What base malt do you use?

[denimglen]

Just wondering what base malts everyone here is using.

Do you stick to one malt for all or most of your beers? Or buy base malt according to the beer you're brewing?

What sort of beers are you most often brewing if you stick to one type?

[JackoNZ]

I'm only 6 all grain brews in but have been buying my base malts in 5Kg amounts and trying different ones out depending on the beer I'm brewing. I have been going for Marris Otter for the English type beers, ADM pils for the lager types (although tried a friends beer with weyermann bo pils recently which was really good), Bairds Pale Pearl for an Amber Ale and Weyermann Munich/Vienna for the okky I just did.

I think I'll keep with this approach until I find a base malt that I think works and tastes better than others and then start buying 25Kg sacks at a time.

You guy's who have a lot of brewing under your belt, do you find a particular base malt that tastes better than others?

[Richee]

Seem to use Maris Otter religiously for all my ales. It's quite expensive though. Thinking of buying 500 Kg of various mats from Cryer Malt and onselling the surplus (reckon I could easily use 150 Kg)!!

[Mike Neilson]

Ok, I have used Baird's Golden Promise, Pearl and Maris Otter, Weyermann, Raunch and Pils Wheat, ADM Pils Global, Pils, Wheat Kolsch.

Now if I was going to brew a delicate English Bitter I would use Maris Otter in a hart beat, If I was brewing anything else with a high (8%+) Specialty grain bill which mine usually do I would use Kolsch Malt, I find Kolesh malt bloody reliable!! Good Ph performance and stable mash efficiency. Its biscuty but still fairly nuetral and still sharp. I use it becuase of the above Mash performance, but more so I can stack the malt bill with depth of malt through specialties, which I cant do with the English malts.

Dont get me wrong I love Maris Otter but I dont find myself brewing enough ESB's and the like to justify having a nutty rich English malt.

New trends (IPA) in the UK seem to be to brew with Halcyon Malt which is 4-8ebc Malt which is a cross between Maris Otter and something else Sergent? anyway it is supposably preforms like Maris (relibality and colour) but tatses like a pils malt and suits the new age hoppy quaffing beers, For me I would love to try it but cant help but think its the same type/style of malt as Kolsch.

For me it's Kolsch!!!!!

[JoKing]

I've been using Koelsch malt quite a lot lately... It's awesome. Very versatile - I reckon I've covered about a dozen different beer styles with it, but the best part about it is the berry size. They are really fat. They have more starches than husks weight for weight than most other malts that I have used. This has resulted in one thing for me: huge efficiency. Example: In a 5kg Grist that I did with my West Coast Blonde, I got 91% efficiency. The next weekend... with no changes being made, I only got 78% in another beer with Weyermann malts as the base. The flavour is awesome - perfect for most Ale styles that you'd brew - even including ESBs etc... it eliminates the need to use munich or melanoidin to "fatten it up"... though if you did you'd have a huge malty beer.

My 2nd fave is Golden Promise... I love this stuff too...

Then there is Global Vienna... Don't get me started... then Munich... Oh Dear...

[denimglen]

Interesting, thanks guys, keep it coming.

I've been using Pearl pale malt pretty religiously for the last 30ish beers, except one lager, a wheat, and an ESB.

It's a stellar malt, don't get me wrong but I'm starting to think it's a bit too malty for all the US beers I've been brewing lately. I'm starting to wonder if maybe the slightly lighter kiln of Golden Promise would be better, and it still gives more maltiness than a lager malt if I I brew an english ale.

What's the EBC on that kolsch malt? Where does it fit in to the scheme of things malti-ness-wise?

[JoKing]

She's fairly dark: 8.9ebc - and the maltyness type thing would be akin to like a dark pilsen malt... it's nutty, but not sweet. It has an almost dry flavour depending on the mash temp. It kick the shit out of the mash too. On the Spec sheet - it says saccrification: 10mins... I haven't found this to be the case - like for me it's more like 20.

I was initially put off because it was a German malt... and I didn't thikn it would be suitable for the types of beer that I brew. But in the end I proved myself wrong.

The only thing I dont like about it, is that you can't get your beers any lighter than Pale Ale in coulour - like epic for arguments sake.

[denimglen]

Cheers, sounds like a good malt but doesn't sound like it's for me. Will have to give it a shot sometime, sounds like it would make one helluva SMaSH beer.

[Mike Neilson]

Real? I couldnt think of a more simple malt that kolsch would of substituted for the better!!

[Reviled]

So far im yet to try the kolsch malt, allthough I have acquired half a sack so will be using it very soon.. I had a chew on some of it and it reminded me alot of weyermann Munich I, very biscuity with some melanoiden flavours going on... Which got me thinking, Global Munich is similair to weyermann Munich II, is the kolsch similair to wey munich I???

Up till now ive tried ADM, Pearl, Golden Promise, Maris Otter, Global and Wey Munich, Global Pils, Wey Pils, Aussie Pale

My favourite out of the above by far would have to be Golden Promise, its awesome and gives a great honey malt character that will hide if you hop the shit out of your beer but it will still 'be there' if ya know what I mean ;o)


I also really liked the Global Pils, I made alot of ales out of the sack I got and just added a bit of Munich to beef it up and was quite hapy with the results! And like Jo says I got a much higher efficiency out of the Global Pils than I had with any other malts, I could also fit more weight in the bowl than usual, meaning the grains must be alot more dense?

[MrC]

I've just been reading through this old thread and Koelsch seems to be a bit of a favourite for some people. I recently brewed a pale ale using Koelsch as the base malt found it to be great. I much preferred it over Maris Otter which I had been using previously.

I've heard that there is more Koelsch in the pipeline but was wondering which other base malt would be the closest substitute. Golden Promise?

[jt]

Close to Special K ?
Tough question Mr C, possibly Global Pils with some caramalt .. from my limited use ?

[Michael]

I have been brewing mostly APAs lately. The base malt that I have found most reliable and tasty for these beers so far has been Golden Promise. I also like Kolsh when I am experimenting with belgians.