Share your staple malt recommendations...

[shacked]

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.

 

[Qualia]

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!

 

[Randai]

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.

 

[droid]

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

 

[Adr_0]

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!

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.

 

[Randai]

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!

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.

 

[Qualia]

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!

 

[TSMill]

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.

 

[Randai]

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!

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.

 

[Batz]

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.

 

[DU99]

LRG...HomemakeIt sells it

 

[Randai]

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.

 

[Blind Dog]

Slighty OT - but who sells Viking Malt?

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

 

[Blind Dog]

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