Midwest's Simply Beer IPA

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TwoHeart

TwoHeart
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As most of you probably already know, Midwest has a Simply Beer series that sells for $19.99 per kit.

I've been away from brewing the past couple years, but now my wife is interested in it. I pulled out all my equipment and took inventory. We both enjoy IPAs. So, as a welcome back brew, we are purchasing the Simply Beer IPA.


- 6 lbs Pilsen malt syrup
- 1 lb Golden Light DME

- 1 oz Columbus (60 min)
- 1 oz Cascade (5 min)
- 1 oz Centennial (5 min)

- Safale US-05 Ale Yeast.

- 5 oz Priming Sugar


This is a lot of bang for $20.

Besides dropping the Cascade in at 15 minutes instead of 5, I don't really want to change the recipe, but I do want to make sure I get plenty of body. I instantly thought about maltodextrin. However, my wife isn't too keen on how highly processed maltodextrin is. So, I was thinking of steeping a pound of Caramel 20L to get the body I want.

Would this be too much? Or, too light a Lovibond? I don't mind imparting a little bit of sweetness with the steeping, just not too much. Mainly just looking to get a good full bodied IPA.

Thoughts...
 
My friend bought and made this on our last brew day...it's in my fermenter right now and should be done in about a week. Can't beat the price for those ingredients. His came out at 1.046 I think so it's more of a Pale Ale I would say...
 
BowAholic said:
My friend bought and made this on our last brew day...it's in my fermenter right now and should be done in about a week. Can't beat the price for those ingredients. His came out at 1.046 I think so it's more of a Pale Ale I would say...
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I agree. An IPA should have more around 8 to 9 lbs of extract. But, can't beat this price for 7 lbs of quality extract plus the extras.
 
My buddy brews this kit often. It is pretty good. More of a Pale Ale or sessionable IPA if there is such a thing. This is how we changed it; change the Centennial hop to 15 minutes, keep the Cascade at 5 minutes, and dry hop with 1 ounce of Cascade. these small tweeks made it a much better beer. Only top it to 5 gallons even.
 
TwoHeart said:
As most of you probably already know, Midwest has a Simply Beer series that sells for $19.99 per kit.

I've been away from brewing the past couple years, but now my wife is interested in it. I pulled out all my equipment and took inventory. We both enjoy IPAs. So, as a welcome back brew, we are purchasing the Simply Beer IPA.


- 6 lbs Pilsen malt syrup
- 1 lb Golden Light DME

- 1 oz Columbus (60 min)
- 1 oz Cascade (5 min)
- 1 oz Centennial (5 min)

- Safale US-05 Ale Yeast.

- 5 oz Priming Sugar


This is a lot of bang for $20.

Besides dropping the Cascade in at 15 minutes instead of 5, I don't really want to change the recipe, but I do want to make sure I get plenty of body. I instantly thought about maltodextrin. However, my wife isn't too keen on how highly processed maltodextrin is. So, I was thinking of steeping a pound of Caramel 20L to get the body I want.

Would this be too much? Or, too light a Lovibond? I don't mind imparting a little bit of sweetness with the steeping, just not too much. Mainly just looking to get a good full bodied IPA.

Thoughts...
Click to expand...

Steeping the caramel 20 will get you more body but will also add the caramel flavor that wouldn't be appropriate in the IPA. Instead use carapils which will add body without the flavor addition. If you wanted more sweetness, perhaps caramel 10.
 
RM-MN said:
Steeping the caramel 20 will get you more body but will also add the caramel flavor that wouldn't be appropriate in the IPA. Instead use carapils which will add body without the flavor addition. If you wanted more sweetness, perhaps caramel 10.
Click to expand...

Thank you:)

Now, a silly question. Are Crystal and Caramel malts basically the same thing? The reason I ask is that there are barely any Crystal malts on Midwest's page, but plenty of Caramel.
 
MrVix said:
My buddy brews this kit often. It is pretty good. More of a Pale Ale or sessionable IPA if there is such a thing. This is how we changed it; change the Centennial hop to 15 minutes, keep the Cascade at 5 minutes, and dry hop with 1 ounce of Cascade. these small tweeks made it a much better beer. Only top it to 5 gallons even.
Click to expand...

Sounds good. The reason I am dropping the Cascade at 15 instead of the Centennial is because I enjoy the citrus flavor of the cascade, while enjoying the floral nose of the Centennial. I may actually buy another ounce of Centennial and throw that in at KO.... For me, dry hopping is more of a hassle than I want to deal with at the moment.
 
Yep, it's a good deal on 5G recipes, no doubt. I've bought 3, (Pale Ale, Brown Ale, and the IPA) got the second one in the fermenter, it should be ready for bottling next saturday.
 
My IPA I bought from them will be ready too try tomorrow. I will report back, cool 4th of July sounds like a good day to try it out.:D
 
okiepc said:
My IPA I bought from them will be ready too try tomorrow. I will report back, cool 4th of July sounds like a good day to try it out.:D
Click to expand...

So how'd this one turn out? I'm brewing this beer this weekend.
 
I'd keep it at 5 myself. Most of my ipas and pale ales lately have been 10 minute or less additions. Sometimes a small bittering addition.
 
my thought was that Centennial usually has a little higher alpha acid than the Cascade would… so using the Centennial at 15 would raise the IBU's in addition to the flavor profile. Cascade is a great late addition hop so lets keep it at 5 minutes. Really a whirlpool or Dry Hop of 1 or 2 ounces would really lift this beer!
 
MrVix said:
my thought was that Centennial usually has a little higher alpha acid than the Cascade would… so using the Centennial at 15 would raise the IBU's in addition to the flavor profile. Cascade is a great late addition hop so lets keep it at 5 minutes. Really a whirlpool or Dry Hop of 1 or 2 ounces would really lift this beer!
Click to expand...

I brewed this recipe on Sunday for the first time and kept the boil recipe as-is with Columbus @60 and the other two @5. I'll be dry hopping with 2oz of Centennial after 3 weeks in fermenter to try and have it ready for kegging around the 4 week mark.
 
Have decided to change this again... Looking to make this somewhat of a Sweetwater IPA clone...


6 lbs Pilsen LME
1 lb Golden Light DME
1 lb Wheat DME

2 oz Crystal 70/80
8 oz Munich 10
1 lb Crystal 10

1 oz Centennial (60 min)
1 oz Chinook (15 min)
1 oz Columbus (10 min)
1 oz Cascade (5 min)
1 oz Simcoe (1 min)


US-05
 
Update...

Took a gravity reading today, 7 days after pitching. Had an OG of 1.061 and today am currently sitting at 1.012. Fermented at 65-66 degrees F. The sample tasted very clean and tasted a bit like Sweetwater IPA. Can't wait for this one!
 
TwoHeart said:
Update...

Took a gravity reading today, 7 days after pitching. Had an OG of 1.061 and today am currently sitting at 1.012. Fermented at 65-66 degrees F. The sample tasted very clean and tasted a bit like Sweetwater IPA. Can't wait for this one!
Click to expand...

I would dry hop with at least 4 ounces to get anywhere close to the aroma and flavor of fresh SW IPA.
 
zgja2 said:
I would dry hop with at least 4 ounces to get anywhere close to the aroma and flavor of fresh SW IPA.
Click to expand...

Thank you... I may try that next batch. I'm going to see how this one turns out. My past couple IPAs and PAs have ended up with nice hop aroma and flavor with just adding at 1 minute. If this one doesn't suit my needs, I will take your advice. I did an all Columbus pale last time out with an oz at 60, 15, and KO and it turned out perfect. We'll see...:mug:
 
Kegged this on 8/3 brewed it on 7/11. Used S-05 yeast and FG finished @ 1.007. I brewed the recipe "as-is" but I did add 1oz Centennial for dry hopping during kegging which I'll be doing for 5 days at room temp then carbonating. The sample during kegging was good and definitely something I recommend for an extract beer on a budget. I'll be doing this kit again and using it as a learning tool to change up hop addition time changes.
 
Now that it's carbed, not too shabby! Definitely worth the $20. Only changes, like I mentioned in the last post were 1oz Centennial dry-hop, 1/2 tab of Whirfloc, and 8oz of carapils for head retention.

IMAG0781.jpg
 
After multiple pints of "sampling", I can't recommend this beer enough. Really simple, really cheap, and so easy to drink.

If you're on the fence, just get it.
 
Definitely getting this kit for my second brew, I wanted to make something for my birthday(October 8th) and being a IPA fan this looks perfect! I think I might add some hops when boiling and dry hop as well...in my eyes the hopper the better!
 
JohnnyBeers said:
Definitely getting this kit for my second brew, I wanted to make something for my birthday(October 8th) and being a IPA fan this looks perfect! I think I might add some hops when boiling and dry hop as well...in my eyes the hopper the better!
Click to expand...

It's already in the 60+ IBU range, but if I were adding some extra hops I'd be adding them in the 0, 5, or 10 minute range instead of earlier in the boil. All depends on the style you like though!
 
I just tried my batch of this Simply Beer IPA last night, it tasted pretty good. Let my wife try it, she didn't make a face, shrugged, and said tastes like beer.
 
Got a couple more weeks bottle conditioning for this one. I added a lb of wheat DME and dry hopped with 2 oz Simcoe. Should be great!
 
Can someone say if this IPA finishes dry?

I'm concerned that an all extract IPA will finsih a little on the 3 sweet side. I'd like it to finish dry around 1.14 or dryer.
 
Using S-05 mine finished at 1.009. Sweet would be the last thing I would call this kit, but I also never have any issues getting extract beers to attenuate low.
 
Finished the kit Sunday and it's started fermenting in less than 24 hours and still going strong. Had a couple initial problems, forgot to get OG and then tried about an hour later to my surprise was mostly water so I give the carboy a really good shake and let it do its thing. Little nervous about the temp, it's 72 in the room but it's going at about 76...
 
JohnnyBeers said:
Finished the kit Sunday and it's started fermenting in less than 24 hours and still going strong. Had a couple initial problems, forgot to get OG and then tried about an hour later to my surprise was mostly water so I give the carboy a really good shake and let it do its thing. Little nervous about the temp, it's 72 in the room but it's going at about 76...
Click to expand...

Set the carboy in a tub of cool water or you aren't going to like the flavors you get.:rockin:

You can add ice to get the water cooler. You want the fermenting beer to be in the low to mid 60's.
 
JohnnyBeers said:
Am I too late? It's already 4 days in and noticed the temperature starting to drop.
Click to expand...

Probably. At this point I'd personally RDWHAHB. But keeping your temps relatively under control really is simple for future brews. Get a small ice chest/ container that can fit your fermenter and a few gallons of water. Then get some spare water bottles that you freeze and drop in the water to keep it cool.

I personally use the Igloo Ice Cube cooler (like this http://www.homebrewfinds.com/2013/08/reader-tip-igloo-ice-cube-maxcold-70.html) with a hole cut in the top to fit the airlock. 2-3 gallons of water around the sides of the carboy, with two frozen 12oz bottles of water, replaced every 12 hours keep the temps around 63-65F.
 
I grabbed a few of these kits when they had free shipping. Now shipping is $7.95. You can certainly build a superior Pale Ale or "Session IPA," (The kit does not hit the IPA range as implied) for $27.94.
 

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