# What To Brew With Chateau Malt Pale Ale?



## pyrosx (20/2/12)

So inevitably when one gets into a hobby, one makes a strange purchasing decision or three, simply because they didnt know any better.

I bought a 25kg bag of Chateau Malt Pale Ale (http://www.esbrewing.com.au/castle-chateau-pale-ale.html). I've brewed a couple of batches with it, and it's great... but now that I know a little more about what's going on, i'm realising that it perhaps isn't the most ideal malt for APA's and the like. 

Clearly the answer seems to be: go buy a more normal pale or pilsener malt for the APAs, and use the rest of the bag of belgian malt on belgian beers - but maybe some Pommy recipes might work as well? Or other styles?

I can't find much mention of the specific brand on the site - but are there any close substitutes?

I've also looked through the recipeDB, and can't find much in the way of belgian style recipes. I don't much trust the rest of the internet, so does anyone have any suitable recipe links that are tried and tested?


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## alien13 (20/2/12)

pyrosx said:


> I've also looked through the recipeDB, and can't find much in the way of belgian style recipes. I don't much trust the rest of the internet, so does anyone have any suitable recipe links that are tried and tested?



If you can't find anything in the DB, try having a look over on HBT, they have some pretty good recipes over there as well, quite a large selection to look through 

www.homebrewtalk.com/f82/


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## pyrosx (21/2/12)

alien13 said:


> www.homebrewtalk.com/f82/



Thanks - ive had a good look through the Belgian's area, and still can't find any recipe that doesn't use Pilsener malt as a base... hmmm


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## bkmad (21/2/12)

pyrosx said:


> Thanks - ive had a good look through the Belgian's area, and still can't find any recipe that doesn't use Pilsener malt as a base... hmmm



There's a few recipes on the castle malt website in the pdf brochure here: http://www.castlemalting.com/Default.asp?N...anguage=English

Otherwise the description of that malt suggests it is suitable for pale ales, bitters etc so should actually be ok for APA's and English style ales. What do you find about it that doesn't suit APA's?


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## pyrosx (21/2/12)

bkmad said:


> There's a few recipes on the castle malt website in the pdf brochure here: http://www.castlemalting.com/Default.asp?N...anguage=English
> 
> Otherwise the description of that malt suggests it is suitable for pale ales, bitters etc so should actually be ok for APA's and English style ales. What do you find about it that doesn't suit APA's?



It's pretty much just the fact that it's quite dark for a base malt - 8-9 EBC does not make a very pale Pale Ale  I realise that the "pale" doesn't necessarily mean light blonde pissweak colour, but starting so dark with the base doesnt give me a lot of room to move in terms of specialty malts without turning it into an almost-stout.

I think it has a bit of a darker malt flavour to it as well, though without side-by-side comparing a lighter pilsener malt i can't be 100% sure of what i'm tasting.


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## bkmad (21/2/12)

pyrosx said:


> It's pretty much just the fact that it's quite dark for a base malt - 8-9 EBC does not make a very pale Pale Ale  I realise that the "pale" doesn't necessarily mean light blonde pissweak colour, but starting so dark with the base doesnt give me a lot of room to move in terms of specialty malts without turning it into an almost-stout.
> 
> I think it has a bit of a darker malt flavour to it as well, though without side-by-side comparing a lighter pilsener malt i can't be 100% sure of what i'm tasting.



Fair enough. That's interesting to hear as I was looking at trying some out instead of my usual purchase of Joe White pale. It sounds like it might suit English styles more - which I do a bit of, so I reckon I'll give it a go.

I've got some of the castle pilsner malt that I'm trying in a Belgian Blonde. Tastings from the hydrometer are promising so far.


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## mckenry (15/6/12)

bkmad said:


> Fair enough. That's interesting to hear as I was looking at trying some out instead of my usual purchase of Joe White pale. It sounds like it might suit English styles more - which I do a bit of, so I reckon I'll give it a go.
> 
> I've got some of the castle pilsner malt that I'm trying in a Belgian Blonde. Tastings from the hydrometer are promising so far.



Any updates on the Chateau range of malts? I accidently came across this malt and hadn't heard of it. This is the only thread with Chateau in the title and I too usually go for JW, but interested if its good gear.


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## bkmad (15/6/12)

Well the Belgian Blonde I mentioned above was a great beer. The pils malt is definitely better for euro beers than JW, especially given the minimal price difference. Unfortunately I can't commment on how good it is compared with other euro malts such as weyerman as I've never used them, but I would recommend chateau malt for euro beers over JW. I've done an Alt using the chateau pils and munich which was also a great beer. I've recently bought a bag of the pale ale malt. I can't comment on this yet as the first beer with it is still in the fermenter. From what I've tried of chateau malts I'm a fan.


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