Dry hopping with a kit?

[brew2enjoy]

I will be brewing my first beer on Saturday! I have been reading on this site non-stop for months and I think I am finally ready. I picked up a Brewers Best 'red ale' kit a few days ago. The specs on the beer say its a smooth ale with low hop bitterness. My question is, can I dry hop it to give it more of an IPA flavor/aroma? If so, what type of hops would be recommended for this beer?

 

[Yooper]

You can dryhop any beer. The thing is, a red ale won't taste like an IPA no matter how much you dryhop it.

What I would do is make the kit as is. Then, in three weeks take a sample and see how it is. If it's pretty good the way it is (and it should be), I'd leave it alone.

I'm not too much of a style Nazi, and I LOVE hops, but some beer styles are well suited to dryhopping and some aren't. Most kits are well balanced for their style, so adding things doesn't necessarily improve them, just might make them sorta weird.

 

[brew2enjoy]

Thanks, sounds like a plan.

 

[steinsato]

I just made a red ale and dry hopped it with 1 oz of Citra. Haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure it'll hit the spot.

By the way, this too was a kit I bought from "Stomp them Grapes" in Denver, CO. The beer kit was called Grateful Red.

 

[Gropo]

A red-ale is a fairly malty beer, and will taste best as such. I agree with Yooper....it's probably best to stay true to the style at this point. If I were you, I'd save dry-hopping for your next batch. Next, make a simple American Pale or IPA using Wyeast 1056, about 7 or 8 pounds of pale dry malt extract, and 6 - 9 ounces or so of American "C" hop pellets. That would be a nice "ying" to the red-ale's "yang".

 

[mojotele]

A red-ale is a fairly malty beer, and will taste best as such. I agree with Yooper....it's probably best to stay true to the style at this point.

Thirded!