BrewBarrel customised wheat beer homebrew kit review

If any of you have been following my journey in to 21st century style homebrew then, no doubt, you are at the edge of your seats waiting for my results.

Well, it has been a week now since I got around to brewing my ale so what was the finished article like?

BrewBarrel – the process

I have to say, I got so carried away by following the instructions whilst slinging in the ingredients, I forgot to take any photos of the actual ‘doing’ stage. The instructions state 10 minutes, but I took more like 15. That said, the most part was waiting for the gooey, treacle-like malt mix gloop out of the bottle.

The mix was quite lively and I had to give it a few seconds in between each bottle of water else I’d end up with a mini frothy Vesuvius.
The making stage was basically, slinging in the ingredients and a few measures of water. Even the measuring has been done for you by way of markers on the malt bottle – yup, you even reuse items here.

That’s it. None of this sterilising, measuring, scooping, counting, and the rest of that ‘real brewing’ nonsense.

Once all that was done it was just a case of putting the keg somewhere where it would not be disturbed at room temperature. So, for the next five days my landing was host to the BrewBarrel as that has the most constant temperature.

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After 24 hours I had to hold the BrewBarrel upside-down for 10 seconds, I am guessing to make sure everything is mixing nicely.

Once day five had arrived it was then time to get rid of daft things such as salad to make room for the BrewBarrel in the fridge.

The shiny blue keg has to sit in the cold for the next couple of days in order for it to condition. Then it’s time to tap it.

BrewBarrel – the tasting

Although it does clearly say to pull the tap out it took me a while to actually discover that it does indeed just pull horizontally towards you. Then it’s time to lift the little plunger on the pressure valve at the top of the BrewBarrel.

With a twist of the end of the tap beer squirts out at quite a rate of knots; Just like it tends to do when you’ve just changed the barrel in a pub.

The wheat beer concoction I prepared was very light and refreshing. The cloudiness I expected but the lemon flavour is quite potent. I think I could have got away with either the lemon or the Perle hops, both together may have been overkill. The Bourbon woodchips did add a nice depth to the brew through.

BrewBarrel review conclusion

All in all, I am still counting this as a success. A customised beer I set out to brew, and that’s exactly what I have got. I think the price is very reasonable and there is very little effort to put in.

I can heartily recommend BrewBarrel and I can forsee this particular homebrew kit finding its way under many a Christmas tree this year.

Kits from the ‘BrewBarrel Recommended’ section start at around £25 and the customised versions all depend on what beer type and what flavourings you go for – mine totalled £32.

Cheers