Pilsner Malt Questions

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Bigbre04

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So I am consuming a lot of pilsner malt these day. I have access to a bunch of brands. I am looking for opinions/experience with these malts. All are fairly similar price wise.

Chateau -- Pils 2 Row --- Belgian --- 1.7-2.1SRM
Great Western -- Superiour Pils --- US --- 1.3-1.7SRM
Canada Malting Group -- Superior Pils --- Canadian --- 1.3-1.7SRM
Best Malz -- Pils Malt --- German --- 1.6-2.3SRM
Tchecomalt -- Pils --- Czech -- 1.7-2.2SRM
Durstmalz -- Pilsen malt --- Germany -- 1.5-2.3SRM

I can also order briess, TFandS, Epiphany, bairds, etc.

I have made good beer with both CMG and Tchecomalt.

I currently have the Tchecomalt on hand. My biggest complaint with it is that it is very very friable, my mill damn near powders it and it has given me problems with flow rates even with my heavy handed enzyme use. I like the beers that it has produced. the bags piss me off and the friability sucks.

the CMG was fine, but was boring, it is very cheap and it will make decent beer. these are the only positives i have found for the CMG.

I am somewhat leaning towards the Chateau pils, but it is relativley expensive compared to the others.

Bestmalz is the most expensive on this list by far.
 
I think Chateau is pretty well respected. Personally, I've really liked Great Western whenever I could use it, though I don't much in the way of comparative data. If you tried Great Western and liked it, there's the advantage of it being domestic which may help keep the price a little more stable going forward.
 
Bigbre04 said:
My biggest complaint with it is that it is very very friable, my mill damn near powders it and it has given me problems with flow rates even with my heavy handed enzyme use
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Conditioning or sometimes referred to as wet milling will cure the friablity problem, the flow problem is likely a beta-glucan issue and that can be fixed with beta-glucanase.

As far as which malt to use, I guess I pick malt based on the beer I plan on making with it. I have never been happy making a light American Lager with European malt and I've never been happy with a German Pils or Helles made with a North American malt. IPA and pale ale can be made with both. Best is the one I've worked with the most, but I like Weyermann the best, but it's not on your list.
 
HighVoltageMan! said:
Conditioning or sometimes referred to as wet milling will cure the friablity problem, the flow problem is likely a beta-glucan issue and that can be fixed with beta-glucanase.
Click to expand...

IIRC, @Bigbre04 is already dosing Beta Glucanase, I got the product info from him.

HighVoltageMan! said:
I like Weyermann the best, but it's not on your list.
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#MeToo.
I'm partial to Weyermann Barke personally but ... I'm running a home brewery where it's not anything more than a money pit hobby that I want to be good at. And it's a hell of a lot cheaper than my internal combustion money pits, or my fixation on launching projectiles...

That said, I'm not opposed to trying some other Pils but cannot comment on the named brands.
 
I would like you to get the Tchecomalt and tell me how you like it
besides most Czech beers are made with it and they no something about brewing pilsners
of course cant go wrong with bestmaltz
 
Dave Y said:
IIRC, @Bigbre04 is already dosing Beta Glucanase, I got the product info from him.


#MeToo.
I'm partial to Weyermann Barke personally but ... I'm running a home brewery where it's not anything more than a money pit hobby that I want to be good at. And it's a hell of a lot cheaper than my internal combustion money pits, or my fixation on launching projectiles...

That said, I'm not opposed to trying some other Pils but cannot comment on the named brands.
Click to expand...
Lol, launching projectiles, lol. Expensive hobby too
 
Bigbre04 said:
So I am consuming a lot of pilsner malt these day. I have access to a bunch of brands. I am looking for opinions/experience with these malts. All are fairly similar price wise.

Chateau -- Pils 2 Row --- Belgian --- 1.7-2.1SRM
Great Western -- Superiour Pils --- US --- 1.3-1.7SRM
Canada Malting Group -- Superior Pils --- Canadian --- 1.3-1.7SRM
Best Malz -- Pils Malt --- German --- 1.6-2.3SRM
Tchecomalt -- Pils --- Czech -- 1.7-2.2SRM
Durstmalz -- Pilsen malt --- Germany -- 1.5-2.3SRM

I can also order briess, TFandS, Epiphany, bairds, etc.

I have made good beer with both CMG and Tchecomalt.

I currently have the Tchecomalt on hand. My biggest complaint with it is that it is very very friable, my mill damn near powders it and it has given me problems with flow rates even with my heavy handed enzyme use. I like the beers that it has produced. the bags piss me off and the friability sucks.

the CMG was fine, but was boring, it is very cheap and it will make decent beer. these are the only positives i have found for the CMG.

I am somewhat leaning towards the Chateau pils, but it is relativley expensive compared to the others.

Bestmalz is the most expensive on this list by far.
Click to expand...
why do you need to choose just one?
I like trying different ones
I probably use more Pilsner malt than any other malt
they are all a little different
 
@Minbari I dont have access to those through this distributor, plus i bet they expensive.

@HighVoltageMan! I am ordering a pallet of grain, i guess i could order 4 bags and do a double of my golden lager to compare it, but that is a pain because i have to redo the recipe and figure out the efficiency which takes a few brews. I have been using Apex Multizyme which has lots of betaglucanase in it amongst lots of other things. Been getting really good efficiency overall 87-91% for most beers.

I would love a wet roller mill, but i have never seen one in a brewery that was below a 50bbl brewhouse. i am just using a small blichmann 2 roller. it is great.

@Dave Y Weyermann is distributed by BSG, I am ordering from Country Malt Group, otherwise i would agree that thier grain is really good.

@Brew Cat I have ordered the Tchecomalt for the last 2 grain orders. it is very good malt, my issues were with the milling and the bags piss me off because they have a liner in them that always tears and fills with grain so i have to tear the inner liner open or leave 2 hand fulls of grain in it.

i really like the beers that i have made with it lately, I was just looking at changing it up.

At the end of the day, the Tchecomalt has made some very very good beers for me. It is relatively cheap compared to the others that i was looking at. maybe i stay the course and order a couple bags of one of the others.
 
Bigbre04 said:
I would love a wet roller mill, but i have never seen one in a brewery that was below a 50bbl brewhouse. i am just using a small blichmann 2 roller. it is great.
Click to expand...

Condition milling doesn't require much in the way of equipment, just a spray bottle from the hardware store. I use about .4 of an ounce of water per pound of malt. Here's a good video explaining the whole process, the how's and why's:

 
HighVoltageMan! said:
Condition milling doesn't require much in the way of equipment, just a spray bottle from the hardware store. I use about .4 of an ounce of water per pound of malt. Here's a good video explaining the whole process, the how's and why's:

Click to expand...
interesting. i will dig into this further. i thought you were talking about a 2 or 4 roller wet mill which are generally more expensive then my whole brew setup.
 
HighVoltageMan! said:
Condition milling doesn't require much in the way of equipment, just a spray bottle from the hardware store. I use about .4 of an ounce of water per pound of malt. Here's a good video explaining the whole process, the how's and why's:

Click to expand...
I've tried that once and it gummed up my rollers
 
Brew Cat said:
I've tried that once and it gummed up my rollers
Click to expand...
Yeah, that can happen. You just have to be careful not to go wild with the amount of water. I usually spray on a predetermined amount of water and wait 10 minutes let in soak in evenly, then mill. It has increased my extraction rate and the flow is better as well.
 
I've been experimenting with more than the 2% water and leaving it in a sealed bucket overnight so the moisture distributes throughout the kernel, not just the husks. I went 4% last time and am thinking of upping that next time and letting it set for 2 nights. I think I crushed at .030.
 
I have been wet conditioning my grain for years
 
I switched to BIAB so never bothered researching it further
 
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