Partial Mash California Steam

Love the taste and have ordered more. Maybe I got lucky brewing it only once. Will see If I can do it again. Smooth and can drink more than one bottle.

This kit still turned out to be pretty good, but very unbalanced. Way too bitter for the style. After noticing this I went back and calculated the IBUs and came up with ~70 IBU. I wish I would have noticed this right away and I would have adjusted. Could have been a 5 star brew.

Just had my first bottle from this batch, and I'm very happy with how it turned out.

Since I already wanted to lessen the hop character of the batch and another reviewer brought up that the IBU's were a little high for the style, I lowered both of the Cascade hop additions from 1 oz to 3/4 oz each.

This went over well. The partial mash turned out to not be too challenging. It's not too bitter because there is just one ounce of bittering hops, the other hops are for flavor and aroma.
If bitterness is a concern, boil for only 45 minutes instead of 60.
I used the White Labs 810 yeast, it works well in this kit.

I like this beer with the Wyeast 2112 lager yeast.
This is a session beer, so a lot of hops will be very noticeable.
Chinook hops are pretty bitter, and it you read the directions they say to boil for 30 minutes instead of 60. I suspect people are boiling for 60 minutes, and that will give you around 50% more bitterness than intended. The Cascade is not going to add much bitterness, but you can try boiling it for 10 minutes instead of 15.

This is a great kit. I wish Midwest carried more partial mash kits, because I think they're a great balance between convenience and a better brew. If you screw up your mash one way or another, the extract will largely salvage the brew.

Make sure to get California or San Francisco lager yeast or this kit won't turn out right. I prefer to substitute California barley as well, but I'm sure it just stokes my ego more than it changes the flavor.