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Hi all,

I recently brewed a Festa Brew Brown Ale, and after being in bottles for 3 weeks it is really really good. Better then I imagined it could be. I am bottling a Festa Brew Red Ale tonight and I am hoping for similar quality.

Although these kits are great for quality and simplicity I feel like I am cheating and would like to start doing some extract brewing probably using some of Noble Grapes "recipes" (the ones that come in the box with speciality grains for steeping). It will be more work, but I like the idea of getting my hands dirty.

My question is should I expect the quality to be better from the NG recipes then the Festa Brews kits or would I have to go AG before I saw an improvement in quality? I guess my fear is that I put the extra effort into extract brewing and end up with a lower quality product.

When I started brewing I first used extract + steeping grain and did some festa brews here and there. The thing about festa is that it's so easy. I would do a "double batch" some brew days by making one recipe kit and one festa with no extra effort.

You're right in that the festa is good quality all grain wort. In some ways using extract seems like a step down. However you can make some really good beer with extract and steeping graing so don't worry. I didn't notice a lower quality from my recipe brews at all other than the fact the festa wort is pretty dialed in.

Don't forget there are many other factors in making good beer including sanitation and fermentation. Having some control over fermentation temperature will likely have a larger impact than festa vs extract recipe for example. You may be happier brewing one of the recipes and it will give you a better indication if you want to move to all grain.

Go for it and happy brewing!

Noble Grape recipes are a great learning tool and one that I used in my progression into all grain. I think they are a very useful step to teach some of the parts of all grain before making the transistion. I started with NG recipes and then slowly increased the amount of grains I used and decreased the amount of extract over time as I learned more.

So I can step in and actually have an opinion on this issue.

I brewed Festa for a year, easy and made good beer so I stuck with that. Moved away for a year to Ontario and back, upon returning I was quite offended with how much a festa brew kit costs, (compared to the price i was paying for beer in ontario) so I started to go into the extract world.

When i buy bulk DME with the group here and an extract kit, I get a 23 litre batch brewed for about $20.00. I find that by using DME and not Dextrose the quality of my beer is not affected at all. I make some great beer (as evident by others opinions not just my own)

My buddy has just started to do partial mash with extract, basically steeping some grains. That batch of beer had VERY dynamic taste MUCH better than mine, I find that is what extract kits are lacking.

If my beer ages a good few weeks it rounds out very full, however those partial grains and mash's really upped the fullness of the beer, if you follow me. Just seemed much more dynamic than my beer, although as I have said I've given my extract only beer to quite a few people from here or from away, got some very positive compliments. (course they aren't brewers so what do they know?)

LiverDance wrote:Noble Grape recipes are a great learning tool and one that I used in my progression into all grain. I think they are a very useful step to teach some of the parts of all grain before making the transistion. I started with NG recipes and then slowly increased the amount of grains I used and decreased the amount of extract over time as I learned more.

+1 only I transitioned over to using recopies from the internet and BYO to help me learn what was doing what.

Afaiac, if you are new at brewing, brewing classic styles is gold for you.

Sent from my Nexus S

Thanks for all the great feedback. I really appreciate it!
I will probably do another couple of Festa Brew kits to get my beer stock pile up. I heard good things about their oatmeal stout, and once the cold weather hits I will probably try my hand at a couple of lagers.
Then I will probably start with some extract kits (using speciality grains). Seems like you can do a lot with these speciality grains whereas going AG seems like a lot of work.

Thanks again.

Yeah you can do a lot with them but of course you can do a lot more with AG. I think you have it right, get some comfort with the basic principles and slowly add to your technique until your doing AG. It might seem like a lot of work, but if you find that you love brewing, it's not really work.

HoweFox, Matt (formerly) of NG Sackville here.

What you're proposing is pretty much what I observed to be the typical practice among our beer-brewers. Folks typically start out with Festa Brew because it makes exceptionally good beer for the effort involved. Lots of brewers are happy to stay at that level, so they stick with Festa. Often, the progression is that, after getting a few Festas under their belt, people want to get their hands a bit 'dirty' and learn more about what is involved in the brewing process. The recipe kits are really the perfect next step for this, as you are getting your hands on grains and hops with only a large stockpot being the extra piece of equipment you require.

Having made/sampled a few of these kits, I would say the quality can very easily be in the same ballpark as Festa Brew - which is to say that they can make a pretty good beer. I say 'can' instead of 'do' because, as RubberToe said, there are a lot of factors in making good beer. The recipe kits put you in control of a lot of these factors, so there's a larger margin for error than with a Festa Brew kit. But that said, the process is pretty straight-forward and the instructions are easy to follow. Short of something like forgetting your hops additions (it has happened ), you'll make very nice beer with these kits.

I spent some time playing with festa's adding more extract and doing a 10 minute partial boil with additional hops, you can play with the flavour quite a bit. Bump the oatmeal stout up to imperial levels or push the pale ale into IPA territory...throw in some coffee, honey, whatever. This is what really started me down the brewing road.
I have since started pumping out NG extract kits to get a feel for different grains and hops, I find the quality just as good as festbrew, only with more varieties to choose from.

I went the same way starting with fiesta brews and in 5 months I bought a pot and I steep my grains and boil. I now want to expand start do larger brews. The noble grape kits cost as much or more than the fiesta brew. I would like to get into the bulk buys and learn how to do it that way.

with festa brews you are limited to what is on the shelf.

going extract or all grain the possibilities are endless.

if you wanna save money go with all-grain, it will cost you more up front with the equipment but its well worth it.

sleepyjamie wrote:with festa brews you are limited to what is on the shelf.

going extract or all grain the possibilities are endless.

if you wanna save money go with all-grain, it will cost you more up front with the equipment but its well worth it.

Agreed. I never made the transition from Festa Brew to extract; I just went straight to all grain. Our group buy makes a HUGE difference in the cost of a batch, plus the convenience of having grains on hand...it's nice having everything you need at your fingertips, and makes it more likely that you will brew/continue to brew.

Jimmy wrote: Our group buy makes a HUGE difference in the cost of a batch, plus the convenience of having grains on hand...it's nice having everything you need at your fingertips, and makes it more likely that you will brew/continue to brew.

it makes it suck when you switch provinces and have to go back to extortionate per-pound rates though

CorneliusAlphonse wrote:

it makes it suck when you switch provinces and have to go back to extortionate per-pound rates though[/quote]

Sucks don't it?