Accentuating Malt Character in Lagers

[wdavis2003]

There's nothing wrong with a 'macro' lager from time to time. Crisp, clean but almost no flavor. But dammit I like flavor! And I really want to brew a lager with a nice malty backbone and a bready finish. My last pilsner was crisp, clean and a slight hint of brown bread in the finish. But I want more!

So my question(s) is, how do I accentuate the malt character in my lager? Is it all about the malts or does the water profile play a bigger role? Is it the yeast or fermentation temperature or all of the above?? Is there a malt that you've used that really brings out that breadiness?

Help a brotha out! Any tips are welcome.

Thanks

 

[AlexKay]

Add a pound of Munich. Everything gets better with a pound of Munich.

Someone will come on and tell you that you absolutely require a (single/double/triple) decoction. Don't listen to this person. I've had commercial lagers that were fantastic and malty and used an infusion mash (for example, Bell's Lager of the Lakes.)

 

[Immocles]

I've had good luck with small percentages of melanoidan malt in some cases. Also a big fan of Barke malts, especially the pilsner and Vienna.

 

[SanPancho]

use high quality malt, crushed fresh
chlorides tend to help bring out malts/sweetness, add a bit more
certain yeasts are better at bringing malt profiles out of a recipe, lots of southern germans, less so the northern europeans

there's tons of malts, maris otter is one but says "british beer" not really "lager", you can use pale ale as base instead of pils/two row, you can use vienna as a base. in my opinion you need to use at least 20% of a "flavor" malt to make it come out in a lager. rye is great, dark wheat is interesting but not traditional, victory malt is good as a flavor addition, biscuit, dark munich, basically anything under 5L is fine for a base, and anything under 20L is good for a specialty.

and lastly, look into low-oxygen brewing. they constantly rave about "fresh malt" flavor so see if that's something you can start trying on a small scale

 

[wdavis2003]

All great tips and suggestions thus far. Sounds like the malt plays the biggest role, of course. I will have to play around with a few of these suggestions. Munich sounds intriguing. Melanoidan does too

 

[RCope]

Why not both? I've got this on tap and it tastes like a liquid saltine cracker. And you could replace the rice flakes with more malt. I was also trying out Saphir which turns out to be a mild Noble hop with no intrusion on the malt but balances it out nicely. Full disclosure, this was hotside LODO with a step mash...

 

[AlexKay]

Why not both? I've got this on tap and it tastes like a liquid saltine cracker. And you could replace the rice flakes with more malt. I was also trying out Saphir which turns out to be a mild Noble hop with no intrusion on the malt but balances it out nicely. Full disclosure, this was hotside LODO with a step mash...

There’s the pound of Munich!

 

[Red over White]

All great suggestions above. Raising your OG and essentially FG without getting too flabby with richer grain bills is another approach.

Decoction with lower gravity beers is another way, albeit unpopular. A malty Helles is my jam.