OVHA Chat

I am wondering what are the differences in base malts. For example, can you substitute 2-row malt for 6-row or maris otter malt for a belgian pilsner? What is the most universal base malt to use and/or buy? I am going to try my first all-grain batch very soon and I want to buy my base grain in bulk. I will be brewing pale, session and brown ales.

Just starting in all grain...use US 2 row. It's cheap, versatile, and has a high diastatic power to convert large adjunct mashes.
Get to know your equipment and get your brewing methods down. The lightest grain flavor of Belgian Pilsner malt will be lost if you over shoot your hot liquor volume and have to boil for 3 hrs to get the original gravity you needed.

john mills wrote:Just starting in all grain...use US 2 row. It's cheap, versatile, and has a high diastatic power to convert large adjunct mashes.
Get to know your equipment and get your brewing methods down. The lightest grain flavor of Belgian Pilsner malt will be lost if you over shoot your hot liquor volume and have to boil for 3 hrs to get the original gravity you needed.

As Johns noted. Keep it simple, a generic Brown Ale, British Ale or Bitter recipe should be pretty simple. Single infusion mash, and it'll taste fine even if you miss the gravity by a good bit. Nothing too fancy on the grain bill, and nothing gummy enough to get a stuck runoff or anything like that. You need to learn your equipment and be able to make a constant beer every time.
A wise brewer once said
"The difference between a good brewer and a great brewer is their ability to control the brewing process"
And that takes time, practice, patience and plenty of beer..

Base malts have a lot to do with the taste and character of a beer, so there is no one universal one. You could use a good 2-row for everything, but your lagers won't be right and it is probably impossible to do a decoction mash with it (and you don't need to anyway).

My rule of thumb is to use a good 2-row ale malt (Marris Otter, Briess, etc) for all my ale style beers unless there is a reason to use one specific to a style. You can substitute 6-row if you need more diastatic power to convert large amounts (more than say 25% of the grist) of adjuncts like corn, rice. or unmalted grain like barley flakes, or if you just want to. I'd not use 6-row for a low adjunct grist because you are very likely to get "husk" flavor. I use Europils for most of my lagers, but if i want to do a decoction mash, I use "real" Pilsner malt -- it works much better for that purpose, and isn't very good for plain step infusion brewing.

Lagers are best made with lager malts and you should use a step or decoction mash with them - if you don't you risk serious haze problems and low quality. Large malts, especially Pilsner malts, and quite different than pale malts, and won't interchange very well.

Peter

For your first batches doing all grain, i also recommend a good 2-row pale malt and a pale ale or brown ale recipe. Keep it simple so you can concentrate of getting the mash and sparge done properly without using a complicated procedure -- the first one can be nerve-wracking and messy, mine were. You have to juggle large quantities of hot liquids and wet grain, not the time tor lots of minor details. You can use a simple one-step infusion (add grain to hot water) and concentrate on getting the pH, temperature, and times correct.

After you've done a couple batches, you can branch out and do whatever you want.

Malt is cheapest in 25kg bags, of course, and this also complicates things in that one should really use it up within a couple months of opening the bag. I get around 5 batches of beer from a bag, so plan accordingly. I typically buy lager malts this time of year and use them up by the end of the winter as lagers need quite a bit of storage time before bottling. With some luck, I can lay down a supply of lagers for the summer, and concentrate on making ales then when it's too hot for lagers in the basement.

Sounds like I will try an American two-row along with an easy recipe.

Thanks.

You can't go wrong with learning to brew using American 2-row. It makes up for a lot of mistakes while you learn. Just keep reading about mash variables and you will know more of the effects of using pilsner and specialties down the road. Plus it will give you a better taste/aroma knowledge to judge changes later. ;)