Octane IPA Kit

I brewed this kit for the first time and now have it on tap. Like most things brewed this kit gets better with age. Although it's not as "hoppy" as I expected; this brew has a very good malt profile. The hops come through as more earthy than spicy and produces a well balanced IPA. Overall, this is a great IPA to introduce to friends and family whose only beer experience is a Miller Lite type beer. GREAT JOB, to the guys who put this one together. I know I'll be brewing it again.

My first 5 gallon batch made use of this kit. It was fairly forgiving of the fact I did not have a very large pot. I had to boil water in 3 separate pots and made the brew in a 4th. This may be the reason the beer remained cloudy. I also departed from the kit and substituted molasses for the priming sugar. Ok, so now it's no longer a "pale" ale but rather had a nut brown appearance. I have a friend who is a Stella loyalist ask for a second round of this!

Really tremendous head, mouthfeel, and nicely bitter. I'll make this one again, perhaps using honey to prime!

One of my favorite recipes. Not as hoppy as I thought (just like the other reviewer noted). I steamed the oak chips rather than boil them which provided the perfect amount of oak flavor. Keeps getting better with age. I will be definitely brewing this one again.

This is hands down one of the best brews I've made/tasted. Not as hoppy as I thought, though. I steamed the oak chips instead of boiling. I will DEFINITELY be making this one again.

This was the third kit I have ever made. It was also the most hops I have ever brewed with. I'll depart from the other reviews here and say that I thought the hops were just about right. It's there and especially after the beer has warmed up a little bit, the hops are quite flavorful. I also added the oak chips at week-2 and left them in the PRIMARY until week-14 (due to a back injury.) I boiled my chips for about 5-minutes in a minimum quantity of water and added the entire thing (water and all) to my fermenter. My friends love it. I gave it to one friend and told them nothing about the oak and they commented how nice the oak was. I also let my beer sit in my primary for 14-weeks (again, the injury) and it was the clearest beer I've ever made--it looked filtered. I'm definitely going to brew this recipe again--maybe not the kit, but I'll take the all-grain recipe and add this to my list of favorites!

I'm not a big IPA guy but many of my friends and family are. I brewed this one more for them than myself. Everytime someone tries it their eyes light up like they're surprised it's that good! Myself included. I enjoy my Octane evenings and will absolutely be brewing this again.

Wow, is this kit awesome. I recommend 4 weeks in the bottle to let the oak and hops to really come together.

I have had this brew setting in bottles conditioning for a little over six months now and the taste of it is not good. I tried this at 30 days, 60 days and 90 days prior and all test taste are the same. They all taste like oak water. This batch was my 17th batch of extract beer beer and by far one of the worst.

This is the first IPA kit that i have made, had never had a hoppy beer before this one. I did add 1 oz of Amarillo of hops to the secondary for 10 days. I did let it sit in the secondary for a month and only in the bottle for 2 weeks, was going to let it sit a month before i tried it but couldn't wait that long. All in all a great beer with great taste and aroma. will make again.

On my second brew of this one. It was not as hoppy as I thought it would be but was quickly devoured as a nice refreshing drink in-between the porters, stouts and wheat beers sitting around. This one is definitely considered a staple in this house and have already ordered another kit.