JW Pilsener Malt

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Lord Raja Goomba I

Prisoner of Sobriety
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So, as some of you may know, I upped and moved south to Tassie and got rid of my equipment and ingredients up in Brisneyland.

Courtesy of a fortuitous association with a maltser at a local malting place, I know have acquired 50kg of JW Pilsener Malt (25kg of it will be made into a wash for a spiritual friend..., so 25kg for me). I would normally use Weyermann's Pils, but beggars-choosers-etc, hey?

Realistically, I don't use much Pils malt at all - I generally go for fuller bodied malts as the base for an IPA, APA, EPA, BB, you get the hint.

I've also come into a large quantity of hops - some American, Aussie, English and a tiny bit of Euro stuff. This was courtesy of an extremely generous AHB member, who I won't name unless he PMs me and wants me to.

Whilst I still, as cheaply as possible, try to acquire what I need to get brewing equipment-wise, I thought I'd ponder my first Tassie brewed recipe.

I know this will be a "how long is a piece of string" type of question, but what can I do with JW Pils malt? I'll list a few parameters that narrow the field a bit:

  • My abovementioned beer styles I normally brew appear not to be compatible with this malt
  • I can get hold of whatever dry yeast I need, within reason
  • I have the hops to fit most styles of beer
  • It's going to get cold here soon, so I don't really want to drink much Pilsener, Lager, that sort of thing. I want meatier beers
  • AFAIK, I should be able to access some basic spec malts locally from the health food shop (I've been told in 500g quantities). But otherwise, no large quantities of base malt (or any malt) at a reasonable price. When I can, I'll order in larger quantities and have it shipped, but this exercise is 'what can I do with what I have?'.
  • I'm going to use a coffee grinder until I can afford a mill.
I'll leave this to the creative genuis of AHB, and hopefully by the time I have the equipment, I'll have some interesting ideas to implement.
 
you could use the pils malt as the base for porters and stouts as most of the flavor comes from the spec malt.
 
Why not brew and APA or whatever with all pils malt? You might be pleasantly surprised. Choose any yeast you like or can get your hands on.

If you don't want to invest in anything at this stage, then take it as an opportunity to think outside the box and throw all your theoretical knowledge over board for a while. It's good fun!
 
Florian said:
Why not brew and APA or whatever with all pils malt? You might be pleasantly surprised. Choose any yeast you like or can get your hands on.

If you don't want to invest in anything at this stage, then take it as an opportunity to think outside the box and throw all your theoretical knowledge over board for a while. It's good fun!
Thanks florian.

I was thinking that, but I don't want to (given a winemaker is cutting up my keg) make an average beer and say "this is what I can produce". Bit of fear of failure coming in.

I think that I'll use (if possible in my new system) a 90-120min boil and see if I can get some of that caramelisation and melanoidins kicking on, to make it a bit maltier.

I'll have a crack at porters and stouts once I have supplies of something I really really miss.
 
Goomba,
I used this malt as a base for everything for years. Only recently have I used JW Trad Ale. I bought this as my LHBS ran out of export pils. Being in NSW, JW has it pretty well covered.
The way I see it, you can still make great ales with Pils base, but much harder to make great lagers with Ale base, so that's why I always bought Pils.
You'll be fine.
JW has an undeserved reputation as being inferior. IMHO that is BS.
BTW, I never detected any DMS from a 60min boil.
Looking forward to your thoughts when you're done.
mckenry
 
GalBrew said:
Out of curiosity Goomba, what is your preferred base malt when making pales IPAs and the like?
Bairds Perle Ale Malt or Thomas Fawcett Perle Ale Malt when CB ran out of the Bairds. I love the mouth feel, but the maltiness is never too sweet or dominating.

Generally a bit of Heritage crystal and something else on top. Often a little bit of Rye and/or something else.

Thanks mckenry. Maybe subscribe and I'll try to post results when I get onto it.

I've never used JW, as we didn't have it in Brisvegas, but I live/work close to the factory.

Goomba
 
If you want an IPA, brew an IPA. If you want a stout, you could roast some and brew a stout. It is not really a limiting malt in my opinion, it is fairly bland and just light so will take on other flavourings easily.
 
I tend to agree. If you can't brew a good APA with pils as the base, you're doing something wrong.

It won't be the same, but you can add maltiness with spec grains.
 
tiprya said:
I tend to agree. If you can't brew a good APA with pils as the base, you're doing something wrong.

It won't be the same, but you can add maltiness with spec grains.
You're probably right, and given I've been drinking commercial beer for the last few months, I probably won't notice it so much.

Whereas, if I was brewing straight after an APA with Perle Ale Malt, I would notice the difference big time.

So long boil, some good crystal and something roasted to touch it up a bit. Mash high, boil long and tons of hops at 10 minutes.

US 05, which reminds me, I've got to get some more......

Goomba
 
I use this malt for every beer I brew bar english styles. It's incredibly versatile and at less than $40 per 25kg sack at Kegking, I can't justify going past it.

Like Mckenry I think JW cop a lot of undeserved shit... especially if you are making an Aussie or American style beer, there's nothing wrong with em IMO.

The other reason I love it is because every second beer I brew is an APA and I find using pils malt as a base lends a certain crispness to APAs that I find in commercial examples and I can't get from using Pale Ale malt. I find I get a muddiness when I brew an APA with ale malt that I dont get with pils malt.

Just personal preference at the end of the day but I highly recommend you give it a shot (or a few shots to make sure).
 
$40 !!! Wow its around $60 in Sydney
stakka82 said:
I use this malt for every beer I brew bar english styles. It's incredibly versatile and at less than $40 per 25kg sack at Kegking, I can't justify going past it.
 
By spec malts, I was suggesting something like some Vienna or Munich blended with the pils to get colour/'maltiness' more in the region of the perle base beers.

Like I said, it won't be the same, but I use this kind of base for my APAs and I find them thoroughly enjoyable.
 
Goomba, the JW Export Pilsner makes for a nice base malt in APA's and IPA's. Haven't done much with it in medium/full bodied styles other than a couple of early experiments with English Style Bitters which weren't ovewhemingly good - but never re-tweaked them.

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how good APA's and Hoppier IPA can be when done with light body mash profile. With JW Ex Pils, it doesn't have as much of the DMS precursor material as some of the German Pils Malts. 60-90minute boil time is fine.

A small melanoidin malt addition should add to the complexity if you're looking for it, but will tend to get lost amongst the various crystals and darker malts if you're going to the dark side.

An interesting black IPA can be done up with just Pilsner Malt, Midnight wheat and some 60L or 120L Crystal or if you want to keep it pale, go with JW Pils, 10L and go nuts on the hops.

Personally, i wouldn't hesitate to use it in your favourite brews.

Enjoy Tassie.

Martin
 
mckenry said:
$40 !!! Wow its around $60 in Sydney
Keg king it's low $40's from memory, then you get a 10% cash discount. Win.
 
I tend not to brew with JW anymore as I prefer other malts but I used to use the pils and trad ale a fair bit. I made my first hop bursted apa with some pils, some ale and some munich (crystal and wheat in there too - my grists are much simpler now). Delicious beer. Malty and plenty of hops.

Anyway upshot is that despite my preference for other malts now, the export pils is fine as a base for most beer styles. Wouldn't worry too much about DMS with this malt but if you are concerned, just lengthen the boil.
 
It's a great, and cheap base malt. Use lots of spec malts to get where you want, it's great in ales. I tried making pale lagers with it but they weren't very good, shit actually. I now use BB Galaxy for lagers. However, having said that I'm also a lot more experienced with lagers now and that probably says it all.
Anyway, there is no such thing as bad malt, it's just that some are better than others.

Also you're going to freeze your tits off in winter coming from Brisvegas.

-=Steve=-
 
Have to agree that there is nothing wrong with JW malts.
I think that they just lack a bit of depth of flavour when compared to some of the British and euro malts. I find JW is fine where there is lots of late hops or plenty of spec malts that perhaps mask a little missing flavour profile in the base malts.

To be honest I don't use much JW these days.

Cheers
Chris
 
Brewed a lot of beers using JW pilsner malt - havent had much luck brewing lagers with it, but I don't think that is what you are after anyway.
I brewed a baltic porter ar %7.5 - a ripping beer, which got a great reception from brewers and non brewers alike. Took a little time to come good but less than 3 months. I figure you could brew any beer you want from the pils malt, and if its free, who cares, just brew it. Got to be better than buying beers.
Cheers
LagerBomb
p.s. I reckon we will be over sometime this weekend, if we are I get the equipment over to you, If I dont leave it by the front door that is.
 
Ohh, goodie @Lagerbomb. Alls I need is a gas bottle and someone (who I've sort of organised) to chop the top from the keg I acquired.

Sweet! Might be brewing next month (which is about when I'll have talked SWMBO to let me).

Goomba
 
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