kcarr

Recipes 

Hey all, new to the brewing community and was thinking of starting with something simple. Has anyone ever tried the festa brew or brew house kits?

two_one_seven

Recipes 

No, and personally I wouldn't. Home brewing is all about control and being creative. To me that is just like buying an already bottled beer.

Buy a kit from Midwest Homebrewing or Northern Brewer. It takes some of the decisions out of the equation but you still get to complete the process. It's all about the process.......

slacker1

Recipes 

I must disagree with two one seven, here. If you are a newb, it is often best to start simple. The Festa wort saves a number of steps and in the process allows you to get to the basics of brewing: fermentation, clearing, bottling. As well, you don't have to tie up resources on the extra equipment needed for all grain brewing. I started simple and worked my way up to more complex brews comfortable that the basics were down pat.

two_one_seven

Recipes 

No no no. I'm not talking about all grain. I'm talking about extract. Adding extract and hops following a recipe are all parts of the brewing process. These are pre done worts...if you want to save steps by Miller or Coors......that will save a lot of steps. Making wort is not complex and it is part of the brewing process. Do not skip a step because it may seem to difficult. Making wort is the most basic process of brewing beer. It's not hard, beer is resilient you won't mess it up too bad in the end you will have beer. Make your own...........its what this is all about.

m0808

Recipes 

i have made 10 brew house kits. and was very pleased with them.

kcarr

Recipes 

Thanks for the input guys. I do have alone brew house Mexican Cerveza and a festa brew

kcarr

Recipes 

Sorry... I meant I do have a brew house Mexican Cerveza and a festa brew blonde ale. I will do both as I have 2 primaries. After I get the basics I will move on to something different. I have tried a buddies breweries blonde and it was very tasty

LTownLiquorPig

Recipes 

Well, I've had others Fest Brew beers and they were quite good. I had an issue with mine, probably on my end, and ended up with a sour as heck stout. Hasn't carbed in 3+ months. Not sure what the deal was, but it's not worth my while to go back to. I can brew pretty decent beer from canned kits + brew enhancer or LME for about $10 less a batch.

I'm not blaming Festa Brew for my issue with their kit, it was probably something on my end. That being said, you can do as well for less cash quite easily.

@ two one seven, up here in Canuck land, beer is ridiculously expensive. Getting your feet wet, or just trying get decent beer for less than a dollar a bottle is well worth your while. In Nova Scotia, Bud or Coors Light comes in at something like $44 a 24. A Festa Brew kit is going to run you something like $40 for 55-60 beer. Definitely worth your while if you just want to have some beers around the house without going broke.

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Don't even break it out if you ain't gonna share.

two_one_seven

Recipes 

A bit pricey (is that Canadian or US?), I see your point there. I still disagree with the canned kits. You can get into a starter brewing kit, which you still need most of this to preform the brew process even with a brewhouse kit, plus a brew pot for under 200.00 (US) and a lot of the pieces are re-taskable if you don't care for brewing.

kcarr

Recipes 

In Prince Edward Island 24 cans runs 46.00 Canadian. I bought my beer starter kit for 55.00 and the brew house was on sale last weekend for 25.99. During all this discussion I decided to go with the mexican cerveza and put the batch in the primary.