Pilsner malt help

marcelo · 01-09-2009, 09:40 PM

I live in Brazil and is very hard to find pale ale malt, so I order one bag of 70 pounds of cargil pilsner malt, and i dont know if is 2 row or 6 row, there is nothing on the bag.
Since i never used a pale ale malt, i just need to know if there is to much difference in pale ale to pilsner, or can i just replace in the recipe?

Bob · 01-09-2009, 10:26 PM

Cargill Pilsner malt comes in two varieties - IdaPils and EuroPils. Both are malted from North American Harrington (and other) barley. Harrington is a two-row barley which makes excellent Pils malt.

Pils malt can require a few extra steps in the mash, when compared to "pale ale" malts. European Pils malts are generally less well-modified than domestic Pils malts and generally require a protein rest in the mash to reduce chill-haze precursors. Worts produced from Pils malts should be vigorously boiled for at least 90 minutes to drive off dimethyl sulfide (DMS), which imparts a quite objectionable flavor to the finished beer.

You might be able to do a 1:1 swap for pale ale malt in your recipes. You'll have to experiment a bit to figure out the extract you can expect from your particular batch of malt. I suspect your extract will be low - Pils almost always is, compared to pale ale malt. But how much is impossible to predict without a detailed malt analysis.

Cheers,

Bob

eriktlupus · 01-09-2009, 10:29 PM

if there is still a labelc from cargil on the bag it should contain a lot#. use that to go on thier website and look up the specs on that batch of malt and here's a link to help understand the numbers there BMG - Understanding Malt Analysis Sheets -- How to Become Fluent in Malt Analysis Interpretation

marcelo · 01-10-2009, 08:53 AM

what do you sugest to a protein rest 30min. 122f ?

Bob · 01-10-2009, 12:32 PM

Maybe not that long. 20 minutes should be quite sufficient.

Bob