Northern English style Brown ales are known for their rich and nutty flavors, and our Chestnut Brown Ale is no exception. We enhance the nuttiness by adding freshly roasted chestnuts to the boil, resulting in a sweet, mellow flavor that is just a tad malty and very satisfying.
6.0% Alcohol by Volume
What’s Inside.
Before getting started, take a moment to review everything that’s included in your kit.
Equipment & Ingredients
A. 1 Gallon Fermentation Jug
B. Airlock
C. Racking Cane & Tip
D. Sanitizer Packet
E. Screw Cap Stopper
F. All-Grain Ingredient Mix
G. Tubing Clamp
H. 12” Lab Thermometer
I. Tubing
J. Hops Packet
K. Beer Making Yeast
Equipment Not
Included But Needed
A Couple Stock Pots
(8 Quart is a good size pot)
Fine Mesh Strainer (10” Diameter is ideal)
Ingredients Not Included But Needed
Ice
4 Chestnuts (read preparation instructions in Step 0 below)
3 Tablespoons Honey for bottling (2 weeks after brew day)
Keeping clean is important when making beer.
Really important, actually. Proper sanitization helps ensure a successful brew-day and a really tasty batch of beer.
To start off, prepare the area where you’ll be brewing by decluttering your stovetop and clearing off a surface like a kitchen table or countertop.
Prepare Your Sanitizer
Your kit includes 1 Sanitizer Packet (D). Diluted with water, it makes 2 full gallons of no-rinse sanitizer.
Using the 1 Gallon Fermentation Jug (fermenter) in your kit (A), dissolve half of your sanitizer packet with 1 gallon of water. Shake the jug to dilute the sanitizer powder.
Save the remainder of your sanitizer packet for bottling in a couple weeks (Step 5).
Once prepared, pour some of your sanitizer solution into a bowl. You’ll want to place anything that will be touching your beer into the sanitizer for at least 1 minute to make sure it’s clean and ready to use.
Review Your Instructions
Before moving on, make sure to read through the rest of the instructions so that you know what’s in store.
Ask Questions
At any point in the brewing process, remember you can email us for support at info@brooklynbrewshop.com.
Roast Chestnuts
Note: If you don't have chestnuts available, pecans or walnuts will also work fine. You can also leave nuts out altogether and still brew a delicious brown ale.
Preheat oven to 400° F and cut a small crosshatch into each chestnut shell. Roast on a baking sheet for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and cover. After 10 minutes, peel off the shells, reserving the nuts.
In a pot, heat 2.5 quarts of water to 160°F.
Add the grain from your All-Grain Ingredient Mix (F) to the water. This is called “mashing-in.”
Using a large spoon, gently stir until mash has the consistency of oatmeal. After adding grain, the temperature will drop to about 150°F.
Cook for 60 minutes at 144-152° F. Stir every 10 minutes, using your thermometer (H) to measure the temperature from multiple locations.
You don’t need to apply heat constantly. Get it to temperature then turn off heat. Monitor, stir, and adjust to keep in range.
After mashing for 60 minutes, heat to 170°F while stirring. This is called “mashing out.”
Heat an additional 4 quarts of water to 170°F. (You can start this during The Mash to save time.)
Place a fine mesh strainer over an empty stock pot.
Carefully add the hot grain mash to the strainer, collecting the liquid that passes through.
The collected liquid is called “wort” (pronounced “wert”). Wort will eventually become your beer.
Slowly and evenly pour the 170°F water over the mash to extract sugars from the grain.
You should collect 5 quarts of wort. Some of this will evaporate during the next step.
Re-circulate wort through grain once.
In a pot, heat 2.5 quarts of water to 160°F.
Add the grain from your Ingredient Mix (G) to the water. This is called “mashing-in.”
Using a large spoon, gently stir until mash has the consistency of oatmeal. After adding grain, the temperature will drop to about 150°F.
Cook for 60 minutes at 144-152° F. Stir every 10 minutes, using your thermometer (I) to measure the temperature from multiple locations.
You don’t need to apply heat constantly. Get it to temperature then turn off heat. Monitor, stir, and adjust to keep in range.
After mashing for 60 minutes, heat to 170°F while stirring. This is called “mashing out.”
Heat an additional 4 quarts of water to 170°F. (You can start this during The Mash to save time.)
Place a fine mesh strainer over an empty stock pot.
Carefully add the hot grain mash to the strainer, collecting the liquid that passes through.
The collected liquid is called “wort” (pronounced “wert”). Wort will eventually become your beer.
Slowly and evenly pour the 170°F water over the mash to extract sugars from the grain.
You should collect 5 quarts of wort. Some of this will evaporate during the next step.
Re-circulate wort through grain once.
The boil is when you get to add hops to your beer.
Heat wort collected during the sparge on high until it reaches a boil.
Prior to boiling, the surface of your wort will begin to get foamy. (Reduce the heat to prevent boiling over if necessary.)
When large bubbles break through the foam, this is called the “hot break”. When this occurs, set a 60 minute timer to mark the start of the boil.
The boil will last 60 minutes. Start your timer and add in the rest of the ingredients at these times:
Throughout the boil, stir occasionally. All you want is a light boil. Too hot and you can lose fermentable sugars and volume.
Some of your wort will evaporate during this step. If your boil was a bit high, you may be left with less than the full gallon you need for your beer.
If this happens, don’t worry. You can add more water in the next step.
At the end of the boil, place pot into ice bath until it reaches 70°F.
Gently twist the sanitized screw-top stopper (E) onto the fermenter.
Sanitize your tubing (I). Slide one end of the tubing no more than 1” into the hole of the stopper, and place the other end into a small bowl of sanitizer.
You’ve just made a “blow-off tube”. It allows CO2 to escape while your beer ferments.
Place fermenter in a dark place at room temperature for 2-3 days or until vigorous bubbling subsides. You may notice bubbles and foam at the top of the beer. This is when fermentation is highest.
After bubbling subsides, clean your tubing and prepare your airlock (B).
Sanitize, then re-assemble airlock, filling up to line with sanitizer.
Insert airlock into hole in stopper.
Keep in a dark place for 2 weeks without disturbing other than to show off to friends.
If your beer is still bubbling after 2 weeks (either bubbles in your airlock or forming on the surface of your beer), leave your fermenter sitting for a few more days until all bubbles are gone. It can take an extra week or two if your beer continues to ferment. Try to be patient. Don’t rush it.
full gallon in the last step, use less honey when bottling. Using too much honey can result in your beer being over-carbon- ated.
A. Attach open tubing clamp (G) to tubing.
B. Fill the flexible vinyl tubing with sanitizer. You can do this by submerging the coiled tubing in a bowl of sanitizer.
C. Attach the black racking cane tip to the long end of your racking cane. The tip will prevents sediment from getting sucked up when siphoning. Attach sanitized tubing to the short curved end of your sanitized racking cane. It will be a snug fit.
Run it under hot water if you’re having difficulty fitting the tubing onto the racking cane.
D. Pinch tubing clamp closed.
E. Remove screw-cap stopper from jug, and place racking cane into jug, just above the sediment at the bottom.
F. Lower end of tubing not connected to racking cane into sink. Suction will force beer up and through the racking cane and tubing. Open tubing clamp, let sanitizer flow into sink until beer just starts to flow out of the tubing, then clamp shut. Open clamp on tubing, allowing beer to flow into pot with sugar solution. Tilt jug when beer level is getting low, but be careful in not sucking up the sediment.
After filling your pot, siphon the beer from the pot into bottles, pinching the tubing clamp to the stop flow after each bottle.
Close bottles either using self-closing swing top bottles or a bottle capper and caps.
Once you're all done bottling, store your beer in a dark place for 2 weeks.
After a couple weeks, chill your beer completely in the fridge, and enjoy!
Brooklyn Brew Shop is a Brooklyn, NY based food start up dedicated to helping people easily make beer, cider, bubbly & food that's as good as (if not better than) the world's best breweries and restaurants.
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