Steve and I have finally finished our second successful all grain home brew. Once again we used his Brooklyn Brew Shop brewing system that he was given as a gift. We used the Chestnut Brown Ale mix that comes with everything you need but the optional chestnuts. We were unable to find chestnuts so brewed the beer as per the package.
The brew went down without a hitch and his little one was even able to help in her first ever brew.
The beer sat for two weeks to ferment and then we transferred our Growler Werks Ukeg 's to force carbonate. We set the Ukeg's to 15PSI for three days agitating multiple times a day. Today was the day to try the carbonated beer.
The beer poured a deep brown colour with a brown head (different lighting on both photos). The aroma consisted of caramel, nuts, sweetness and a hint of fruit. The flavour was of toffee, caramel, nuts, earth and some medium bitterness. While this beer does not stand up to commercially made craft beer I could taste no off flavours and it was quite enjoyable. If Steve and I could do our first two batches without off flavours and a pretty darn good flavour I would have to say that I would highly recommend the Brooklyn Brew Shop system. It is also nice to be able to force carbonate your beer if you have the ability as bottle conditioning can be a crap shoot. Our first batch 50% of the bottles were way over carbonated. With the Ukeg it was perfectly carbonated.
