New to Brewing

what were your gravity measurements before and after boil? Were you on target with the instructions? Could be too high OG which will give darker beer, ie more sugars to ferment. My first was the BB IIPA kit. Turned out very good for an extract kit. Not sure what you mean by "tastes like a brown" perhaps stronger malt profile? A brown ale with IPA OG would be a different problem than a brown ale with brown ale OG. What about the color? more like an IPA or brown?

 

It could very well be the kit - When I first got into brewing, I made an extract brown ale that ended up with very little flavor besides the carbonation. When I moved to all grain - it made quite the difference.

However, with that being said, I've had some friends make some decent extract IPA's that weren't bad at all.

 

It was the kit. That kit was also my first batch, and I agree that it tasted like a brown ale and not an IPA. All malt, no hops. If you look at the ingredients it's clear why: 2oz of hops isn't nearly enough for a 5 gallon IPA. And it also shouldn't be using amber LME, should be light or extra light. It's almost like they mislabeled the kit.

Don't fret, you can make great extract IPAs, I have one on regular rotation. Just find a different kit.

 

If you haven't brewed much, you should find yourself a tried and true IPA recipe that you can always change the hops up to make a different IPA. For extract, my recipe is generally...
-1-2 lbs grains (crystal/caramel, Munich, Vienna, MO, golden promise, etc)
-6 lbs light or extra light DME
-1 oz hops at 60 minute
-2 oz hops at 10-15 minutes
-2 oz hops at flameout for a 15 minute hopstand
-2 oz hops at dry hop
-Safale 05/1056/001 yeast

I've used this recipe a ton on single hop IPAs and always have a great IPA when is finished. Kits seem convenient, but they usually aren't that good IMO, making your own recipe guarantees you get exactly what you're looking for in your brew and let's you experiment and find out about different hops and grains.

 

Couple tips on extract brewing...

If possible boil the full volume of the wort instead of only partial volume and adding water.

Do not boil all of your extract at the beginning of the boil. Save some for the end. This will allow you to get a lighter color.

Make sure yeast are healthy, proper pitch rate, good oxygenation of the wort, and you allow a long enough fermentation time to clean up any off flavors.

 

I love great IPAs, too, and as a fairly new brewer I've been finding them pretty challenging compared to other beer styles. First, I'd recommend a kit that has a lot more hops than that - I had great luck with Northern Brewer's Kama Citra kit, personally. Second, when steeping specialty grains, use a small amount of water, like one gallon if you have a pound of grains. Third, once fermentation has finished, avoid oxygenating your beer as much as possible, as this mutes hop flavors. Finally, try to make sure that you are fermenting at the right temperature. This will depend on your yeast, and keep in mind that the fermentation temperature will be higher than the ambient temperature by several degrees (5-10F) at peak fermentation. That's about all the advice I'm qualified to give, at this point!

 

There are a lot of variables in brewing, even with kits: water, hops storage, malt storage, malt specs, yeast storage, temperature... Some reading of brewing books will give you lots of answers.

 

Some good advice here.
A couple things I might suggest:
Get a copy of John Palmer's How To Brew, and / or Charlie Papazian's Complete Joy of Homebrewing (Palmer is available online; an older edition to be sure, but still good information.
The biggest things to remember for homebrewing is Temperature, yeast, temperature, sanitization and temperature.
keep your temps steady when fermenting, and slightly lower than room temp (mid 60's is ideal for most brews) and you will have happy yeast who will make good beer. And speaking of which, make sure those yeast are happy going it - pitch enough of them - one liquid pack really isn't enough for a standard 5-gallon brew. Dry is still being discussed.
Anyways, the recipe mentioned does not sound like an IPA - like they said, sounds like an amber or brown ale. Not to mention: OAK CHIPS??? In an IPA??? Don't know, call be crazy but... (seems they're going for an historical brew, not what we call an IPA today...)

 

what is your ferm temp and yeast pitch rate?

 

www.classiccitybrew.com/homebrew
make the switch to all grain... you'll wonder why you didn't do it in the beginning... this is a very basic start, and it WORKS !! your beers will improve greatly... nothing wrong with extract kits, but if you love beer...

 

at the very bottom... very very bottom.. click on homebrew tips

 

Don't drink the sediment at the bottom of your bottle. Save the last half ounce for the angels share.

 

That first recipe definitely looks like a mislabeled kit with those ingredients. The second kit looks okay.

OP -- both kits use LME which is easy to scorch during the brewing process. When you use LME, at the time of the addition the flame must be out and the LME needs to be mixed very well. Otherwise it sinks to the bottom of the kettle and burns when you apply heat. The scorched flavor may be part of what you are experiencing.

To answer a later question on the DME vs. LME interchangeability, they both are good products, but some things to caution you about. 1. The LME has a reputation of a shorter shelf life 2. As mentioned above, the LME is easily scorched; 3. they are not equally interchangeable by weight and it takes a little more LME to equal the DME effects because of the weight of the water content, but I can't recall what the adjustment factor is; 4. frequently you see DME with hops added (maybe LME does this too, but I can't recall ever seeing it), but you don't know what hops were used, so it wise to avoid that unless you don't care which hop characteristics you get, such as when making a stout and you can't very well taste the hops anyway.

 

I believe that 0.8 lbs of DME is considered equivalent to 1 lb of LME.

 

I agree with @DrMindbender on this one. Follow the recipe he gave you and you'll have a good IPA.

I did an extract IPA last year (Northern brewer screwed up my order and accidentally gave me 12 lbs of gold malt extract), so I brewed one up with pretty much that exact hop schedule and amount of extract. Used all cascade hops throughout, and it was tasty!

 

Simply adding more hops won't solve the "overly bitter" problem...it would make it worse. But moving some of them to later in the boil could, and it would also increase hop flavor/aroma.

 

I prefer DME for storability, ease of measuring and adding it mid boil isn't an issue...I buy it in 55lb boxes and do a lot of partial mash with half the grain bill DME and half all grain BIAB for convenience. Give it a try and I bet you'll like it better than LME. DME vs LME won't matter with color and clarity, and I personally don't think adding it late makes that big of a difference in color (and it adds another possible boil over)...after all, what does it really matter how dark an IPA is, as long as the hops are right and its good

I like to do single hop and single specialty grain to learn more about each hop and grain. I'd use however much C40 you have in 1 batch and however much Victory you have in another batch. That way you'll get to know each grain a little better without too many flavor variables involved. Try the C40 with an all Centennial hop schedule for a brew similar to Two Hearted, or go with the Victory for a crisper malt backbone brew, and throw in all Citra or Mosaic or Galaxy hops for a nice juicy IPA. I've done all of those and they turned out delicious!

 

How long was it between brew day, bottling and consumption of the beers?