Festa Brew now available at Wine Kitz Halifax

[Jimmy]

Somebody complain?

[mr x]

Yeah, that's not hard too figure out.

Somebody sure knows how to make friends, lmfao. FWIW, W&W in NG sells them, and at a better regular price than up here IIRC.

[Jimmy]

It seems as though it's area specific since Wine Kitz apparently carries it in their other stores, just not in the HRM. They must limit it to one retailer within a designated area.

[chalmers]

For being homebrewers and supposed friends to brewers, all of these first- and second-hand accounts of arm-twisting and pushing out competitors is getting old.

[derek]

Certainly if they were going to be controlling the temperature for each different beer fermenting, then it would not be economically feasible. But I suspect the beer coming out at the "standard temperature" would satisfy most people.

Well, wine really works best at different temps, too, and that has never stopped u-vints.

[derek]

It's around $50 for a wine kit. Thats a lot of markup for a beer kit.

No, it's not. Festa-brew is competing against pure juice, or at least enhanced wine kits (ie, no more than 50% dehydration and usually with extras like grape skins), and the price is comparable (I've paid more and less for grape juice than for a Festa-brew - about the same for the high-end wine kits).

I wouldn't be at all surprised if NG doesn't want to get into on-site all-grain brewing - it needs more equipment - but Chalmers said they wouldn't want to do BOP with Festa kits and that makes no sense to me. But I was assuming he had an inside line and was wondering what he knew.

I think what Sandy was referring to was the fact that they charged $50 for the service, not the kit - so you're basically paying $100 for 60 beer..not that great of a deal.

But neither is the wine. I'm shocked at the $50 charge - it's not that much value added - but I wouldn't pay $50 markup for the wine, either. I'm sure that if you can get people using WineKitz for making wine, you can get them doing it for Festa brews. And there'd be no point not offering the option. As far as the vendor cares, it requires no more effort - because I guarantee they won't be doing any temperature control!

[mr x]

It will take more time at bottling if people are using small bottles. Just looking at the racks in W&W here, I'd throw out a guess it's 90% wine. I think the beer is a worse value than the wine.

[Jimmy]

But neither is the wine. I'm shocked at the $50 charge - it's not that much value added - but I wouldn't pay $50 markup for the wine, either. I'm sure that if you can get people using WineKitz for making wine, you can get them doing it for Festa brews. And there'd be no point not offering the option. As far as the vendor cares, it requires no more effort - because I guarantee they won't be doing any temperature control!

$50 seems quite reasonable to me. Most businesses normally charge somewhere in the $50/hr labor rate - and Wine Kitz is storing the wine on their premise/using their equipment..rent & equipment isn't free.

$50 on top of a wine kit, producing 30 bottles of wine that would normally retail for ~$10/each isn't a big deal (say $90 for the kit and $50 for the service)...you're basically paying $140 for $300 worth of wine.

$50 on top of a Festa Brew kit for 60 bottles is signifcant ($44 for the kit and $50 for the service)..you're paying $94 for $128 worth of beer (based on a $12.79/6 pack of Garrison Hop Yard)