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I have a festa wheat beer kit I am going to start and I want to put a spin on it. I was thinking about making it a honey wheat batch. Would honey work the same way as adding a fruit (add when you transfer to the secondary)? I was also thinking about a rhubarb batch if the honey wasn`t a good idea.

Honey generally doesn't carry the flavour through. Pretty much a waste.

Why don't you try one of these?

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/09/ ... eer-recipe

Are there any common ways to improve a festa brew? Any that anyone would suggest?

I would try the honey in the wheat, if you're using the honey in secondary you'll have some residual sweetness left from it. I use amber honey from bulk bar for a honey wheat that I make. As for the rest of the festa brews I'd say anything that you would do to an all grain beer after fermentation you can do to a festa brew. Dry hop, add spices, coffee, honey, maple, etc...

LiverDance wrote:I would try the honey in the wheat, if you're using the honey in secondary you'll have some residual sweetness left from it. I use amber honey from bulk bar for a honey wheat that I make. As for the rest of the festa brews I'd say anything that you would do to an all grain beer after fermentation you can do to a festa brew. Dry hop, add spices, coffee, honey, maple, etc...

Except that adding sugar ( honey ) to secondary will cause a further fermentation.

google "hacking festa kits"

I did the same with brewhouse kits and found some awesome ideas

Tony L wrote:

LiverDance wrote:I would try the honey in the wheat, if you're using the honey in secondary you'll have some residual sweetness left from it. I use amber honey from bulk bar for a honey wheat that I make. As for the rest of the festa brews I'd say anything that you would do to an all grain beer after fermentation you can do to a festa brew. Dry hop, add spices, coffee, honey, maple, etc...

Except that adding sugar ( honey ) to secondary will cause a further fermentation.

Unless you really want the sweetness, and make sure to kill the yeast first. This is not beginner stuff - the very last thing you want is a beer fermented in the presence of sorbate. It's a classic in bad wine-making, but I shudder to think of a geranium scented beer...

We've dry hopped the festa pale ale....awesome
My buddy made a raspberry festa wheat....I had a couple...not really my style but turned out the way it was supposed to
I added Vanilla to the Festa Cream Ale....called it Winter Cream ale...turned out awesome

I found this in the bowels of the internet.

http://www.barleyandgrapes.com/document ... Matrix.pdf

At first I thought it was a way to modify existing wort kits, but the double black dots in certain cells confuse me. Can anyone explain what this chart is for?

It's for making different style other than what Festa Brew offers. You blend together what's maked in black from the sitde bar to make the style on top. Make sense?

Basically each of those takes TWO kits, and sometimes the two kits are the same...

That's what I thought, it just seemed strange that two bags of the same wort (as some of them are) would make a different beer. Although I guess it might be with a different yeast the the kit originally included.

I can't see needing 2 kits for the same beer as you mentioned, I think it's more about the yeast at that point.

LiverDance wrote:I can't see needing 2 kits for the same beer as you mentioned, I think it's more about the yeast at that point.

unless you own the company that makes the kits and you want to sell more kits... just sayin'

misterdalliard wrote:That's what I thought, it just seemed strange that two bags of the same wort (as some of them are) would make a different beer. Although I guess it might be with a different yeast the the kit originally included.

That's exactly what they're doing. If you look at the Weizenbier and Belgian Witbier columns, they use the same wort, different yeasts, and the Wit adds "spices" . I can't remember from the one Festa I made whether the regular yeast would be one of the ones listed on that spreadsheet.

I've modified few festa brew kits.
I used their oatmeal stout and added cold steeped coffee and pure dark molasses into the secondary. Turned out pretty nice.
I also used their bock, threw out the yeast and used a belgian abbey yeast and a bunch of belgian candi sugar to create a decent belgian dubbel.
One of the first brews I made was a brewhouse lager, where I added honey to the secondary and as a priming sugar. I mainly noticed the honey in the smell, which was pretty nice.