Loughran Family Malt from Geterbrewed

[lord groan]

I've seen a few posts about this low price malt so after much delay I decided to try some.
Ordered from Geterbrewed at about midnight on a Monday via their Irish website so I paid in euros which worked out about £16.50 for 25kg crushed pale malt (plus £4.50ish p&p). They phoned Tuesday at about 8:00pm to say there was a problem with my order, we resolved that and they promised delivery on the Friday.
Delivered Friday.
OK so I'd thoroughly recommend Geterbrewed for service.
The malt?
Brewed a stout today, beer engine suggested a starting gravity of 1047. I've seen other posts that say the efficiency is very low, and some that say it is high with this malt, so I was intrigued, anyway after an unforseen delay which pushed the mashing time to 2:15 hrs, after boiling and chilling I ended up with 1046-1048. Vague because my hydrometer is a wine one with quite fine markings, there were still bubbles on the surface and my sight is shonky!
So as far as I can see the malt seems to give just as good efficiency as my usual maris otter.
It just remains to taste the finished brew but it is looking good so far.

[sbond10]

Looking good shall have to look up the ie site forgot it might be cheaper in euros

[Chicken Dipper]

I had great efficiency and it tastes good, will deffo order again. Great service too. I ordered from the UK version of the site so paid £19.50 plus about a fiver for delivery. Will go Eire next time!

[YeastFace Brew Co.]

Bought some of this for an Irish Red, thought I'd whack 200g or so (11l batch) extra to cover any difference between this and MO so good to read this.

[AdamR]

I've had issues with their grain crushing abilities, the first order I placed they replaced no bother with properly crushed grains.
When I ordered a second time and recieved a half arsed crush I emailed them and and was ignored.
In the end I used the grains after whizzing them up in the food processor.
Personally, I wouldn't buy from them ever, no matter what price.

[sbond10]

Mention it on twitter they seem quick to respond on there

[timbo41]

Used twice now and pleased so far. Seems a bit sweeter than Marris if that makes anysense...just a personal observation though

[lord groan]

Just sampled my first bottle of stout using this malt, I varied the recipe slightly so cannot do a direct comparison with last M.O. brew but with only 2 weeks bottle conditioning it's come out very nice indeed. It loses it's head fast ( I left out the oats and torrified wheat I usually add to my stouts) but I tend to find my stouts only begin to keep their head after about 6 weeks conditioning so no surprise there.

So after 1 brew I haven't noticed any differences between maris and the loughran malt. So at about half the price it's the loughran for me. I reserve the right to change my mind if later brews go wrong!)

Looking at other peoples comments regarding efficiency and crush I do wonder if the supplier just had problems getting the right crush size? Would too fine a crush give better efficiency when it works and maybe doughballs and stuck mash issues when it doesn't, while not crushing enough would perhaps trap air in the grain during the mash, preventing proper wetting of the grain and so lowering efficiency?
Just my two-penn'orth

[vacant]

I have a theory, that is mine, that is my theory, that if 25Kg sacks of malt are transported upright, the sieve effect means more flour migrates to the bottom of the sack. Result: worse efficiency at the start, better at the end of a sack.

[sbond10]

Having a 6.5kg see thru sack of minch malt I can see your theory and kinda agree. I ended up with minch as it worked out similar priced and better reviews

[serum]

I kept seeing Minch malt mentioned and thought it was someone misspelling munich!

Has anyone else had grain crushing issues with geterbrewed? I was going to try ordering from them because they do castle malts and they sell strisselspalt which nobody else seems to but I don't have a grain mill.

[Wonkydonkey]

I kept seeing Minch malt mentioned and thought it was someone misspelling munich!

Has anyone else had grain crushing issues with geterbrewed? I was going to try ordering from them because they do castle malts and they sell strisselspalt which nobody else seems to but I don't have a grain mill.

Strisselspalt
Would that be a hop or a grain, as I have the hops

I too have used Minch malt uncrushed, so the crushing is my fault, but I put it down to ununiform grain size.

Also as I use uncrushed grain I don't have the prob of the flour settling during the short transportation but yes it can be a problem, I think that why they have started to sell 25kg in 5kg x5 bags, albeit you pay abit extra

[sbond10]

No minch is an irish malting company using Sebastian variety of malt it's only distributer is the homebrew company

[sbond10]

I kept seeing Minch malt mentioned and thought it was someone misspelling munich!

Has anyone else had grain crushing issues with geterbrewed? I was going to try ordering from them because they do castle malts and they sell strisselspalt which nobody else seems to but I don't have a grain mill.

Strisselspalt
Would that be a hop or a grain, as I have the hops

I too have used Minch malt uncrushed, so the crushing is my fault, but I put it down to ununiform grain size.

Also as I use uncrushed grain I don't have the prob of the flour settling during the short transportation but yes it can be a problem, I think that why they have started to sell 25kg in 5kg x5 bags, albeit you pay abit extra

I'm guessing they mean the malt as they have no grain mill

[serum]

Sorry I've mixed up my topics here.

I was asking about ordering from Geterbrewed because I'd like to buy some of the castle malts and also the strisselspalt hops they do because other sites don't seem to stock either. I wasn't sure whether to do it if they don't crush the grains right.