Mild Brown Ale - All Grain Beer Brewing Kit (5 Gallons)

I picked this for my first All Grain attempt as it was a complete recipe that I didn't have to figure out and on the lower cost side for my first attempt. I typically prefer Brown ales so I am a bit biased but this turned out great...awesome flavor. My Original gravity was on the higher end @ 1.042 vs what the recipe estimated but I attribute that to perhaps my personal mash tun brewing set-up (5 gallon Cylindrical Cooler with SS Domed false bottom/outlet + 5 gallon paint strainer bag and letting it sit for 45-60 min + batch sparged). I did water it down going into the boil pot to get to the recipe OG as specified (1) It actively fermented with bubbles for 2-3 days but I left it for a solid week anyways (2) I transferred it to a secondary for a week to clear up (3) I transferred to a bottling bucket with the added boiled water/sugar mixture and put some into 12 standard bottles and the rest into my small 1.5 gallon "keg" containers (4) I let everything condition for 2 weeks and tried a bottle. The Carbonation was good but not 100% complete. I waited another week (wk 3) and a bottle was way better. I waited another week (wk 4) and I thought the bottles were perfect...meaning 3-4 wks to bottle condition. The 1.5 gallon "keg" containers needed another 1-2 wks more to get to the same carbonation level as the standard bottles from what I could tell. I was pleasantly surprised with the result which was a very good smooth brown ale that I thoroughly enjoyed. My carbonation levels between the bottles and 1.5 gallon "keg" containers varied a lot but I think that was a result of not enough mixing of the sugar water into the bottling bucket OR just the volume of the respective containers vs the carbonation. All-in-all, a great recipe that I'd get again and I highly recommend this recipe kit. I would give this 5 stars but this was my first all-grain brew and everything needs some level of improvement to strive for...

Wife and I made this kit, It makes a drinkable mild brown. next time we try a mild brown we are going to substitute the Chocolate malt in favor of roasted malt, this should remove some of the ashy taste and introduce some chocolaty tones.