Mangrove Jack's Craft Series Red IPA Beer Kit Review: a hoppy, no‑nonsense homebrew that actually tastes like a proper IPA

I brewed this Mangrove Jack's Craft Series Red IPA (Limited Edition) as a fairly casual homebrewer. I’ve done a bunch of cheap supermarket kits and a few of the fancier ones with dry hops, so I had some idea of what to expect. I followed the instructions pretty closely, used 1.2 kg of liquid malt instead of plain sugar, and aimed for the full 23 litres. Fermentation was around 20–21°C in a basic plastic fermenter, nothing fancy.

From the start, what struck me was that this kit feels more like a “proper” beer project than the usual can-of-goo kits. There’s a decent yeast (M36 Liberty Bell) and a serious hop pack with Mosaic, Citra and Nelson Sauvin, not the vague “hop blend” you sometimes get. It already gave me the feeling that if I didn’t mess it up, the beer would be decent. No boiling wort, just dissolve, top up, pitch yeast, then add hops later – very manageable.

I left it in the fermenter for about two weeks total: roughly 7–8 days for primary, then dry-hopped as per instructions and gave it a few more days. After that, I bottled with regular table sugar. I started tasting one after two weeks in the bottle, then again at three and four weeks. The beer clearly improved with time, so if you’re patient, it’s worth waiting.

Overall, my first impression after a couple of pints was: this is pretty solid for a kit. It’s not mind-blowing, but it actually tastes like a craft red IPA you could get on tap, not like syrupy homebrew. There are a few things I’d tweak next time, but in terms of price versus end result, it’s honestly better than I expected.

Once it had three to four weeks in the bottle, the taste settled nicely. The first week it was a bit harsh and green, which is normal. By week three, it turned into a pretty balanced beer. The malt body is medium – not heavy, but definitely not watery either, especially with the 1.2 kg malt I used. You get that slight caramel/toffee thing from the "red" side of the style, which gives it a bit of depth and stops it from being just hops and bitterness.

On the hop side, the Citra and Mosaic bring a clear fruity vibe – more tropical and citrus than pine. Nelson Sauvin adds a slightly grapey/white-wine note, which you’ll either like or find a bit odd. For me, it worked pretty well. It’s not a juice bomb, but the fruit character is obvious. If you’re used to bland kit beers where the hops are barely noticeable, this one feels way more alive. You can actually tell there’s real hop aroma going on, especially in the first month after bottling.

The bitterness is around what they claim: IBU 40–45. In practice, that means it’s clearly bitter, but not extreme. The finish is fairly dry with a lingering bitterness that makes you want another sip. It’s not super smooth; there’s a bit of bite, especially if you drink it young. After four weeks, that bite calmed down and the malt and hops came together better. I wouldn’t call it perfectly balanced, but for a kit, it’s honestly pretty good.

If I’m picky, I’d say the yeast character is a little neutral – you don’t get much interesting fermentation flavour, which is fine for an IPA but makes it feel a bit "clean" compared to a fresh craft brewery version. Also, if you use plain dextrose instead of malt, I can easily see this ending up a bit thin and more bitter than it needs to be. So in terms of taste, I’d rate it as solid pub-level IPA, better than many cheap tap beers, but not at the level of a top-end craft can. For a homebrew kit, that’s already a win.

On the price side, this kit usually sits above the rock-bottom single-can kits but below full-on all-grain or high-end partial mash packs. You also have to add the cost of 1 kg dextrose or 1.2 kg malt, plus caps, sanitizer, etc. So it’s not the cheapest way to make 23 L of beer, but it’s still far cheaper per pint than buying craft beer from the shop. If you break it down, you’re getting something that tastes close to a bar IPA for maybe a quarter of the price per pint, sometimes less.

Compared to the absolute budget kits I’ve brewed, the difference in taste and aroma is clear. Those cheaper kits can be drinkable, but they often lean thin, sweet, and generic. This one gives you a recognisable IPA profile: proper bitterness, fruit-forward hops, and a decent malt backbone. So if you’re only chasing the lowest possible cost per litre, this might feel a bit pricey. But if you actually care about having a beer you’re happy to share with friends without apologising for it, the extra few pounds are justified.

Where the value takes a slight hit is that it’s a limited edition. That means if you love it and want to brew it again in a year, it might be harder to find or gone entirely. Also, the kit doesn’t come with any extras like finings or priming sugar – which is fine by me, but worth noting. You’re basically paying for the concentrated wort, a decent yeast, and a solid hop pack. No more, no less.

Overall, I’d say the value is good but not mind-blowing. It makes a beer I’d genuinely drink over many commercial options, at a fraction of the price per pint, but you do have to invest a bit more than with entry-level kits. If your goal is to brew something that actually tastes like a modern hoppy beer without jumping into full all-grain, this hits a nice middle ground in terms of cost versus result.

On the nose, this kit does a decent job, as long as you handle the hops properly. When I opened the dry hop pack, the smell was strong: fruity, a bit dank, with that white-wine edge from the Nelson Sauvin. Once in the beer, after a few days of dry hopping, the fermenter already smelled like a proper IPA. So the raw material is clearly there; it’s not some tired old hop dust.

In the glass, the aroma is noticeable but not explosive. You get a clear hit of citrus and tropical fruit (Mosaic and Citra doing their job), plus a slight grape / gooseberry note in the background. It’s enough that when you hand the glass to someone, they can tell it’s a hoppy beer straight away. That said, the hop smell fades a bit faster than in fresh commercial cans. After about six weeks in the bottle, the aroma was still there but clearly softer. So if you want the full hop kick, drink most of it between weeks three and six.

One thing I appreciated is that there were no weird off smells. No solvent, no banana, no funky yeast odours – assuming you ferment in a reasonable temperature range, the yeast seems pretty clean. My first bottle at two weeks had a slight green hop edge (kind of grassy), but that disappeared by week three. That’s fairly normal when you dry hop and then drink it too early.

Overall, I’d say the fragrance is pretty solid for a kit. It actually smells like a modern IPA, not just generic ale. It’s not on the same level as a super fresh, heavily dry-hopped craft beer, but it’s well above the usual kit-and-kilo stuff. If aroma is your main thing, you might want to shorten the time between dry hop and bottling and drink it relatively young to get the most out of it.

When people talk about durability for a beer kit, what really matters is how the beer ages in the bottle. I kept a few bottles back for testing over roughly eight weeks. At the three-week point, the beer was already in a good place: decent aroma, bitterness a bit sharp but enjoyable, and the malt starting to come through. At around five to six weeks, it felt like the sweet spot – hops still present, bitterness rounded off a bit, and everything more integrated.

After seven to eight weeks, I noticed the hop aroma starting to fade. The beer was still good, but less punchy on the nose. The fruity notes dial down and you’re left more with bitterness and malt. It doesn’t turn bad or anything, just less exciting. That’s pretty normal for hoppy beers, especially homebrew that doesn’t have professional-level oxygen control. So if you plan to savour this slowly over many months, expect the last bottles to taste more like a bitter red ale than a bright IPA.

In terms of stability, I didn’t have any gushers, over-carbonation or infected bottles. All the bottles behaved the same from week two to week eight, which tells me the yeast and recipe are reasonably forgiving. As long as you sanitize properly, it seems quite stable. Head retention stayed about the same over time; maybe slightly better around weeks four to six, then no big change.

So, in practice, I’d say the beer is at its best between weeks three and seven after bottling. Before that, it’s too young; after that, it slowly loses the hop edge that makes it interesting. That’s not a criticism of this specific kit so much as a reality of hoppy beers. If you want something that ages for months and keeps improving, you’d be better off with a stout or a less hop-focused style. For what it is, the durability is perfectly acceptable.

The kit comes in a pouch-style package, not a big tin. Inside, you get the main malt pouch, a 10 g sachet of M36 Liberty Bell Ale yeast, and a separate hop packet with 25 g Mosaic, 15 g Citra and 10 g Nelson Sauvin. There are basic instructions printed, nothing super detailed, but clear enough if you’ve at least done one kit before. If you’re a total beginner, you might want to watch a quick YouTube video on Mangrove Jack’s kits just to see the process once.

The main thing to note is that you need extra fermentables. The kit itself is not all-in-one. They clearly state you need either 1 kg dextrose/brew enhancer or 1.2 kg pure malt enhancer. I went for 1.2 kg of liquid malt to keep the body and avoid that thin, sugary taste. So factor that into the cost. The kit on its own doesn’t magically give you 23 L of 5.3% beer – you have to buy the extra stuff.

In terms of instructions, they mention an approximate ABV of 5.3%, bitterness at 4/5 and IBU 40–45. That lines up with how it tastes: it’s not a face-melting bitter IPA, but it’s clearly more bitter than a standard pale ale kit. The colour is advertised as dark amber, and that’s accurate – mine poured a deep reddish amber that actually looked pretty good in the glass. So the product page isn’t lying there.

So from a presentation point of view, it’s fairly straightforward: you get what you need to make a hop-forward red IPA, as long as you supply the extra sugar or malt. No bells and whistles, no fancy booklet, but it’s all functional. If you’re used to the ultra-cheap one-tin kits with mystery yeast taped under the lid, this feels like a step up in seriousness without being complicated.

From a purely practical angle, the kit fermented cleanly and did what the box said. I measured original gravity (OG) at around 1.052 using 1.2 kg of malt, which lines up with their claim of about 5.3% ABV once fermented out. Final gravity (FG) ended around 1.010–1.011, giving me roughly 5.4% ABV. So the numbers are honest; you’re not getting some watered-down 4% beer unless you mess up your measurements.

The M36 Liberty Bell yeast kicked off within about 12 hours at 20–21°C and had a strong, steady fermentation for three days. No stuck fermentation, no weird slow-downs. It cleared reasonably well, too. I didn’t use finings, just cold-crashed in a cool room for a couple of days before bottling, and the beer poured with only a light haze – acceptable for an IPA. If you want crystal clear beer, you might need finings, but for this style, I didn’t care.

As for carbonation, I batch-primed with normal table sugar, and after two weeks the beer was already nicely carbonated. Not over-the-top fizzy, just a firm, pub-style level. The head retention was decent as well – not perfect, but you get a proper foam cap that hangs around for most of the pint. That’s often where cheaper kits fall flat (literally), so I was pleasantly surprised here.

The only thing to watch is temperature and patience. If you rush it – bottle too early, drink at one week – you’ll probably think it’s harsh and a bit rough. But if you give it the full two weeks fermentation plus at least two weeks in the bottle, it settles down into a pretty drinkable beer. In terms of “effectiveness”, meaning: does it reliably turn into what’s promised, I’d say yes, as long as you follow basic brewing hygiene and don’t go crazy with temperature swings.