pils malt...

am i the only one that doesn't care for it?

just cracked my imperial rye saison and while it doesn't dominate, i have to say - it is my least favorite malt. pils comes through more than any other malt short of MO for me...

I'm curious as to what brand of pils you are using.

I like Pils....as long as it right for the style of beer i.e. Belgians, lagers, wheats....

I like pilsner as well. I've found a lot of the light-malt beers I'd made in the past (blonde ales and the like) didn't quite do it for me when I was using just 2-row. They seemed "bland" from a malt characteristic. Now I usually put at least 50% pils in beers like that, and it's made everything much tastier.

Briess Pils is my favorite base malt. It's paler and milder than the European ones I've used, which seem to be stronger in the beany flavor.

jtakacs said:

am i the only one that doesn't care for it?

just cracked my imperial rye saison and while it doesn't dominate, i have to say - it is my least favorite malt. pils comes through more than any other malt short of MO for me...

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How long are you boiling for?

I agree about pils ability to come through, and i didn't care for it either. That surprised me in my first batches with it considering how simple it is. Now that I'm overseas I can't get 2-row or pale ale malt easily. So I'm using pils in everything. In my batches here though, I don't notice that flavor, which without an old beer to taste again I'm not able to describe it. I'm now using Australian grown barley malted in China and bottled water. Before I used my well water and probably a continental malt, but it could have been Breiss (NB is my LHBS). I credit the change in water, since my well water is quite hard and high in iron more than give credit to my Chinese/Aussie malt.

I'm considering skipping pale malts and going all pils malt (well also plus vienna, munich, wheat, etc.). I really like what I've been doing with lagers with everything from light and crisp to rich and creamy. I want to transfer that over to ales and see how they taste. Especially foam! I can generate massive rock steady foam in my lagers, but my pale malt driven ales don't come close. I also simply need to practice more with pale malt - that would help

I love me some good continental pils malt. I agree with you that it really comes through the beer, but I actually love that about it. I use it as the dominant base malt in many of my beers.

I've wanted to try Pils in a few ales. I've been told you need a 90 minute boil to drive off the DMS. Is this true?

The soft sweet flavor of pils is OK in some styles but I have to say I like the character that a little more kilning gives to a standard 2-row. If I couldn't only have one malt it'd be standard 2-row.

been using weyermann's floor-malted bohemian pils. It made me an excellent golden strong and czech pilsner. I get alot of protein break at the start of the boil with it. I removed it as it came up to boil. Maybe the excess protein is causing some of the flavors people don't like? dunno

DonMagee said:

I've wanted to try Pils in a few ales. I've been told you need a 90 minute boil to drive off the DMS. Is this true?

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I've done both 90 and 60 and haven't noticed any DMS in either.

No doubt pils has the most protein of any base malt I use. I have to rake the grain bed when I'm running off or it sticks, and I still get a ton of hot/cold break. It kind of affects my efficiency since I try not to transfer the break material.

barrooze said:

I've done both 90 and 60 and haven't noticed any DMS in either.

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I haven't picked up DMS in my 60-minute boils with Pils malt (my boils are usually quite vigorous), but I've gone to 90-minute boils on all beers as of the last 6-8 batches.

I'm not sure if it makes a real difference, but I read enough brewing literature to make me believe that as a process step, it's good insurance.

gmcastil said:

How long are you boiling for?

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everything 60-90 except for my berliners - those were very short boils and yes that has a DMS problem...

it's not DMS coming through in the beers tho, it's just to me, pils has a very unique taste that i don't dig on...

my last pils beer for a while will be the 12 beers of christmas abbey weizen... but i might split pils/mo.

I've always used 90 minutes when using pilsner malt. Couple that with changing all my hop additions to FWH or 15 minutes or later, and it means I have an hour+ of time for cleaning up, readying my chiller, an ice bath for recirculating, lunch or whatever. I've found it's quite useful and makes a more relaxing brew day.

Comments above about break material and protein levels reminded me of another major difference in my process since moving overseas. I ferment in my kettle, so all that break material rides through the fermentation until racking to a keg. Beer still gets brilliantly clear and again, I haven't noticed the signature pilsner flavor coming through. I still think it was likely my water back home, and may do some side by side batches when I return... a couple years from now. But no doubt, I get some really big gloppy chunks precipitating out while chilling.

I'm with you!!!! Changed all my recipes to 2-row dominate with just a little pils. Hasn't worked for me with a 60 or 90 min boil. Only brew that turned out good was an Oktoberfest. Belgian Whit, Hefeweizen, Hoegaarden CLone all sucked.

bwarbiany said:

I haven't picked up DMS in my 60-minute boils with Pils malt (my boils are usually quite vigorous), but I've gone to 90-minute boils on all beers as of the last 6-8 batches.

I'm not sure if it makes a real difference, but I read enough brewing literature to make me believe that as a process step, it's good insurance.

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Yeah. I use 90 minute boils as a standard thing in all my beers so that I can get my efficiencies and water volumes dialed in.

Lennie said:

No doubt pils has the most protein of any base malt I use. I have to rake the grain bed when I'm running off or it sticks, and I still get a ton of hot/cold break. It kind of affects my efficiency since I try not to transfer the break material.

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I have a bunch of bags of wey bohemian pils and I get some GLOPPY hot break and cold break from this stuff. Very odd. I use my spoon to break up the hot break in the kettle.