Briess Pilsen DME vs. Golden Light DME

I'm planning to get some bulk DME. Briess makes 2 base malt DME: pilsen and golden light.
If you have use them before, which one do you like?

Thanks

I can speak on behalf of the pilsen being high quality. I do believe it is the lightest extract available. I know for sure Briesse pilsen is strictly 2-row extract (some other extracts may contain amounts of munich ect.). I've made many really good beers with it and you can get really light colored beer with if you so desire. A little inside secret: I know for a fact, certain local microbrewerys use Briess pilsen extract to boost the gravity in certain beers. I have no expereince with the golden light though and I have never even seen it in person.

thanks... I just want to make a bulk purchase for base DME. I guess pils would be good. Additional specialty grains can easily altern the flavor profile. At pils can make good pislner, but 2 rows cannot make a real pilsner

undallas said:

thanks... I just want to make a bulk purchase for base DME. I guess pils would be good. Additional specialty grains can easily altern the flavor profile. At pils can make good pislner, but 2 rows cannot make a real pilsner

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You are correct, sir. You can find the data sheets on the Briess website, and while it doesn't give proportions it says there are caramel malts in their darker DME/LME. They both contain "base malt" (presumably 2-row) and Carapils. The amber uses caramel 60 and Munich.

You could convert the pilsen to the light by adding specialty malts (carapils or the light caramel of your choice) in proportion to match the colors. If you were only going to get one sack, I'd go for the pilsen.

Scotty is correct that both Briess extracts are mashed with base malt and CaraPils. I find I prefer to match the extract to the style. In other words, I use Pilsner extract for Belgian ales and Continental beers, and Gold for American and English ales. In other words, I use the Pilsner extract where Pils is traditionally the base malt, and vice versa.

Cheers,

Bob

NQ3X said:

Scotty is correct that both Briess extracts are mashed with base malt and CaraPils. I find I prefer to match the extract to the style. In other words, I use Pilsner extract for Belgian ales and Continental beers, and Gold for American and English ales. In other words, I use the Pilsner extract where Pils is traditionally the base malt, and vice versa.

Cheers,

Bob

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Hi Bob,

So a Pils malt with IPA or American Ale would not tastes the same? You cannot get the body and maltiness by adding specialty grains? I assume it will still be a good beer either way, just not as "authentic".

Am I correct?

You are indeed correct. I find that, if I use two-row in an all-grain recipe, using Gold extract gives results I prefer.

That said, you can use whatever base malt you please. There's a brewery in these parts makes an awesome American Amber Ale using German Pils malt as the base.

Bob

NQ3X said:

You are indeed correct. I find that, if I use two-row in an all-grain recipe, using Gold extract gives results I prefer.

That said, you can use whatever base malt you please. There's a brewery in these parts makes an awesome American Amber Ale using German Pils malt as the base.

Bob

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Thanks... I guess whatever makes it american, german, japanese, etc is about brew style that includes the 3 basics malt, hops, and water...

As we are merging cultures... I guess I'll married the german pils with american hops and yeast for some good time...

What sort of color might one expect from using straight Briess Pilsen DME? Would it be on par for a Czech or German Pilsner, or could it use a little help from some Crystal/Caramel malt?
Thanks!

Chris

ChrisS68 said:

What sort of color might one expect from using straight Briess Pilsen DME? Would it be on par for a Czech or German Pilsner, or could it use a little help from some Crystal/Caramel malt?
Thanks!

Chris

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I can't speak for Briess, but I did use 100% Munton's extra light to make a German style pilsner. While it was on par, it was a tad bit darker than a good pils. The flavor was wonderful and the color was close enough for me. On the other hand I used the same Munton's extra light in a partial mash American Amber and found that the color and body were too light for the style.

Bottom line, I agree with the other posters that suggest using the extra light/pilsner DMEs when you would want a pilsner base malt and the regular light DMEs for regular 2-row base malt.

IowaStateFan said:

I can't speak for Briess, but I did use 100% Munton's extra light to make a German style pilsner. While it was on par, it was a tad bit darker than a good pils. The flavor was wonderful and the color was close enough for me. On the other hand I used the same Munton's extra light in a partial mash American Amber and found that the color and body were too light for the style.

Bottom line, I agree with the other posters that suggest using the extra light/pilsner DMEs when you would want a pilsner base malt and the regular light DMEs for regular 2-row base malt.

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I think coloring can be tuned in with a little extra cara type of grain. On Briess's website, pilsner is certainly lighter than golden light. I think a little carapils (.5#) should help with the body. Using Beersmith would certainly help you with the adjustment. I'm sold.. I'll get pils DME instead of golden light... I want to make some Pils and Belgian ales in the future.

IowaStateFan said:

I can't speak for Briess, but I did use 100% Munton's extra light to make a German style pilsner. While it was on par, it was a tad bit darker than a good pils. The flavor was wonderful and the color was close enough for me. On the other hand I used the same Munton's extra light in a partial mash American Amber and found that the color and body were too light for the style.

Bottom line, I agree with the other posters that suggest using the extra light/pilsner DMEs when you would want a pilsner base malt and the regular light DMEs for regular 2-row base malt.

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Thanks for the info. I meant to add my own experiences (duh).
I used Briess Golden Light DME for a Czech Pilsner since I couldn't find the Pilsen DME at the LHBS. It did come out a little darker than anticipated, with maybe a bit of a reddish color. I'm just finishing up a BMC clone that I made with Briess Pilsen LME. Even though I used only one can in the recipe, it does have a lot of color; it is LME after all. It does look nice though, being a bright golden yellow. Now, this weekend I'm brewing another Czech Pilsner using the Pilsen DME. Gonna see how that goes.

The datasheets say the SRM's of the pils is about 3, and the golden light is 8 (if memory serves). The Briess Pils is equivalent to Munton's lightest malt in color.

Anything you (or I) make with DME is going to tend to be darker than an all-grain brew because it tends to caramelize a little more, etc. You can help the color by doing a late addition of ~2/3 of the DME. I brew in the cheapest pot that will work on my glass-top stove, and it was scorching/darkening the wort more than I liked. Once I went to late addition, not only could I save on hops but the beers came out quite a bit lighter.

When I finally use up the second bucket of bulk golden light DME, I'm not sure I'll get more. A little caramel malt will be fine for darkening the pils DME that I plan to keep around. When brewing AG the base malt is still going to be pale (unless you use Munich or Vienna or something) and the color/maltiness comes from specialty grains.

If you do buy bulk DME, get yourself a couple of pails with lids from your local home improvement store. It's just over 25# to a 5-gal pail, and it will keep the DME nice and dry.

I stick with just Pils, and it seems to work really well for me. I find that I'm usually either going really light, or really dark. When going really dark, the color is coming from the other grains anyhow, and I really like the flavor I get from the Pils as a base malt.

I should see if my LHBS sells it in really large quantities too. It's probably much cheaper.

+1 on the late addition as well.

The Northern Brewer site specs that, as far as the actual grains go, Pilsen is 1.6° L and Briess 2-row is 1.8 L. I'm willing to bet that no one could tell the difference in color from beers where those grains are the only thing different in the recipe. So something else must be going on with the Golden Light DME. Someone mentioned that they use a percentage of Munich? That might make sense.

headfullahops said:

The Northern Brewer site specs that, as far as the actual grains go, Pilsen is 1.6° L and Briess 2-row is 1.8 L. I'm willing to bet that no one could tell the difference in color from beers where those grains are the only thing different in the recipe. So something else must be going on with the Golden Light DME. Someone mentioned that they use a percentage of Munich? That might make sense.

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According to Briess' website, the Pilsen Light is 2.0L and contains pilsen malt and carapils while the Golden Light is 4.0L and contains 2-row and carapils.