Moving on from Mr. Beer Help

[BasementBrews]

I got a Mr. Beer kit for my birthday. I brewed the Witbier that came with the kit. It turned out so well that I ordered the equipment for 5 Gal. batches from Northern Brewer. I have an IPA left over from the Mr. Beer kit. I don't care much for IPA. Since this is hopped LME is there anything I can do to tone down the bitterness?

 

[whatsleftofyou]

I'm not familiar with Mr Beer at all, but I just looked up their IPA kit. It appears to be for 2 gallons of beer and 58 IBUs (bitterness units). If you don't want to waste it, you could certainly add a few more pounds of unhopped DME or LME and make it as a 5 gallon batch instead. Then you'd have a...pale ale?

 

[GeauxBrew]

If you want to try to use the LME and not waste it you could get some more unhopped extract (maybe somr DME) and maybe do a batch with a portion of the hopped LME. The trick will be figuring out what your IBUs will be. At the verry least, as a noob, no matter how it turns out you'll gain some more expierence brewing.

 

[BasementBrews]

Thanks, I'll give that a try and see how it turns out. This is why I love these forums. Always someone here to help.

 

[Malticulous]

You can always use it for starters.

This should be a a tasty little 35 IBU 1.046 APA. Boil it for at least the 20 minutes. The boil will remove most of the finishing hops from the Mr. Beer extract. If you don't add any hops it should be around 20 IBU and more of a Blonde ale.

Mr. Beer IPA Hopped Extract
3 lbs Light Dry Malt Extract
4 oz Crystal 40L (steeped before boil)

.5 oz Columbus hops added at 20 minutes left in the boil.
.5 oz Columbus added after the boil and steep while cooling to fermentation temp.

 

[DrinkinSurfer]

Maybe you don't care for IPAs because you have not tried an IPA you made yet. Or yeah, just do like the other folks say and trim it down. Do you like stouts?
Add 3-5 lbs Light Dry Malt Extract
8 oz Chocolate Malt
8 oz Black Patent
4-8 oz Roasted Barley
and then you should be off to the races, the dark malts would cover up the bitterness well. If you want to get frisky with it, add 16 oz of flaked oats and 6-16 oz of lactose. The sweetness from the lactose would really balance any(if any) noticeable bitterness as well. You might even want to consider some finishing hops with 5 minutes of boil left, like an ounce of Fuggles.

 

[Banjoman76]

I have to agree with Conroe on this one.
Don't waste anything when it comes to Beer.
I made several 5 gallon batches from MrBeer kits by adding steeping grains along with DME/LME and of course more hops.
They weren't award winning but they were infinitely more enjoyable than BMC

American Devil IPA (from my QBrew program - thanks JKarp)
1.21 lb per can
1.042
4.0 L

 

[DUCCCC]

For a bit of a different perspective on this, I'll throw my 2¢ in and say that I think you should just go ahead and make the Mr. Beer kit in the Mr. Beer set. It certainly can't hurt to get a bit more practice in before you take it to the next level, and even if you don't care too much for IPA, I doubt everyone you know feels the same way about it, and it's always good to have some extra brew in the fridge for friends! You may even be able to find a new brew buddy by letting them sample some of the Mr. Beer brew and passing on the setup to get them in the hobby.

 

[BasementBrews]

Update:

Conroe I went with the recipe that you listed. It is fermenting now. I'll let you know in a few weeks how it turns out.