does anyone have experience with festa brew

[HOOTER]

So, anyone who says these kits won't be as good as extract, PM, or all grain brews is purely speculating.

That's true. I have no experience with them so I am speculating. I love to experiment so maybe someday I'll try one but regardless of the outcome I'll never stray from my current brewing methods because I just love the process of brewing so much. These kits may produce some killer brew, but in my opinion the best beer is brewed the old fashioned way.

Edit: I just noticed on festabrew's website their slogan is "brewing made easy". Maybe their slogan should be "We take the brewing out of homebrewing".

 

[fat x nub]

sounds like a start....everybody has to start somewhere...keep reading up

 

[hfxer]

I have done about 15 or 16 of the Festa kits.

Mostly the Blonde, but I try to sample the seasonal or limited issue ones as well.

Still have a little of the HopAttack left.

I've had pretty good luck with them all.
I'm not really sure what the instuctions read.
I always pour into a primary pail, stir the yeast, and leave it alone for a 5-7 days.
Then transfer into a carboy with airlock for 10 - 14 days and do a batch prime before bottling.
Stick the bottles away for 4 weeks and then start to drink 'er up.

I'm just now making a switch from bottling to using the stainless pop kegs and force carbonating, but I will still leave it in the keg for the 4 weeks before serving.

 

[ESB]

I'm sure it will be fine, but I doubt it will be as good as a properly done PM or AG recipe. Just like in cooking and baking, using fresh ingredients will always produce a superior product, and having complete control over the stuff that goes into your brew can only be beneficial.



I'm not extremely familiar with these kits, so correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't they essentially just hopped extract? Why would this be better than an extract brew? This statement just makes no sense to me.

Nope. Pure all natural all grain wort


People in Canada are accustomed to crappy beer, so these kits probably are perfect for them.

Typical ignorant American



I have no doubt that an experienced all grain brewer (not to mention an experienced extract brewer) can make a brew that will put these kits to shame. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure they make a drinkable brew, I just find it extremely hard to believe they can produce a better beer than a well crafted AG, PM, or extract w/ specialty grains brew.

The bottom line is that brewing is fun and if your looking for a quick and easy brew there's plenty of good beer at the grocery store.

The Magnotta West Coast IPA is one of the best IPA's I've had (including American IPA's). I've talked to all grain home brewers who have said the best batch they've ever "brewed" was the Magnotta Festa Brew IPA.

 

[Shooter]

GREAT first post, reviving a zombie thread. You sir, FTW!!

 

[buzzlager]

For the people who have done these brews, do you typically use the included dry yeast or use a White Labs/Wyeast instead?

 

[Vuarra]

I tried the festa brew bock... I liked the taste, the ease (I used a funnel... sue me), but the worst part was that I was so used to the crappy Canadian beer I had to throw it out because it didn't taste watery. Must have been me, because I let it sit in primary for at least 4 weeks, then bottled for three... I guess I should have read and followed the instructions to the letter.

I did use the included yeast.

 

[Revvy]

For the people who have done these brews, do you typically use the included dry yeast or use a White Labs/Wyeast instead?

If you're brewing a standard ale it's a waste of time and money to use liquid yeast. Dry yeast is fine for 99% of the brewing we do.

I have found that a lot of new brewers especially, THINK they HAVE to use liquid yeast, but in reality most ales can be made with Notty, Windsor, Us-05, Us-04 and many lagers with basic Saflager.....7-8 bucks a pop for liquid as opposed to $1.50-2.50 for dry, with more cell count, is imho just a waste of money for the majority of a brewer's recipe bank...most commercial ales us a limited range of strains, and those liquid strains are really the same strains that the afore mentioned dry strains cover, for example Us-05 is the famed "Chico strain", so if you are paying 7-8 bucks for Wyeast 1056 American/Chico Ale Yeast, and you STILL have to make a starter to have enough viable cells, then you are ripping yourself off, in terms of time and money....

I use dry yeast for 99% of my beers, for basic ales I use safale 05, for more british styles I us safale 04 and for basic lagers I use saflager..

The only time I use liquid yeast is if I am making a beer where the yeast drives the style, where certain flavor characteristics are derived from the yeast, such as phenols. Like Belgian beers, where you get spicy/peppery flavors from the yeast and higher temp fermentation. Or let's say a wheat beer (needing a lowly flocculant yest) or a Kholsch, where the style of the beer uses a specific yeast strain that is un available in dry form.

But if you are looking for a "clean" yeast profile, meaning about 90% of american ales, the 05, or nottingham is the way to go. Need "Bready" or yeasty for English ales, then 04 or windsor. Want a clean, low profile lager yeast- saflager usually does the trick.

If the kit is fresh, then the yeast that comes with it will be fine.

The idea of the yeast that comes with most kits are "bad" is really a holdover from the bad old days of homebrew prohibition (prior to 1978 in america) when yeast came over in hot ship cargo holds, was of indeterminant pedigree and may have sat on the shelves under those cans of blue ribbon malt extract in the grocery store for god knows how long. That is simply not the case in the 21st century- all yeasts, liquid or dry ave excellent and can be used, EVEN the stuff that comes with kits.

 

[Shaneoco1981]

Well it's not as good as a kit that you add hops and grains to...or probably not even as good as a kit and kilo kit like Coopers....But you just made beer...It's a start on your new adventure.

Stick around here and you'll learn how to make great beer.

Welcome!

+1 Welcome fellow home brewer!

 

[buzzlager]

Awesome thanks for the great replies! And so quick at that! I've done two of these Festas with the dry yeast.

1st: Pale Ale using Nottingham tasted awesome. Maybe the best beer I've ever had.
2nd: Red ale using Safale 04... Not as good. Drinkable though.

Also, I did a AHS Blue Moon and AHS Redstripe clone. The Blue moon tastes band-aidy, unfortunately. And the red stripe is ready to be bottled.

This forum has been with me every step of the way. It's so useful! Thanks for the suggestions on yeasts, Revvy. What is your preferred fermentation temp on Safale-05?

 

[Scott9002ca]

Hello, Its my first post, and I know this topic is dead, but I thought I'd chime in. Festa Brew is amazing beer (especially the west coast IPA), but you pay for it (with tax I think it was 42$ for a kit of 23L). And you don't have the same customizeability that you do with AG or PM, but you don't really need to, everyone who's tried this beer has loved it (including actual home brew people).

That said I still much prefer doing my own batches, but I keep these kits on hand for when I need to produce a batch of beer and don't have the time.

Cheers!

 

[ESB]

I customize the festa brew kits by adding additional hops (dry hop). I made an excellent english style dry hop pale using their standard pale kit and fuggles hops in the secondary. A good buddy of mine is a pale ale fanatic and travels weekly in the states on business and felt my pale was the best he's had (so much for crappy Canadian beer....)
The Double Oatmeal Stout was very impressive also, another buddy is Irish and was recently in Ireland devouring the freshest stout possible and couldn't believe how good it was, he was overjoyed and felt it was on par with cracking stout from Ireland.
I have also had success with Wheat and Pilsner, although both were a little generic they were still quite good.
The IPA is the best offering, add some cascade into the secondary and you really have something special!

I would avoid red ale, what is red ale anyway...?

 

[ESB]

By the way, I do 1 week primary, 2 weeks secondary then into the keg for mass consumption!!

 

[bigjimmurphy]

first time brewer trying festa pale ale any tips?
the generic instructions are not very helpful

 

[slacker1]

I agree the generic instructions are terrible. However, following the standard 3-4 weeks in fermenter plus 3 weeks to bottle condition works well. I would watch the sugar addition; I use dextrose, because some of these brews produce fountains. Use an online calculator to determine the appropriate amount to add.

You don't say what equipment you are using. Personally, I use a 7 gallon fermenter and swing top (Hacker Pschorr) bottles. An autosiphon and a bottling pail with a bottle filler round out the basic requirements.