Looking for inspiration-making a kit more exciting

[DMorrison77]

I recently received one of the "Brewers Best" IPA kits, and actually just finished up making the same kit. It was a gift with no receipt, so now I'm looking for ideas anyone might have to take the simple kit and make something different and new from it. At best, some great new recipe ideas including the kit ingredients would be great, and otherwise I could always just use bits here and there from it to make something new and save some money on what ingredients I have in it and pay for whatever else a recipe would need. Any ideas on what I could make?
I will gladly list what came with the kit if that would help

-Dan

 

[Sir-Hops-A-Lot]

I had a similar situation and just made the next batch a dark version. It was very popular.
Look up the Black IPA recipes and see what dark grains there are.
Northern Brewer's uses .375# Carafa III and .375# Chocolate malt.

Another recommendation is dry hopping. The darker the beer, the less hoppy it will seem so dry hop that mutha! Perhaps an ounce of Cascade alone or with an ounce of Centennial as well.

A third way to get variety is to use a different yeast. That may not apply much here as the IPA yeast selection for dry yeasts is pretty limited. I wouldn't get too adventurous here as you really just want crisp, clean flavours (S-05 or Notty).