I want to try one of the craft options on my next brew. I know I have access to Root Shoot and proximity but I may be able to get others. What’s your favorite craft maltster, especially for a great Pilsner malt?
Where are you based? Sugar Creek in IN will ship directly to homebrewers, and their malts are generally fantastic.
That said, I’m totally unable to tell the difference between maltsters when it’s Pilsner malt. I’ve done taste tests both with the grain and with SMaSH lagers. I buy my Pilsner from Sugar Creek to support a small, local maltster, but I’m pretty sure I could buy it from Briess and get the same results.
Note that this is not at all true with other base malts: pale ale malts, and especially Munich and Vienna. Then the difference between maltsters is huge.
I'm a big fan of epiphany craft malt. I've used their pilsner, pale base malt, rye, wheat, and Munich style malts and have been very pleased with all of them. They are also my local maltster, I'm in NC, so it's nice to support my local brand as well. They are available at Atlanticbrewsupply.com. highly recommend.
I'm in the UK and although I don't brew lagers I buy pilsner/lager malt to brew blonde summer ales and the best I've had is Chateau pilsner from Belgium. Dingemans is good too. I like the Belgian stuff.
For me, it's Mecca's Pelton Pilsner or Stone Path Pilsner...Stone Path is a local Mass maltster, but besides malts they get from farms in Maine, they also are partners with Ireks and get grain from German farms in Franconia that they malt here in Mass. They also sell a lot of Irek's specialty malts too. Their giant combo germination/kilning drum is a German made Schulz system and they are only one of six maltsters in the world to use this system.
I've never tried Proximity as a comparison but I keep Root Shoot's pilsner and pale malt on hand for base malt always. It's a little more expensive than the larger suppliers but the flavor is better. Their pilsner malt has more flavor than most of the larger suppliers, both domestic and international. It's not a coarse flavor--there's just more depth and interesting notes to it.
That can be a benefit or a detriment, depending on your brewing goals. Their grain is almost too flavorful for some of the more delicate pale lager styles if your goal is emulating particular beers. Although I use Root Shoot in Belgian beers, it doesn't have that subtle grape flavor you find in Belgian and French pilsner malt.
If you're looking for something that is not as bland as Briess but not as expensive or quite as interesting, Rahr and Great Western would be good options although not really craft maltsters.
This is exactly the info I was looking for, thank you! I do make a decent bit of lighter pilsners so maybe the root shoot Pilsner will be a bit much on its own.
Just realized I can get the pelton malt off northern brewer, is this malt not “too much?” I like making lighter lagers so I don’t want something super overpowering but rather that will deliver something a little more. I saw some people comparing this to the Weyermann barke Pilsner. If this is a fair comparison then it’s an easy choice for me because I love barke Pilsner lol
It's not "too much" and is kind of similar to Barke, which I love too...but a little more of a note of grass with Pelton. You can also order by the pound directly from Mecca, or by exact amounts needed from F.H. Steinbart in Oregon. I have ordered from both, shipping can be a little slow to East Coast from both, but Northern Brewer has been wicked slow with shipping post Covid too.
Thanks for the info. It’s actually similar, a little cheaper, to get a 55lb sack straight from Mecca grade even with the shipping vs northern brewers free shipping, at least where I am.
Weyermann Pils is great, but I've been on a Mecca Grade kick for awhile now. Free shipping from Northern Brewer. Also, I recently got IREKS Pilsner malt from Texas Brewing Co and it's fantastic. Done a Festbier and Kolsch so far and both came out great. BUT, shipping more than doubles the price.
Post time 2022-12-7 15:01:13
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