Great one, almost a stout

After about 5-6 days fermenation and 12 days in the bottles it's already great.

Made it with standard sugar from the kitchen, following the instructions.

Really hard to explain how it tastes,  it's really a heavy ale almost as sweet as a stout, but definitely has it's own character, and very strong body, and dense, probably because it's only 17Litre from the same amount as usually a 23 Litre kit.

Color is dark,  don't put too many bubbles in as it's just wouldn't match this style,  I made it with 5.4g sugar per Litre.

I will make this one again for sure.

Dissapointed

I brewed this kit with 1.5kg of light LME and 100g corn sugar. I added 20g each of Cascade and Amarillo @20min left in the boil. I proofed the yeast and pitched 6g Brewferm top along with the kit yeast. Fermentation was at 18°. It didn't ferment well, FG was 1.016 (OG was 1.040). The beer has been in the bottle for a month now. It has carbed nicely but it's really nothing special. It's lacking in body and taste and it's too sweet because of the high FG. I would not brew this kit again.

Nice one

Made this kit 3 times. Actually I have never made it at is I have always added some Citra or Mosaic hops.

But in nutshell I think it's a great kit for the price / Litre.

The only downside is that somehow it has a small sour taste, I had this in all 3.

One of the bests

This was one of the best I did so far (7 total),  way better than Coopers IPA.

Strange that they are calling it as bitter because it's actually almost sweet.

I have dry hopped with about 15g Citra for about 6-7 days after the fermentation finished which gave it a freat smell, and added 5.3g / Litre sugar to the bottles.

It was very quickly drinkable (1 week) but 2-3 more weeks in the bottles just made it better, the 45 bottles dissapeared very quickly :)

Definitely I'll make this one again in the future.

Bulldog Chocolate Stout

Kit done according to the instructions.  Six weeks in the bottle before tasting.

A difficult one this.  I am sure the kit does what it is meant to do ... the problem is, I don't like the beer. 

On the nose : 100% cocoa, dark chocolate

Nice tight tan head, thick and creamy, perfect carbonation.

On the tongue : there are the roasty bitter flavours that are typical of a stout coupled with a fortified wine, port type flavour..  On the tongue, it tastes more like a fortified wine or port than a beer.  Did someone design the recipe thinking of putting a tot of port into a pint of stout ?  If so, then the kit works perfectly.  But I just don't like it. 

I have given the kit a two star rating because I don't like the beer.  There is no way I would repeat this kit.  But there are perhaps people out there who would find it excellent ?  I hate bananas ... a lot of people think they are gorgeous.  I think this is a question of personal taste, so please don't take my word for the truth ... I would recommend finding a few more reviews before making a final decision.

Just found my new brew !

10 out 10 !!!  Just brewed my first ginger beer - and it ain't going to be my last !

Nice Pale Ale to tune to your liking

This was my very first brew. I used only 250g of DME and 500g of dextrose. I added some NB bittering hops during the boil, I wish I had added some aroma hops as well. 8 days in primary, followed by 2 weeks in the bottle. I may do this kit again some day as it's a really nice base. I would definitely suggest to: a) use at least 1kg of DME or LME, b) do a short boil with some Cascade or Amarillo. You don't really need additional bittering, c) use no more than 19L of water, d) light dry hop with maybe 15g of your aroma hop.

Kit & Kilo

Kit & kilo, no mods, out the tin, add the sugar and you are away. 

Three weeks later, out of the bottle.  It's a fine pint.  There is the very slight acidic zing that comes from adding all of that sugar relative the malt extract but other than that, it's fine. There are no major roasty flavours, it's wet, fizzy, tastes of beer.   I would rather drink this than a lot of commercial beers out there on the supermarket shelves.  It is not a universe stopper, a perfectly fine session beer but considering the price and the ease of use, what more could you want?  For me, the kit gets a five star because it does "what it says on the tin" so to speak ... it's cheap, easy to use and the results are reasonable, if not mind-blowing.  And it still works out far cheaper than those beers you'll find in the stores ...

stout and nothing but stout

been brewing it for the last 8 years +

never had a bad brew,

tryed adding licorish ,coffee etc,but none seem to last in flaver over time

recently have been using BREWMASTERS stout inhancer 50 ml per 23l  and 500 gm of lactose ,the lactose smothes it out incredably great initaly but still disappers after time [ 3-4 weeks]

i only use quater of the yeast and only 500 grams of sugar [ 2 stroke i no ]but you can drink a heap more and dont start speaking dutch and talking brail lol

second brew

Did it with 500g dark spray malt and 500g dextrose. Fermented around 20-21 degrees for 7 days. Tasted it after a week in bottle. Really strange flavour, smelled good though, it was dry and kinda water-ish. It is my second brew, really disappointed.

Solid wheat.

THe description from Festa Brew called it a north american style wheat which is fine, but I was hoping for more of a hefeweizen.

In any case I brewed it a little off from the instructions (4 weeks primary, to bottle) and turned out pretty good.  No off flavours, a bit of that trademark wheat beer banana going on.  No real hop aroma.  I was hoping there wouldn't be a strong presence of north american hops as that's not my preference for wheat beers..  and there isn't.  It's a bit more like a kristalweizen, by my non-professional opinion.  Would brew again!

Very well balanced and easy to brew.

Writing this review while drinking the results. Added 1 kg of dextrose only to the kit. Used the yeast that came with the kit. No secondary fermentation when this beer was made. I just fermented in a bucket and after the bubbles stopped a week in bottled the next day into glass bottles with flip tops and Samuel Adams bottles that I recapped. After 3 weeks of bottle conditioning started to dink them. Turned out really nice. The beer has a head when poured yet the head will dissipate rather quickly which is to be expected (I only added 1 kg of dextrose.) There is nice lacing on the glassware from the small head that does stick around. The flavor is very very well balanced. Most people who like beer will enjoy this kit even if they may not enjoy home brew usually. Next time I brew this kit I will add dried malt extract to increase the body of the beer and to also increase the malt flavor. I recommend this kit and Muntons brand kits.  

Great hoegarden style beer

This kit is excellent!

I added 1 can wheat malt extract, 12 g saaz hops, wheat beer yeast, orange peel, 1 tbsp coriander seeds.

Very similar to hoegarden

Great drop

Well, I finally bit the bullet and fermented a box of DOS wort. It's das bomb...Stygian dark with rich flavour and character - drinkable even four or five days in the bottle. I am aging it until at least the end of July when a buddy visits, but do sneak one here and there for chronological testing purposes. It blends well with a brown or pale ale to come up with a porter-like "swamp water" brew. And since Festa doesn't create a porter, you can blend a Brown Ale with the DOS to make one. I can see this being better than a Guinness and although I'm a recent casual convert to stout, I can see keeping a batch of this in my stockpile. I may go the next step and mini-keg a batch and carb it with a nitrogen/CO2 blend...

A Bock

The Bock taste i there and other reviewers may be disappointed with the lack of hops, but a low hop flavour i typical of Bock. Could be stronger It brewed short

BREWERS BEST

I recently cooked up a batch of the BB Continental Pils I bought as a "clear out" from my local HBS. It's too bad they're stopping carrying them, but they are pricey. Anyway, I got this one for $40 reg. $50 CDN (for 5 USG or approx. 19 litres) deciding to try it after brewing their marvellous Imperial Blonde Ale. The kit comes complete with caps, grain sack, priming sugar, LME and dry extract and steeping grains, making this a "partial" mash. I was going to swap out the yeast but decided to try it with its stock Brewferm Lager yeast to get a baseline. I "lagered" it in my SS fermenter for four weeks on the basement floor between 10-13C, as my lager fridge was full of beer :-() Then off to a brief crashing in secondary carboy to a final rack in two x 2.5 USG mini kegs. I have to say there was a dirty pile of trub and hops, so the next time I'll be using a hop sock. I ended up with approx. 17 litres with a few bombers (22 oz) and a couple Grolsch swing tops. It has an interesting flavour about it for sure. But I'm leaving it for a couple more weeks in the kegs and then I'll pound the gas to it and post an addendum to this review. I'm giving it three stars as a placeholder and will adjust accordingly.

Pretty good for a first time

Brewed this as my first beerkit. I used dark candy sugar. I also replaced the standard yeast with Fermentis Safbrew Abbay.

The result is a nice and bitter yet sweet brown beer in the best tradition of Belgian Abbey Ales with some fruity banana flavours.

I had a friend blind taste it together with several other commercial beers. It wasn't the best, but it certainly wasn't the worst.

Great with honey.

I brewed this one with Brewferm Blanche yeast instead of the standard Brewferm Top yeast that comes with the kit. I also opted for honey instead of sugar and the water used for this brew was boiled with some coriander.

After primary fermentation I split the brew into 2 batches. I dry-hopped 1 batch with Fuggles, the second batch was dry-hopped with Amarillo.

The Fuggles-batch turned out to be a very nice, sweet and spicy beer while the Amarillo resulted in a sweet, refreshing and fruity beer.

Certainly going to do another brew with this kit in the future.

Festa West Coast

I finished up those mini kegs in short order and have a few 22 oz talks aging on the dark shelves in basement. When Festa brewing, I use a grappler on back of kitchen shears to pry the cap. I then just mickle on to the wort bag to dump it in primary bucket. When using the Fast Ferment (smaller hole) or carboy, I made up a gizmo with a Festa cap drilled out to accommodate a brass bulkhead, rubber washers and a length of braided hose - 18 inches I'm thinking with a 1/2 inch ID. I snap this on to the bag and can squeeze dump the flattened bag from my counter in whatever. Unfortunately the aforementioned gizmo doesn't work with the Brewhouse kits, but I'm finding them too pricey anyway - same price here as Festa - need to swap out yeast as it's always Coopers Ale yeast. I usually upgrade to a Safale US O4, 05 depending on the brew.  As rated before, I pitched a Brewhouse Munich Dark over a West Coast slurry of US 05 and it was one of my best brews ever. Still hoping to find a bottle or two in my collection somewhere!