Beginner IPA ideas / recipes / best kits

[PBBREW95]

I've only just completed by first batch of homebrew (an American pale ale) and I was pretty pleased with the results. But now I want to make something stronger and hoppier, so I want to brew a very hoppy IPA. Unfortunately I don't have access to a kettle so I can't boil at this early stage in my brewing career. Any ideas for the best kits out there that would suit my needs, and/or what simple modifications I could make to it that would enhance the brew (dry hopping etc.) Thanks! (Apologies if I've said something stupid, this is my first post here!)

 

[WBB]

How did you complete your first batch without boiling?

 

[Renegade Brewer]

I too am curious how you’ve brewed your batch sans a kettle...

I would suggest visiting your local homebrew shop and getting setup with a good quality stainless kettle, burner, preferably a chiller, and a recipe which could be this coveted IPA you speak of. Usually a setup like this is going to be about 300.00ish.

With that being said, I’ve found through completions and exploring many recipes, that simplicity is key in the IPA. If you are going for a west coast style IPA which is typically light in color, dry, hop forward, and huge on the citrus aromatics, I’d consider the following:
8lbs Golden DME
1lbs flaked oats steep 152 for 30 min
8oz flaked wheat steep 152 for 30 min
2oz bravo hops 60 min
2 oz chinook flameout
2 citra dry hop 5 days
1 oz simcoe dry hop 2 days
Wlp001, wyeast 1056, or US-05

That is actually one of my House IPAs and flagship in the shop. It is a very popular kit followed closely by the hazy/juicy.

Your local homebrew shop should also have a few kits on tap for you to taste so you can get an idea of what each kit they offer tastes like. I try to have 4 of our kits at all times on tap.

Just remember to keep it simple. Your IPA should let the hops do the talking with a nice balanced malt backbone. You don’t need a crazy malt bill to make the IPA work. The hop choice is important, but have fun with it. Choose high alpha low cost hops for your bittering. Don’t waste money on exotic hops for bittering since you won’t taste the beta acids anyway. Use more exotic hops that throw the flavors you’re looking for late and as dry hops. The less time you boil your hops the more flavor and aroma you get from them. A good example is my juicy IPA which has a pound and a half of hops in it, but is only 11 IBUs. Also choose hops that are in the same family. Don’t use hops that throw piney and earthy with hops that throw passion fruit or you’ll end up with a muddy end product.

Good luck to you, and keep us posted on how you do in this adventure.

One last suggestion I’d make is pick up a copy of Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainachef. It is a great resource for style guidelines, how to brew those styles, and offers recipes which have all taken gold medals in national comps.

 

[DromJohn]

Austin Homebrew
Northern Brewer

 

[ShutTheFermenter]

For a simple set up you'll need a kettle capable of boiling at least 2.5 to 3 gallons for about an hour. A SS stock pot and your kitchen stove will work fine but eventually you'll want to upgrade to full volume boils and a propane burner. Boiling all your wort at once will give you better hop utilization will be less likely to caramelize your LME. You'll want to invest in a wort chiller as soon as you can also. Cooling the wort as rapidly as possible will greatly reduce the chance of off flavors from DMS.

 

[Calder]

You really need a kettle. I use a 5 gallon pot on my stove and boil 4 gallons. You can boil less. A cheap Stainless is good for this. NOTE: Expensive stainless pots have thick bottoms, making it harder to get the wort to a boil on the stove. A 5 gallon pot should be around $20-$30.

Then get a decent kit from somewhere that sounds like what you want. If you want it hoppy, buy some extra hops of the ones used in the kit, and double up on late and dry hops.

What kit? There are lots out there, and it really depends on what you like. One that seems popular is Dead Ringer from Northern Brewer. It uses Centennial hops. Think Stone IPA. I like Centennial hops in an IPA ..... but I like lots of others too.

If you check out Northern Brewer, they also give you the recipes, if you prefer to get the ingredients separately.

 

[Jim Gamble]

Go to mr beer and get one of their kits. I got one for Christmas and made my first batch of beer ever, an IPA. It's not hard to use and doesn't require big kettles and expensive equipment. I also went to a local brew supply store and got some additional grains and hops to add flavor to the beer and it turned out great. That's what I would recomend.

 

[Renegade Brewer]

Mr beer is probably the last thing I’d recommend. When it comes to quality craft beer Mr. beer is a joke in the industry. The pre-hopped extracts are the worst quality available on the market, the yeast is usually dead, and due to poor brewing practices, it usually ends up full of off flavors. The only good thing I can say about Mr. beer is after my customers receive them as gifts and realize how poor quality they are they come to our shop and learn to make professional grade beer with professional grade ingredients.

Your local homebrew shop will not only provide quality recipes and ingredients, but professional advice and options on how to enter the hobby and make a product you are proud of while working with your budget.

 

[Jim Gamble]

Mr beer is probably the last thing I’d recommend. When it comes to quality craft beer Mr. beer is a joke in the industry. The pre-hopped extracts are the worst quality available on the market, the yeast is usually dead, and due to poor brewing practices, it usually ends up full of off flavors. The only good thing I can say about Mr. beer is after my customers receive them as gifts and realize how poor quality they are they come to our shop and learn to make professional grade beer with professional grade ingredients.

Your local homebrew shop will not only provide quality recipes and ingredients, but professional advice and options on how to enter the hobby and make a product you are proud of while working with your budget.

I gotta disagree with you on that, while Mr. beer may not be top of the line, it's not as bad as you make it sound. My first batch turned out great, not just my opinion but that of my friends as well. Yes, you can probably get better ingredients at a brew store the ingredients from Mr. beer pretty good. My two cents worth.

 

[Renegade Brewer]

While it is not at all my goal to discount your brewing ability at all, I pose a challenge or more of an experiment to really prove or disprove this theory.

While your friends say you make good beer that is hardly a good control group. You are giving your friends free beer; of course it’s good. I made some horrible beer in my first couple years of brewing and never once did my friends complain.

Let’s try this: take your Mr. kit beer and brew the same recipe as a partial mash using actual brewing ingredients, controlled fermentation, and healthy viable yeast with enough cells to get the job done. Now submit both of those beers to a local BJCP comp. I would almost bet that your partial mash beer would score much higher than the Mr. Beer.

Good is relative in terms of brewing. When I talk to customers and teach Brewing to beginners I ask them do you want to spend 3 hours of your Saturday making good beer or do you want to spend 3 hours making great beer?

 

[PBBREW95]

How did you complete your first batch without boiling?

What I really meant was I didn't use a kettle. It was just a simple pre-hopped malt extract to which I added boiling water in the primary fermenter (As basic as it gets!) Unfortunately I live in Ireland and don't American home brew stores would ship to me (maybe for an extortionate delivery fee...). But a 3 gallon kettle sounds like something I should try get my hands on for sure. Any tips on cooling wort without buying a chiller coil?

In the meantime I think I'll just go ahead and make another batch using some prehopped malt extracts (Last one was Mangrove Jacks American Pale Ale, surprised with how well it actually tastet), but this time I may use some brew enhancer instead of just dextrose sugar (any opinions on that?) and also plan on dry hopping.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[bpgreen]

You can chill in a sink with ice water in it. It's not as fast as using a chiller, but it can do the job. You can speed it somewhat by adding salt to the ice. That makes the ice melt faster, but actually drops the temperature. An ice slurry (ice + water) cools faster than ice alone.

 

[Calder]

Unfortunately I live in Ireland and don't American home brew stores would ship to me (maybe for an extortionate delivery fee...). But a 3 gallon kettle sounds like something I should try get my hands on for sure. Any tips on cooling wort without buying a chiller coil?

I'm sure there are other on-line stores, but Beer Hawk in the UK is a branch of Northern Brewer in the USA. Just a quick look at their site, they charge 5 pounds extra for shipping to Northern Ireland. Over 50 pounds and shipping is free, so I assume it is only 5 pounds if you spend more than 50 pounds. They have many of the things that are available in the US (unfortunately, most items are cheaper in the US).

If you can get a 5 gallon kettle, I would recommend it over a 3 gallon. You will quickly grow out of the 3 gallon pot, and will not use it for long. I'm talking about 5 gallon US, which is roughly 4.2 UK gallons.

My first 10 (maybe 20) brews were cooled in the sink. Keep lid on the pot to prevent anything from getting in there (flies, and splashed water). Place pot in sink, and fill with water. Occasionally swirl pot, and replace water when hot. To help it come down quicker you can freeze some boiled water (or some water you trust), and add the ice directly to the pot as it cools. I think boiled water is best as boiling reduces the entrained O2 in the water minimizing any potential HSA (which I'm not actually exists).