I'm trying SoCo Homebrew's Brown Ale kit after about a week in the keg, and it came out pretty great. I have a couple more of SoCo's one-gallon all-grain kits on hand, specifically their Black IPA and Stout, and other than me not really caring for the Kölsch they've all come out really well.

This brown ale is rich and malty, with a nice creamy body, and just enough bitterness from the Willamette hops to balance things out without being in your face, which is what you want from a brown ale in my book.

The color is pretty much right in the middle for the style, coming in at about 25 ARM according to Brewfather. It's a bit more transulcent that the photo suggests, but if you look in the bottom-left corner you can see light shining through and some of the reddish-brown hues.

Back to the flavor I love how smooth and drinkable this one is. If I had to change one thing it's maybe slightly heavy on the chocolate malt at 5.3% of the grain bill, but that didn't seem to make things too bitter or take away from the drinkability.

Now that I'm pretty acclimated to my new brewing space and have my grain storage situation more or less figured out (insofar as organizing things is every truly figured out) I'll be trying different recipes as opposed to going with kits, but this one is pretty darn tasty.

It'll be interesting to do another brown ale with a lower percentage of chocolate malt in the grain bill and see how it compares. That's what I love about homebrewing, every time I try one of my beers I immediately think, "I wonder what would happen if ..."