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, 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.
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.
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.
Wow that sucks. I guess there are still a couple of reasons to live in the states. I can get 100 lbs of gear shipped to me from Northern Brewer for 7.99.
Good stuff. The carnival has started in the fermenter. I haven't tried a festa brew, but at my lhbs they don't even take them off the skids, they just wheel em out onto the floor and people pick em off pretty quick. They are selling a lot of that stuff. I know someone who says they are great, the nut brown is like newcastle, apparently.
With beer and alcohol being very expensive up here, it's an excellent way for people to cut beer costs down and somewhat get into the basics of brewing. For me the essence of brewing is in the making of the wort, hop boil etc. Without that phase it would not be fun for me.
It's becoming apparent to me here in Canada that there's those that brew beer for fun and for a hobby and then theres some that do it just to save a few bucks. For those people, festa brew is the right decision. Im surprised the gov't hasn't imposed some sort of special tax on the festa brew.
I've often wondered that too. I know in Nova Scotia the Liquor Commission licenses HBS some how (the drug store that I buy my kits from has a little license card stuck on the rack where the kits are). Hope that's as far as it goes for a while.
I see the appeal in getting into more advanced brewing, but the ease of kits and the affordability of the equipment is a big draw. I'm pretty much a Craigtube disciple at this point, but I get my detailed info from the vets on here.
I'm looking into sprucing mine up with some hop additions for the next 4 or 5 batches, and am pretty close to ordering some rhizomes to throw in the ground this spring. To me, that's the most logical step to take with the hobby for what I want to do.
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