flat ipa

hello all, i am new to the forum. looks like alot of good info here.
so far i have brewed two john bull master extract kits. my first was the dry stout, and was pretty good.

my second, was the john bull ipa kit. not as good. first off, i forgot to get priming sugar, so the supplier suggested to use honey to prime. it seems kind of flat, and not real hoppy. i primary fermented for about a week, and secondary for about 4 days. conditioned in the bottles for about another week. what did i do wrong? would the honey give it an off taste? did i not ferment or condition long enough? would i be able to dry hop in one of the fermenting stages to give it more flavor?

i like the simplicity of the extract kits, but if my favorite flavor (ipa) doesn't taste like i like, then possibly i should graduate to mash brewing?

You will need to wait longer than 1 week to get good carbonation. I have never used honey but the time needed for carbing should not vary all that much. If those kits are no boil in the can jobs then I would recommend that you try a extract kit from a place like Austin Homebrew,Northern Brewer or Morebeer. They are definately a step up.

Give it some time - next time leave it in secondary a little longer - but usually after a week the carbonation is just getting going. Never used hiney before but i dont see why it would not work

Welcome to HBT!

Honey will definitely work to carbonate but it is VERY slow to ferment. I would give it at least a month before I tried it again. The good news is that gives you lots of time to get a new batch started.

Oh the purpose of the secondary stage is to help clear the beer and to let it bulk condition. Conditioning takes time, there's no way to speed it up. Try doing 2-3 weeks in primary or use the 1-2-3 method (1 week primary, 2 weeks secondary, 3 weeks bottle). Your beer will thank you by tasting amazing.

You don't need to jump right into all grain brewing (though of course you certainly can!). You can move up 'one level' to extract with steeping grains. Have a look at the wiki (link in the menu at the top) for more info.

thanks for all the info, i think it is getting better. maybe i just rushed it a little. i'll probably try it again.
any thoughts on dry hopping the extract kit?

You can't go wrong dry hopping an IPA! If you know what hops are in it you could use those again, otherwise you can't really go wrong with Cascade or East Kent Goldings.

I read the message boards before I jumped in and began brewing. My first kit was an IPA, with steeping grains and I bought an extra ounce of hops to dry hop. I was amazed at how much like beer my first brew was. I do all grain now and will say if you like a hoppy IPA, dry hop the heck out of it. Of course if you make it really hoppy, be patient and let the hops mellow a bit.