ADM Pils Malt?

[denimglen]

So I'm almost finished my sack of BB pale malt and looking to get another sack of base.

What's the deal with this ADM malt? Any good? Worth buying a sack? Pros? Cons? DMS levels? Better/worse than Barrett Burston pale? Hasn't been around long enough to tell?

[Mike Neilson]

I have a 100% ADM, Sauvin and S04, its in the bottle I will try it tomorrow and plan to to give a couple of bottles away this week, weekend to Stu and Kempicus (or for anyone daring to try) for them to give me some feedback. But I have heard you get a bit of residual sweetness from the malt. but that just one guys opinion!! and not everyone elses. will wait and see.

[Craig]

Have just got my first brew (a Pilsener) happily fermenting away now with 90% ADM Pils and 10% Munich. I will need to let you know the result in a few weeks.

I did have a chow-down with the kids as I weighed it out though, and can say it was quite steely too chew on. Had quite a different flavour to the BB Pale. Not as floury & malty. Had a definite grassyness too it that reminded me of hay. A good sense of freshness though.

I must say everytime I pull out the malt the kids come flocking for a feed. They love the pale malts and ADM was no exception. They do tend to slow down on the Chocolate & Roast Barley though.

[Craig]

There ain't nothing wrong with this malt. I am very please with how my Pilsener has turned out. Produces a nice straw colour, tastes great and I cannot detect any DMS, though must say I drowned it with Motueka hops and I'm not super sensitive to DMS.

Must say, it does produce a beautiful mega creamy head that lasts the whole glass.

Enjoying the pilsener malt and loving the fact it's NZ made.

[Stu McKinlay]

Yeh - correct mash temp (66-68) a good boil and strong fermentation should be enough to keep your DMS undetectable and your beer starch free. I've just fermented two Belgian Pales. Two very different ferments and one reeks of DMS (more fruit juice than corn, to my nose). The other, which feremented more vigorously (after a slow ester-heavy start), showed no signs of DMS.

I think it is a very good malt. Like all NZ malt it seems a quite dry and husky, when compared the autumn/winter/spring UK and Euro malts I've tried (you can really pick it when you chew them). I purposely brewed a Belgian Pale with a low-key malt profile, and hops at 60min only, so that I could get a feel for the malt. I'm definitely going to use a bit of it.

I definitely wouldn't use it as a single malt but in anything I brew that is reasonably big (1.050 up), with a fair bit of specialty, will be based around ADM as the base malt.

[Steve Baker]

I've been using ADM for a couple of brews now and I'm pretty happy. My current brew is a pale APA which is tasting pretty good. There is a residual sweetness but I don't know how much of that comes from the CaraPils.

I've not detected any DMS - at least that is one flaw I'm getting better at spotting.

I think I'll use it for a while, and hey, the price is right.

[denimglen]

Awesome, thanks guys.

Tossing up between this and Baird's Pale Ale malt. Mostly brew 'pale' to amber ales so probably doesn't matter too much. Just the BB malt was too 'grainy' (like drinking grain-juice flavour, hard for me to describe it, not astringency though) when I was using it in lighter ales with not many specialty malts.

[Greig McGill]

Bairds Maris Otter from Cryer is my fave. I LOVE that grain juice flavour! Also, David Cryer is just awesome. That is all.

[Greig McGill]

OK, confession time. I might have just been drinking Skull Buggery. Martin & all @ the Twisted Hop are also awesome. As is Craig Bowen at BeerNZ. THAT is all. Really.

[denimglen]

Grain juice sounds good but the grain-juice I'm getting isn't enjoyable at all :-(

BB is the sux I reckon. And it makes yoiur beer grey!

[jt]

I didn't mind the BB malt - got a bronze with it last year - that's more than I got with ummm, errrr, ummmm, some pils malt this year

[denimglen]

I got a bronze with it to, 50% was Weyermann wheat though :-P

Argh still 50-50 on Bairds vs ADM though.

I think I might be best to buy a sack of Bairds PA for all my ales and then just buy pils malt as needed for lagers.

[jt]

Funny, I'd been considering a sack of MO or GP and going single malt (or at least very simple) beers for awhile