# Share your staple malt recommendations...



## Qualia (1/6/17)

I've been steadily sliding down the slippery slop of home brewing and have now reached the stage where I want to buy my malt by the 25kg bags. 

I'm planning on buying three 25kg bags of malt—plus a few extra kilo bags of specialty malts.

What three types should you recommend to buy in bulk?

At present I'm thinking bags of: Pilsner / Maris Otter / Munich, with a touch of Crystal, Amber, and Wheat. I'm looking for a combination that will give me a wide scope and variety of styles. 

Thoughts?

Cheers!


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## Phoney (1/6/17)

Weyermann pils, TF MO or Golden Promise and Gladfield Ale are my three go-to sacks of late.

Munich and Wheat I try to find someone to split a sack with. I find I usually only use a kilo or two of these at a time.


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## technobabble66 (1/6/17)

^ agree. 
Well, mostly. I'd get:
1 sack of Pilsner malt
1 sack of ale malt
1/2 sack of Munich

For Pilsner I'd get weyermann or dingemans. 
For ale I'd get Maris Otter or Golden Promise from Thomas Fawcett or Simpsons (esp if you're brewing a lot of UK beers)
Munich, get weyermann. 

Gladfield definitely get a good rap, just I haven't tried it. 
(Fwiw, I've been using Viking of late and very happy with it for the price - very cheap!)

If you're not brewing wheat beers, you may not need a half sack, so it depends on what you think you'll do over the next 2 years. But it can be used in similar ratios to munich, so worth considering.


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## Mr_Brewer (2/6/17)

this time
25kg Maris Otter $85. // 25kg Pilsner $60. /// 25kg traditional ale malt $50.


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## manticle (2/6/17)

Any indication on preferred styles/regions? I know you said variety but it could still be narrowed down.

A good quality pils is the base for many euro beers including German and Belgian.

I love maris in all things uk but also in apa. Golden promise is also a winner.

After that, I'm a fan of quality vienna, followed by munich but that depends on the beer. If you want to brew hefe, you'll need pils and wheat. With that you can also do great saison grists.

I used to buy exclusively euro (usually weyermann) but have found gladfield malts to be excellent. For uk, my experience is mostly simpsons and thomas fawcett - both great. All grain, regardless of brand should be fresh, dry and well stored before and after purchase.


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## Adr_0 (2/6/17)

A year or two ago I had two beers which had used Gladfield pils and both had a strong DMS. I not sure of the process used in brewing - perhaps the boil was short - but is it possible there is more SMM in the Gladfield pils? It's not really an issue if there is, it just needs to be boiled off. 

It may have been infection but seemed like more than coincidence at the time.


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## manticle (2/6/17)

My default boil is 90 minutes. Never noticed dms from gladfields.


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## MHB (2/6/17)

If it came down to one malt, for me it would be Weyermann Premium Pilsner, just delightful.
Generally its horse for course, I would choose an English malt for UK beer, German for most Euro styles, anything new world, I suspect I would use Pearle or one of the better AU or NZ Ale Malts, probably BB or Gladfield.

I tent to choose malt on a recipe by recipe basis, making the best choice for that beer. Couldn't be arsed filling the garage up with bags of malt as I have a good retailer who carries a much larger range than I can, has a better mill and that gives me the most choices.

Best beer I have ever brewed was a Hefeweizen made with 50/50 Weyermann Floor Malted Pills and Floor Malted Wheat, bittered with Hallertau Mittlefruh and fermented with Weihenstephan yeast.
Mark


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## good4whatAlesU (2/6/17)

Adr_0 said:


> A year or two ago I had two beers which had used Gladfield pils and both had a strong DMS. I not sure of the process used in brewing - perhaps the boil was short - but is it possible there is more SMM in the Gladfield pils? It's not really an issue if there is, it just needs to be boiled off.
> 
> It may have been infection but seemed like more than coincidence at the time.


Interesting reading above as last year I got some really bad brews from a pre-crushed Gladfield order (DMS?) I had to throw the brews out. Undrinkable. May have also been my fault rather than the maltsters. 

Since then I haven't had a problem, but I've been ordering whole grain and crushing it myself I don't know what the original problem was. 

Gladfield is my go to malt (Ale and Pils), but I'm biased being a Kiwi.


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## BrutusB (2/6/17)

Weyermann - Pale (majority of Pales/IPA/IIPA)
Simpsons - Golden Promise (anything dark or English)


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## Lord Raja Goomba I (2/6/17)

Short answer - the cheaper the better. But I won't touch JW/BB Ale malts for English Beers. It must be minimum Bairds Ale Malt. Preferably Maris Otter.

American beers you can get away with JW/BB, but if it's a 'one sack fits most styles' then English Pale Malts will do the trick brilliantly.

(Slightly OT, but I used a Pale Ale Malt in a Saison, and 20% of the base was rice to lighten it up. Awesome beer)

Don't be surprised if a 25kg sack doesn't last as long as you think. You buy the first one thinking "this will be mussive, I'll never get through it" and then you go out to mill some grain and realise that you're a bit short.

Another thing, don't over do the spec malts and if you don't use wheat based beers much, don't buy wheat in sacks.

Was discussing this with another brewer in human. We split a sack of Gladfields Dark Crystal (awesome malt), but we are both using it in everything because 12.5kg of spec is a large amount to have. Not making that mistake again.

Same thing with wheat. Unless I'm brewing a Weissbier (and I have a yeast pack I still haven't got to stir plate) wheat is pointless to have in large quantities. Yes I can use it as a bit of spec, but same point as the Gladfields Dark Crystal. So now I'll buy it for specific beers in specific amounts, not by the sack or half sack.


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## Adr_0 (2/6/17)

manticle said:


> My default boil is 90 minutes. Never noticed dms from gladfields.


Yeah I can't imagine you would personally end up with any in your beer, but wondered if you picked up any coming off the boil or had heard anything from other users. 

Talking only about the pils. Perhaps it's just corny?


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## Adr_0 (2/6/17)

good4whatAlesU said:


> Interesting reading above as last year I got some really bad brews from a pre-crushed Gladfield order (DMS?) I had to throw the brews out. Undrinkable. May have also been my fault rather than the maltsters.
> 
> Since then I haven't had a problem, but I've been ordering whole grain and crushing it myself I don't know what the original problem was.
> 
> Gladfield is my go to malt (Ale and Pils), but I'm biased being a Kiwi.


Yeah exactly. It could have been that a batch was kilned differently or for too long.

The first beer was on a Braumeister and was 90min but perhaps there was too much SMM in that particular batch to boil off. The second I don't have details for other than Gladfield pils being used.

I'm particularly sensitive to it, but hopefully it's something that was a particular batch or string of batches. Still, it's a good argument for a vigorous boil... 

My malt bag recommendations would second Weyermann Premium Pils and TF Maris Otter - floor malted MO as long as you're ok with every beer being delicious. 

I personally use a good chunk of Weyermann Munich II, either in German beers (20-80%) or as a good midrange filler in ales (10-20%). I wouldn't go with anyone but Weyermann for vienna and Munich as they can be very different products from other maltsters - typically darker and even sickly sweet.


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## DU99 (2/6/17)

currently have viking ale malt(i don't Buy JW),wheat and some amber and medium crystal.


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## fungrel (2/6/17)

The last year i have been going with 1 sack each of Weyermann:

Pale Ale
Vienna 
Wheat

Half sack of Wey Munich Light, and half of Munich Dark. Does the trick with most ale styles.

This bulk buy, I intent on brewing a lot of lagers so went with:

2x Wey Floor malted Bo Pils 
1/2 Munich light/dark

+ small amounts of caramunich ii, chocolate and carapils. Will use the leftovers from Pale Ale/Vienna in whiskey. I don't like the Aus malts as much, prefer the Euro.


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## damoninja (2/6/17)

I grain book, so whatever's suitable...


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## Benn (2/6/17)

As I'm a new AG homebrewer I don't have a great deal of experience with base malts other than the usual JW-trad, JWPils, MO, WeyPils etc. 
I'm currently onto my second sack of Viking Pale Malt however, and couldn't be happier based on my current needs. 
I use it in DSGA's, Black & standard AIPA's, APA's, Sour Ales, Experimentals & Pretty much anything that doesn't call for a hardline specific base malt. It fits nicely in my price range and I don't have to go out of my way to get it.
Dunno if I'm off track with the following but I like having some consistencies such as base malt, source water, yeast etc, while I'm learning. It's hard to make accurate comparisons and track outcomes when the recipes are of the same style but varied in basic ingredients. I like to mix it up but it's good to pick up where I left off with a recipe and not be *completely* lost in the woods.

...bit long winded I know, but it's Friday and I'm thirsty.
Cheers,


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## Lord Raja Goomba I (2/6/17)

Slighty OT - but who sells Viking Malt?


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## homebrewnewb (2/6/17)

Just to follow up on the OT'ness where are you guys purchasing from?


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## Coodgee (2/6/17)

I have often used golden promise in my pale ales and IPAs. Been giving gladfields American ale a go lately and it's at least as good. Good old marris otter for english styles and maltier American beers. Weyerman's pils for some stuff.


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## shacked (2/6/17)

Depends on what you like to brew, I use:


Belgians / Sour: Castle Pilsner
English and Stouts: Simpsons MO or Golden Promise
Euro beers: Weyermann 
Everything else: Gladfield American Ale, Vienna and Wheat
Having said that, I had an English IPA that did reasonably well in competition and I used Gladield Ale as the base. Gladfield also make some unique specialty malts, my favs being supernova and toffee. Definitely worth giving a few kilos of those two a go.


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## Qualia (2/6/17)

Thanks everyone for your recommendations.

I'm looking forward to seeing my wife's expression when I come home with my weight in grain!

Have decided to go with:

25kg — Weyermann Pils
25kg — Simpsons Golden Promise
25kg — Gladfield American Ale Malt
10kg — Weyermann Munich
10kg — malted wheat

That should keep me out of trouble for a while...or get me into...will find out!


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## Randai (2/6/17)

I'd say my rule of thumb is give it a shot if I think I am going to be interested in it, but honestly take note of how long these sacks sit around. If it sits there for over a year with a full sack, get half a sack, got half a sack get less.

So for example, my ale malts, such as BB, Glad, TFFMO, they go really quickly.
I did get a half a sack of gladfield crystal, and whilst I am a fan of crystal in beers (I shared the sack with LRG), its just too much to get half a sack.

I did get a sack of munich 2 which I loved, but honestly would go with half a sack next time.


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## droid (2/6/17)

Pils 60~90%
Wheat 10-40%
Caramunich 1
Carapils
Oats


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## Adr_0 (2/6/17)

Qualia said:


> Thanks everyone for your recommendations.
> I'm looking forward to seeing my wife's expression when I come home with my weight in grain!
> Have decided to go with:
> 25kg — Weyermann Pils
> ...


Looks good, but I do think the Munich II is a better pick unless you're going for light wheats and light coloured lagers. For everything else Munich II does a much better job.


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## Randai (2/6/17)

Qualia said:


> Thanks everyone for your recommendations.
> 
> I'm looking forward to seeing my wife's expression when I come home with my weight in grain!
> 
> ...


Actually with all of that I might recommend thinking about how much you brew.
So with the above that is something like 95 kg of base grain. At around 5kg (or so depending) of grain per 19 litre keg you are looking at 19 batches of beer.
Now that is if you used this all without additional crystal, specialty grains and so on.
Which if I were to look at this, for myself to get through something like this at roughly a batch every 3 weeks, that is something like 13-14 months. Which I would then recommend buying less so maybe if you could get in a bulk buy that happens later on and do a string of similar base beers.
So if you got the Golden Promise I'd go on a string of british beers, bitter, stouts, maybe a big beer.

Or go continental with the pilsner and go for some pils, belgian style beers, dark lagers, marzen/oktoberfest.

But if I were to look at the above I'd say, go Pilsner, Golden Promise/Maris Otter and Munich or Wheat depending on if you love wheat beers or malty beers. I think you could get away with getting 1 sack and half a sack. Say Pilsner and Munich or Wheat and go to town on a lovely string of hefes weiss beers, pilsners, belgian pales/trippels or oktobefests, dunkels, pilsners, belgians schwarz.


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## Qualia (2/6/17)

Yes good point Randai.

I aim for 35L batches so normally go through 10kg of grain a batch and average a batch every three weeks, so I'm confident I'll drink my way through it.

I was wondering if Golden Promise and American Ale Malt were too similar in class. Therefore I'll drop the AAM.

Essentially my plan is to use a limited set of core ingredients of malt, hops and yeast in differing proportions to educate myself as to what flavour profiles I can get from various combinations.

I'm still a bottler so I plan to cellar the beer as then I'll have the opportunity to compare batches directly in the future. 

Cheers!


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## TSMill (2/6/17)

Agree with the observations re. Gladfield pilsner and dms, only time I've detected it. Latest batch I increased my yeast pitch and have no issues but definitely think it generates more than other pils malts I have used.


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## Randai (2/6/17)

Qualia said:


> Yes good point Randai.
> 
> I aim for 35L batches so normally go through 10kg of grain a batch and average a batch every three weeks, so I'm confident I'll drink my way through it.
> 
> ...


Cool, well if you get through that much, then you should be fine. But I think its okay to drop one of the sacks at this stage and try it next time and then you know you are comparing the fresh grain to fresh when you take notes.

Hope it goes well, it is great to just be able to have a weekend brew that doesn't involve any purchase and you get it sorted on the day with what you have on hand.

Edit: Also I've found that I have become a bit more lenient in recipes when it comes to using what I have, which has in turn actually made some great beers, but also some average ones, but does teach you what you like. e.g I worked out I really don't like PoR hops, I tried and tried, but nope. Peated malted == nope for me as well.


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## Batz (2/6/17)

Adr_0 said:


> Looks good, but I do think the Munich II is a better pick unless you're going for light wheats and light coloured lagers. For everything else Munich II does a much better job.


Spot on Adr_0

And as one who brews quite a few Munich Dunkels, I can work my way through a full sack easily . I don't even bother with Munich I anymore.


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## DU99 (2/6/17)

LRG...HomemakeIt sells it


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## Randai (2/6/17)

Batz said:


> Spot on Adr_0
> 
> And as one who brews quite a few Munich Dunkels, I can work my way through a full sack easily . I don't even bother with Munich I anymore.


A good munich dunkel, man that is a great thing. mmmmmm malty beers.


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## Blind Dog (3/6/17)

Lord Raja Goomba I said:


> Slighty OT - but who sells Viking Malt?


homemakeit, down here in Mexico. Never seen it anywhere else.


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## Blind Dog (3/6/17)

Go to grains are

Simpsons maris otter
Weyermann premium pils
Viking pale ale
Bestmalz wheat

Spec grains I tend to buy in 1 or 2 kilos unless there's a bulk buy going on


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