Help my son's first brew of Mr. B. West Coast Pale Ale

[Banjo-guy]

I got my son a starter kit of Mr Beer a while ago. It has the West Coast Pale Ale extract in it. When I brewed that for my first batch I was really unhappy with how it turned out. I know now that these kits can be improved by adding DME, steeping grains,and hops. I have some leftover ingredients. I am hoping to get him excited about brewing and want the first beer to be better than mine was. He is visiting next week and thought we could brew together one morning. How does this look?

2.5 gallon
Mr Beer WCPA extract 1.87 lbs
Amber DME extract 1.00 lb. boiled
Chocolate Malt grain .25 lb steeped
Crystal 80L grain .25 lb steeped

Citra .25 oz @ 30 minutes
Citra .25 oz@ 5 minutes

Notty Yeast.

OG 1.049 FG 1.012
IBU 23 SRM 21
ABV 4.8

[Wings_Fan_In_KC]

Frankly, that looks good at first blush although I think you may need to revise the Amber DME addition from "steeped" to "boiled." 1/2 pound of specialty grains for a 2.5 gallon batch is on the high side.....I usually use a 1/4 pound total but it's Brewmaster's Discretion TM. 1/2 pound will give you great body and mouthfeel.

After you do you specialty grain steep in a half gallon of water and then rinse the grain with another boiled half gallon of water, you want to discard the grain and combined the contents of the two pots into one brew pot, then add the DME, whisk it in good and bring to a boil. Watch that freakin' pot though......DME loves to wait until you turn your back and FLOOF, all over the stove it goes.

After your DME has passed hot break, add your hops and boil for 25 minutes before adding in your aroma hops for the last 5 minutes as noted.

[Banjo-guy]

Thanks for the answer. I didn't check my post carefully enough.The dme is boiled and is an extract. I edited my original post. Thanks for catching my mistake.

I think I understand how to do this batch but let me write it down just to be sure.

Steep the grains for 30 minutes in 1/2 gallon of water. Rinse the grain with 1/2 gallon of water.
Combine the liquid to yield about 1 gallon. Add the dme and bring to a boil.(discard the grain )
Boil for 30 minutes.
Add hops at desired times.
Add Mr Beer extract 5 minutes before the end of the boil.

[Wings_Fan_In_KC]

Close except you don't want to boil the MrBeer extract at all.

After the boil time is up you turn off the heat and then add the MrBeer HME.

[Wings_Fan_In_KC]

Oh and to make sure I'm interpreting your write up correctly, you boil the steep plus DME for a total of 30 minutes, not 30 minutes plus 25 for the first hops addition and 5 for the remainder of the hops. That would be way too long of a boil if the total were 60 minutes.

I'm pretty sure the way you wrote it that you meant 30 minutes total (not 60) but making sure cuz you can read it both ways.

When you steep, bring water to 155F to 160F (but not over 165F), add grain and cover the pot. You probably know that too but again, making sure.

[Banjo-guy]

Thanks. I know this info but I haven't done enough brews to have the knowledge at my finger tips.It really helps to see it explained again.

I think I'll cut back on the speciality grains as you suggested.

When I put the West Coast Pale Ale into qbrew it shows an IBU OF zero( 0.00 )
I know that it should read 22 IBU for that extract. What do you think of the hops and/ or times that I am using. I could pickup some other hops or specialty grains before my son visits .
I am hoping to turn this extract into something good.

[jimjohson]

imo i'd use 20 and 5. for the hops

hoputilization.jpg (26.05 KiB) Viewed 884 times

[swenocha]

When I put the West Coast Pale Ale into qbrew it shows an IBU OF zero( 0.00 )

You have to go to the 'Hops' tab in QBrew and also select WCPA. Put it at 5 min boil for an ounce to get the correct IBUs on Mr. B extracts entered this way, if memory serves...

[swenocha]

FWIW, here's what I did to jazz up WCPA back in the day. I liked this one an awful lot. I think your recipe will be fine, esp considering the advice above added to it. Note that my recipe confirms the 5min/1oz Qbrew entry, because I used Qbrew for this one...

WCPA Done Right
----
Brewer: Swenocha
Style: IPA
Batch: 2.13 gal Extract
Characteristics
---------------
Recipe Gravity: 1.062 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 67 IBU
Recipe Color: 13° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.016
Alcohol by Volume: 6.0%
Alcohol by Weight: 4.7%
Ingredients
-----------
Crystal 60L 0.50 lb, Grain, Steeped
Briess DME - Sparkling Amber 1.80 lb, Extract, Extract
MrB. West Coast Pale Ale 1.21 lb, Extract, Extract
Centennial 0.40 oz, Pellet, 30 minutes
Warrior 0.50 oz, Pellet, 15 minutes
Columbus 0.40 oz, Pellet, 5 minutes
MrB. West Coast Pale Ale 1.00 oz, Pellet, 5 minutes
Centennial 0.25 oz, Pellet, 0 minutes
Ale yeast 1.00 unit, Yeast

[Wings_Fan_In_KC]

Looks like they gotcha covered.

[Banjo-guy]

Thanks everyone for the help. I'm going to see how some other hops that I have on hand will work.
Citra has such a high alpha number that I'm wondering how it will compare to other hops that I could use.

I have :
Fuggle .66 oz
Citra. 1.00 oz
East Kent Goldings .25oz
Hallertauer .75 oz
Willamette .66

Basically some odds and ends.

I also have Notty and US-05 that I could use.