How to tell 2 row and pilsen malt apart?

A while back I went in with my brew club and bought some bulk base malts. I got a full bag of 2 row and a full bag of pilsen malt. I stored them in their own storage tubs and at the time I thought I marked them somehow to tell them apart but I was looking at them last night and it looks like I didn't. I pulled some of each out and looking at them side by side I cant tell a difference. Not much of a taste difference either.

Anybody know how to tell them apart? Or are they close enough that I could use them without worrying much about if it is 2 row or pilsen? Any help is apperciated.

Mash a cup of each, then boil briefly. Cool, then see which has more creamed corn/SMS taste.

KAMMEE said:

Mash a cup of each, then boil briefly. Cool, then see which has more creamed corn/SMS taste.

Click to expand...

Dms , and the one with more dms flavor is pilsner

do we know which one is more modified?

...if so couldn't you see which has a higher conversion after 30 minutes

I also considered buying a pound of 2 row and tasteing it side by side with my mystery malts and see if I can figure it out that way.

After tasteing them both a couple times more I noticed one has more of a sweeter taste and the other a dry grainy taste. I think the sweeter one is the 2 row but I still want to know for sure.

What maltster did they come from? Are they both american malts?

Hah! I sort of did the same thing, except my 2 year old ripped off the tape that said which was which. I took some samples to our brew club meeting and had the brewer at gordon biersch identify them for me. Although he said it really didnt matter except for the pilsner specific brews. I used them in a ofest, ipa, tasty's pale ale and they all tasted as they should have.

my 2 cents
edit: forgot to say I boiled them all for 90 mins just to be sure.

I think they were both from Canada Malting Company. I was hopeing that they were close enough to use is something like a stout without making much of a taste difference. Thanks for the info, good to know.

yeah, mine were from there too