Base grains

[Rookie]

I like to use a variety of base grains depending on what style I'm brewing. How about you?

[LeeH]

Minch pale for me as it’s the cheapest 25kg pale I can find. That makes up a minimum of 80% of the grist.

At 19.95 a sack I don’t bother with Maris anymore due to the saving over a 50L brew length.


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[Kev888]

Frequently I'll supplement the pale malt with a bit of something like Munich or Caramalt, whatever gives the residual flavours or body I'm aiming for; I guess some types might be considered base malts in other styles of brewing.

I don't usually blend normal pale malts for the (mostly) British styles I brew, just choose a type/quality most appropriate for the beer. Though it can happen for practical reasons, like trying to use what i already have rather than buy specially. I find there is a trade-off between wanting to buy in bulk and yet not have lots of grain types sitting around ageing, so probably I tend to use better types like MO in cases where a cheaper one would be fine.

[Digby]

I have recently tried Minch malt for my British style beers and it seems very good. I use mainly Swaen or Weyermann malts for my European brews.

The Swaen seems to be excellent quality and I have made a cracking Belgian Blond using their pilsner as the base malt. They used to be owned by Grolsch but are now independent and have a great range.

Weyermann are great too, but sometimes a bit pricier. Lovely company and the maltings in Bamberg is fascinating.

I do like to get into the story of where I get my malt from, but that may be just me being odd.

Oh yes, and I mill my own (in case that makes a difference).

Matt

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[charliemartin]

Just recently bought MInch malt again after a period of using Crisp's Extra Pale Clear Choice malt. The Crisp's is excellent for producing clear beers (no good for NEIPAs),
but the Minch has more flavour in my opinion and slightly better efficiency.

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[Marshbrewer]

I'm a fairly inexperienced all grain brewer - less than a year, but I used to use MO, Golden Promise and what not. Then I realised that I'm a bit pants at brewing and needed to get my technique sorted a bit before worrying about base malt; it's reasonably low down the list of influencing factors in all but the most pale, low IBU beers in my humble opinion. So, I use Minch Pale ale and Lager malts for everything at the moment because they are best value - pale subs for all pale malts in recipes (apart from American 6 row), lager for all lager, pilsner and US 6 row.

[Trefoyl]

I really only use Maris Otter but I occasionally buy locally grown malt, last time I used pale from Niagara, New York
https://nthomebrew.com/niagara-pale-ale-malt/
Next time I would like to try some grown and malted only about 45 minutes away from me from Pennsylvania
https://deercreekmalt.com/
http://www.keystonehomebrew.com/shop/be ... ltster=192

[charliemartin]

Wow that's expensive malt! By my calculations based on $0.76 to the pound (Google), that's over £100 for a sack of Deer Creek malt! Is that the cheapest malt you can get or is it unusually expensive?

[Trefoyl]

Wow that's expensive malt! By my calculations based on $0.76 to the pound (Google), that's over £100 for a sack of Deer Creek malt! Is that the cheapest malt you can get or is it unusually expensive?

It is very expensive, even wholesale. A local brewery made a beer with it only once and basically lost money on it, but it was a very delicious brew. I would only buy enough for one brew, not a whole sack. However, I’d have to visit the store to buy grain by the sack and it should be cheaper if they had it in stock.
They also carry the Norfolk heritage malt Chevallier which I might like to try. Also expensive.
We can’t get any malt as cheap as you can. £30 is the cheapest I’ve seen for Briess pale, maybe I should get a sack of that instead of MO at £56, but I don’t really brew to save money.

[Robwalkeragain]

I’ve read a few times recently that the age of the small artisan maltser might be upon us soon! If the product is worthwhile, we pay £40 per kg for citra compared to £8 per kg for bobek, why should incredible premium malt be any different i guess!

I really only use Maris Otter but I occasionally buy locally grown malt, last time I used pale from Niagara, New York
https://nthomebrew.com/niagara-pale-ale-malt/
Next time I would like to try some grown and malted only about 45 minutes away from me from Pennsylvania
https://deercreekmalt.com/
http://www.keystonehomebrew.com/shop/be ... ltster=192

[Trefoyl]

I just had a few beers at a brewery that grows and malts it’s own barley. My favorite was a SMASH that used locally grown cascade.
http://www.greatbarnbrewery.com/

[Jim]

I tend to just go for maris otter unless I have a special reason to try something different.

[Jocky]

Crisp Maris Otter for anything British/American, Weyermann Premier Pils for anything continental.

Although today I'm brewing with the Weyermann Barke Pils, mainly thanks to a shortage of the Premier Pils malt, but I'm interested in the additional flavour it might bring.

[f00b4r]

Crisp Maris Otter for anything British/American, Weyermann Premier Pils for anything continental.

Although today I'm brewing with the Weyermann Barke Pils, mainly thanks to a shortage of the Premier Pils malt, but I'm interested in the additional flavour it might bring.

Weyermann seem to have a huge range of pils malts, especially if ordereding form the continent (I had originally thought it was just whether it was floor malted or not), any idea if there is a guide anywhere defining the difference between them all?

[Jocky]

Weyermann seem to have a huge range of pils malts, especially if ordereding form the continent (I had originally thought it was just whether it was floor malted or not), any idea if there is a guide anywhere defining the difference between them all?

Not that I know of.

Barke is an older malt that doesn't yield as well on the farm as current varieties, but should provide more flavour in the brew house.

I undershot my expected gravity a little yesterday, but I was using a mix of Barke Pilsner malt and Dingemans Pils malt (neither of which I've used recently), along with some unmalted adjuncts so I'm not sure what the issue was.