U.S. Pale malt or Pilsner malt?

**Reno_eNVy** · 10-27-2009, 07:16 AM

So the roommate wants to make his first beer and wants to keep it under $20. He suggested a Honey Orange Hefe, which is awesome because they're cheap and ready to drink super fast!

So I wrote up a recipe for him but not sure whether to use US 2-row pale malt or German Pilsner malt. I'm using Honey malt instead of actual honey (fermented honey doesn't actually taste anything like honey.)

4# Wheat Malt
3# Pilsner (2-row) German
1# Wheat (flaked)
0.75# Honey Malt
0.5oz Tett (60 min)
0.5oz Tett (10 min)
4 oranges, zest (5 min)

So here's what I'm wondering about. Never used pils before... do we need to do a decoction mash? Rather not, we'd like to keep it simple. I was figuring when doing a typical single infusion mash the 1# flaked wheat should take care of the increased body you'd get from decoction. Are my assumptions correct?

Thanks in advance!

hal2814 · 10-27-2009, 01:06 PM

I've used Rahr and Wyermann (did I spell that right) pilsner malts in single infusion with a 150F mash 1.5qts/lb. Both have worked well (and both were smash recipes).

**Reno_eNVy** · 10-29-2009, 12:09 AM

Thanks hal, going out to buy the recipe right now!