What would you do with Festa Brew?

Northern Brewer General
1

Likely most of you have not even heard of Festabrew. It’s an Ontario made product that is only available in certain regions in the US. But where I am it is how most of us start out in beer making.

Here is a link:

http://www.magnotta.com/festabrew/

Basically it is 23l of pasteurized wort from a craft brewery, ready to pitch. Packaging is similar to a wine kit.

The quality is pretty solid, but styles are limited. There are some basic things you can do to them to be creative. Dry hopping, changin yeasts etc.

Here is a link to their “Brewer’s Matrix” if you want to try blending 2 worts:

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

I’d ove to hear some creative ideas of how to doctor already pitchable wort when limited by number of styles etc.

Since I don’t have as much time to brew these days I am planning to do some Festa Trials with various hops / yeast / fermentations.

I was thinking instead of just dry hopping, maybe taking some of the wort and steeping hops in it for flavor, or boiling it for more bitterness.

2

Seems like you could steep whatever specialty grains you wanted to customize to a particular style. Or add Belgian sugar/syrup. So while I would never be in the market for this stuff, I can see it having a utility especially in Canada where booze taxes are high. Its why the wine kits are so popular there, in fact that drives the entire wine kit industry.

3

Definately not far off the mark. I see it as just another household chore in some respects. Like buying groceries or baking muffins.

At the same time it is a good way for people to get into the basic process of fermentation etc.

I was considdering steeping some grain. Could add some dark color to lighter beers for example. Would you have to boil it at all after that, or could you just steep / cool / add back to the whole and ferment?

4

I think 170F for 20min is enough to pasteurize the wort.

5

Hmmmm… They actually make a pretty solid WC IPA once a year. Could steep some carfa II with some chinook?, then dry hop with some Cascade and come out with a CDA perhaps.

6

You could doctor it with this stuff: :smiley:

No seriously, don’t.