Avangard Vienna Malt opinions wanted

[Silver_Is_Money]

How does Avangard Vienna malt stack up to other Vienna malts you have tried?

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Bumping this with the comment that Avangard is now Europe's largest maltster.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

De to lack of response, I'm opening this up to comments on Avangard malts in general.

 

[McGarnigle]

I know I've bought and used some Avangard from my LHBS, but can't recall details. Probably have something in my notebook, and I don't remember all any recent instances where I blamed the grains for bad beer.

I only used it for one brew. Sorry I can't give you more on them. They are big players in Germany, I understand.

 

[catdaddy66]

I have used Avangard before and liked it but I am short on specifics. I had no problems that I recall. To be honest I don't record the brand of malt, only the type.

I may need to do that.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I just picked up some Avangard Vienna (~5L), Munich Light (~8L), Munich Dark (~15L), and ~30L Caramel. All of the bags state: "Product of Germany" upon them (in case anyone is wondering).

I will attempt from these ingredients to create a Vienna Lager along the general lines of Great Lakes Eliot Ness (except whereas they use Mt. Hood hops, I'm going to use Sterling).

 

[Cavpilot2000]

I use Avangard Pils malt all the time because it's my LHBS standard (and about 50% of my beers are pils-heavy German-style lagers).
I like it a great deal. It provides a hair better efficiency than most others I've used.

 

[MrPowers]

I've used Avangard Pils, Pale, and dark Munich. Had good experiences with all of them. I tend to get a better extract out of their Pils than with other brands. The only thing I would say is, from what i recall, their dark Munich has a very unique flavor. It doesn't taste anything like the weyermann I had been using up to that point. Not necessarily bad, just distinctly different.

 

[RedlegEd]

De to lack of response, I'm opening this up to comments on Avangard malts in general.

Hi. I use Avangard Pale Ale and Light Munich, both of which I really like. One thing I did notice was the Pale Ale produces a slightly more acidic wort than expected using Bru'n Water's calculations. Now that I know that, I use a little higher L° number when I use that malt in BW. Ed

 

[filthyastronaut]

My LHBS used to stock Avangard for their German base malts and I mostly used their Vienna for a while. It always produced good results, but I'm curious if maybe the sack I got was a little under-modified. I recall a few unintentionally hazy beers with it using my usual process, but the flavor was always on point.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I just picked up some Avangard Vienna (~5L), Munich Light (~8L), Munich Dark (~15L), and ~30L Caramel. All of the bags state: "Product of Germany" upon them (in case anyone is wondering).

I will attempt from these ingredients to create a Vienna Lager along the general lines of Great Lakes Eliot Ness (except whereas they use Mt. Hood hops, I'm going to use Sterling).

My batch using the above listed ingredients was bottled today, and the sample tasted fantastic. I can't wait for 3 more weeks to go by so the bottles are fully carbonated.

10 lbs. Avangard Vienna (midrange 4.4L)
2 lbs. Avangard Munich Light (midrange 7L)
2 lbs. Avangard Munich Dark (midrange 12L)
0.5 lbs. Avangard 60 EBC Crystal (~23L)
Magnum and Sterling hops (to 40 IBU Tinseth)
Nottingham yeast, fermented at 62 degrees F.

Bottled yield was 59 full 12 ounce bottles plus a taster. A bit more than 7 gallons at the start of the boil, and I'm guessing 5.6 to 5.7 gallons made it into the fermenter. What was originally planned to be a lager in the end is an ale.

The real Eliot Ness is about 15 SRM, and was 35 IBU's until 2012, when Great Lakes dropped it to 27 IBU's. I shot for 40 IBU's because I don't believe my hop utilization is at the Tinseth level, so odds are that in reality I'm in the range of 27 to 35 IBU's. Great Lakes uses Mt. Hood hops. I believe they list it at 6.2 ABV.

 

[bolus14]

I'm a little late to the game on this one, but in case someone else stumbles in here looking for thoughts on Avangard malts I'll throw my thoughts out there.

I made a Nugget Nectar clone, going for batch #2 this week, using Avangard Vienna and Pils, with Briess Munich. One of the best beers I've ever made. Being about 85% Vienna I'll say that it gave the slick mouthfeel and caramel-ish like sweetness needed for this recipe. I also used it as the base grain in a DIPA and had good results, IMO it provided the lingering sweetness needed to bring out the fruity flavors I wanted in that.

I would say don't shy away from it. For me it works out great because it's about $0.70/lb less than other Vienna's. But, when I'm using 11-13lb for each recipe it's roughly a savings of $8-$9. Once I get a grain crusher I'll start buying it in bulk.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Talk about being late to the game. I just realized that I never followed up on my 100% Avangard malt brew for which I posted the recipe above. It was nice, but in the end I can't say it was any better than a similar formula I've made previously using mainly Briess malts. Next time I'm going to try less Munich malt and more caramel. And go back to Briess. I'll probably also split the Vienna into 50% 2-Row and 50% Vienna. I'll also cut back on the Magnum for the bittering addition, and add more Sterling hops for the later additions.

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