American 2-row or Pils malt?

Hey everyone,

I am getting ready to order ingredients my first few all grain brews. To save some cash I was going to order a 50 lb sack of barley as well as some of the other grains I will need.

I'm going to make an IPA, a Pils, a Porter and a Belgian Wit, all of which I've made before using a partial mash. My question is would it be better for me try and make all those brews from American 2-row or Pils as my base malt? How would a pilsner with mostly American 2-row be? What about an IPA or Porter using mostly pils malt?

My gut instinct is telling me to just get the 2-row and it will do just fine in a Pils.

Well, since you have a pils on your list, you surely will want to use a pilsen malt for that. I woudl also think pils for the witbier as well. I think pils would work great for the porter and IPA too.

So if it were me, I would stock up on the pils....personally I use it alot.

I just made a Belgian dry stout using pilsner malt... seems ok, bottling in a few days. I added Munich to make it maltier... I was trying to use grain up.

I stopped using pils. I just go with two row. I did a batch or two that normally would have used pils malt and went with two row...no one could tell a difference.

TheMan said:

I stopped using pils. I just go with two row. I did a batch or two that normally would have used pils malt and went with two row...no one could tell a difference.

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I would agree with this. I think 2 row is alot more versitile. I have used pilsen in a Saison only......2 row for everything else.....wouldn't want to use pilsen in darks or even IPA, but that my personal preference....

I am sure you'd be fine either way you went......

2-row.

I usually keep a bag of Pale Ale and Pils malt on hand because I'll brew different styles at random. Now I'm looking to simplify and just keep some 2-row.

You can use Pils as your base malt for any of the aforemention beers, however you can't use 2-row for a "Pils." You can make a Pils-like beer with it, but it won't be the same.

If you can't tell the difference, than do as you wish, but a lot of people CAN tell the difference