What's your main base malt?

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JW export pilsner, because I''ve been brewing exclusively lagers for a while. But I also follow style when I can.
 
For my ales I have used Joe White Traditional Ale and Barrett Burston Ale malts, both giving good results. For my lagers I've been using Weyermann Pils malt. I just grabbed a 25kg sack of TF Maris Otter from Craftbrewer yesterday which I will be using some of in my next batch brewing on Saturday, to see what that's like. I still have enough BB Ale and Wey Pils malt for a couple more batches of each as well. I'm probably still in an experimental phase at the moment so I don't really have a "main" base malt as such. I also don't really brew strictly to style either apart from using ale malt for ales and pils malt for lagers. All beers I have made with the 3 malts I have used, I have been quite happy with (except one, but that wasn't a base malt issue). Looking forward to tasting the MO based brew, I've heard good things about it from a number of people. :)
 
bullsneck said:
I've attended brew days with you. You have a strict 'no pants' policy.
Correct. No-one watching me brew is allowed pants.

I invite a lot of lingerie models to my brewdays but their hectic schedules make attendance somewhere between seldom and never.
 
I've been using the Barrett Burston ale malt for my paler ales for a while now. It costs as much as the sack in freight charges to get it to the NT, but it still works out cheaper than smaller orders. I just recently started using Maris Otter for anything darker.
 
I jus tried dingemans pilsner for the first time in a saison. I figured belgian beer belgian malt. Compared to my usual best pilz, it was crazy pale in colour. Smelt great in the mash. If it goes alright I might switch to it instead of best pilz, as I hardly brew lagers. Haven't tasted it yet though.
 
For my UK ales I have recently got onto Bairds low-nitrogen Pale Ale Malt. Also known as Pearl ("Perle" was probably a typo on the CB website, it isn't actually spelled the same as the German hop "Perle").

For all malt brews it seems to break better in the boil and is a nice nutty bready malt, but not as rich as MO.

For anything requiring adjuncts, i.e. blonde ales, I use JW or Malteurop pale ale malts. MHB sells Malteurop - a Geelong maltster.
 
Due the inability to get malt here in Tassie, we are pretty much restricted to bulk buys for our malts. I have been predominatly a JW Ale malt, but also have goodstocks of Marris Otter. I recently purchased 2 bags of Bairds Pale so while I do have a variety to call upon, JW Ale has been my got to malt.
Cheers
LB
 
I'm a malthead. In AG I mostly use MO for English and Amerucan ales, GP in some English and Belgians. In partial mash I go with Joe White Vienna, because it has good diastatic power to convert disproportionate amounts of specialty malts and contributes malt flavours of its own,offsetting the diluting effects of DME.
 
I switched from MO to GP and is amazing. I really like the malty character it brings to my beers and it's not too powerful so can be balanced out well. That being said I still buy wey pils for some brews and Vienna for others. GP is just very versatile.
 
Understand this one's a little old now but all things remain the same.

Finding that I'm liking Golden Promise for most styles as base malt. It's just a nice malt with an ale spec ebc. I like the taste over BB, JW or even Weyerman for styles such as Megaswill lager and pale ale's

I like TF Maris Otter for Brit styles such as English IPA, pale ir Special bitter. It just has that little bit more complexity over any other you miss if not using it.

I love Weyerman pils malt for pilsners and witbiers. Can't beat it and most EU breweries probably agree there

I'm still torn between Weyermann and BB for their malted wheat. The Weyerman looks rubbish with it's shriveled little husks and can even smell weird too. Kinda chemically until it's a little older but tastes fantastic. The BB wheat looks A1 and also tastes fantastic so probably happy to go Aussie for wheat next time.
 
For my ales I have used Joe White Traditional Ale and Barrett Burston Ale malts, both giving good results. For my lagers I've been using Weyermann Pils malt. I just grabbed a 25kg sack of TF Maris Otter from Craftbrewer yesterday which I will be using some of in my next batch brewing on Saturday, to see what that's like. I still have enough BB Ale and Wey Pils malt for a couple more batches of each as well. I'm probably still in an experimental phase at the moment so I don't really have a "main" base malt as such. I also don't really brew strictly to style either apart from using ale malt for ales and pils malt for lagers. All beers I have made with the 3 malts I have used, I have been quite happy with (except one, but that wasn't a base malt issue). Looking forward to tasting the MO based brew, I've heard good things about it from a number of people. :)

Wow this is going back Kels'!

I remember you getting right into the Maris Otter for most things, are you still loving it? What's changed since this post for you in 5 long years brewing? Will be interesting to hear. I find brewing is like a long enjoyable journey of change

Cheers!
 
I kept using Maris Otter for all my ales, for my tastes it works in every one of them and I still use it to this day. I just bought a bag of Gladfields ale malt in the last bulk buy to try but it's meant to be pretty similar anyway so I don't know if I'll notice much difference there. Just gotta use up the rest of the MO first. Stuck with Weyermann for the lager malt, but switched from the 'normal' pilsner malt to Bohemian pilsner malt. I've used both the regular and floor malted versions of the Bo pils malt and while there's not a great deal of difference, I probably prefer the floor malted one. It's just not always available. I've been making a few German lagers with the Bo pils malt lately and it's just as good if not better than the 'normal' pils malt. Or maybe my recipes and brewing techniques have improved :p
 
Maris Otter for British Ales, JW Traditional for Aussie, JW Pilsner for "lagers" and "American Pale Ales" (I refuse to call them IPAs or Pale Ales.) You can't taste the malt in Hopster beers, so it isn't really important.
 
I like to use Pilsener for my lagers, pale ales and Belgians, Maris for stouts/ porters/ browns and most English ales.
 

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