lots of late additions and DH. BS2 says this most recent one is 75 IBU.
Mine was dry hopped in the keg while carbing for just under two weeks and served so it’s no wonder the hop aroma especially was better. I was more surprised how much darker the kit was. I’m sure when or if I do an AG clone I can make it come out closer to the right color. It tastes good so that is the bottom line.
My latest IPA uses some table sugar and mainly 2 row… a little bit of crystal for color… I haven’t ordered much hops lately but, will soon. I would ask… anyone try the grapefruit hop? I am with you Dannyboy… Centennial is my go to, also cascade… It was a taste, flavor or style I’ve come to enjoy best… Sneezles61
Death ringer. One of my fav beers to brew. But indeed mine do come out a bit dark as well
I have a batch of dead Ringer in the secondary right now, and it looks like yours. I did the all grain kit. 2 weeks in the primary and will be 1 week in the secondary this saturday.
(sitting next to it is a starter I just pitched using the Fastpitch wort. )
Hmmmm…I always thought Dead Ringer was supposed to be Rogue’s Dead Guy. It’s the same color.
That’s what I thought too at first because of the name. Dead Guy is supposed to be a Maibock and the Dead Ringer is loaded with Centennial hops. Bells sent a cease and desist letter to NB when this kit was call Three Hearted Ale Bell's Brewery sends cease and desist letter to Northern Brewer | BeerPulse so supposedly they changed it to Dead Ringer. I liked the suggestion in the article to change it to “Three Middle Fingers Ale” 
