It's pretty hard to quantify a flavour in words, but obviously you can tell the difference between the same beer made with Maris Otter and Pilsner. The Pilsner flavour suits some styles (particularly continental ones) better.testtube wrote:It is necessary, how is the flavour different.. Modified.. It's down to the crop in the first place...Befuddler wrote:Pilsner malt has a different flavour, that's it's job. Most modern Pilsner malt is well modified, unless you specifically look for one that isn't because you want to do a step mash. Therefore, decoction and step mashes are not necessary. This argument is not necessary.
I'm not saying you can't use other malts in it's place, but it does have it's place.
For a briefing on modified versus undermodified malt, see this page: http://www.howtobrew.com/section2/chapter12.html
As I said, most Pilsner these days is fully modified and needs only a simple infusion mash:
http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=2947 wrote: Description:
EBC 2.8 - 3.5 (mash required): Dingemans Pilsner Malt is light and low in protein, Dingemans Pilsen is produced from the finest European two-row barley. This malt is well modified and can easily be mashed with a single-temperature infusion. Dingemans Pils is an excellent malt for many styles, including full-flavored lager, Belgian ale and European style wheat beer. Dingemans Pilsen being low in protein, results in a remarkably clean and light finished product.