Best Pale Malt?

[briewer2]

I want to brew a couple of "special" beers that I want to use nothing but the best ingredients for. I usually just use breiss 2-row pale(which is great dont get me wrong) but I want peoples opinions on what is some of the best pale malt. I will be making mostly APAs and IPAs with it so I would imagine I want a north american 2-row, but I don't mind paying a premium price for premium stuff.

Thanks
Go Blackhawks

 

[conpewter]

Hmm when I was first reading this I was thinking "Maris Otter" but you want North American malts. I really think they all are pretty darn good, I use canadian 2-row which is nice, but I'm sure it is very similar to the other north american 2-row malts.

 

[brrman]

Rahr is what I use - no issues here...

 

[z987k]

I want to brew a couple of "special" beers that I want to use nothing but the best ingredients for. I usually just use breiss 2-row pale(which is great dont get me wrong) but I want peoples opinions on what is some of the best pale malt. I will be making mostly APAs and IPAs with it so I would imagine I want a north american 2-row, but I don't mind paying a premium price for premium stuff.

Thanks
Go Blackhawks

Just a good north american 2-row not made by Breiss.

 

[yermej]

Just a good north american 2-row not made by Breiss.

I haven't heard this before. I use their DME and it seems fine, but I guess I don't have anything to compare to. What's wrong with Briess?

 

[samc]

I use Great Western Pale - seems great to me. I think freshness counts more than "name". What good would a well known expensive malt be if it has been mishandled or old?

I made an DIPA with British Pale and then a new batch with GW Pale, both were excellent, GW was half the price.

 

[DeathBrewer]

Briess is fine. I use their 2-row, 6-row and specialty all the time (it's what my LHBS carries.) I've heard other people that don't like them, but WHY? Not one person has ever given me a reason.

 

[z987k]

I haven't heard this before. I use their DME and it seems fine, but I guess I don't have anything to compare to. What's wrong with Briess?

Use it enough or better yet make the exact same recipe with briess and a malt from a much better malster, and taste side by side. It's not bad by any means, but you can tell. It just lacks the complexity that the other, and I didn't believe it for a long time until a friend at a tasting pointed out every beer that used briess, so I tasted those against the beers that did not and then asked the brewers and he was dead on 100%... and unfortunately once you know what to look for, you always taste it if it's there.
The best reason I have found for this is they buy up a lot lower quality grain that no other malster will use.

 

[DeathBrewer]

Supposedly all their specialty malts are made with 6-row.

Sometimes you don't want that added complexity. That's what specialty malts and small amount of other base malts are for.

 

[z987k]

I get the majority of my malt from midcountry malt (they carry bairds, best, canada & great western Thomas Fawcett, Malteries Franco-Belges and Gambrinus). They used to carry weyermann as well. I usually get 50lb sacks of Marris Otter from tommy fawcett, Pilsen From Franco, Pilsen from Best and the basic 2-row ended up coming from Canada malting. With that I'm set for the year and then some usually.
Our club group buys there so I just do bulk of what I know I will use, but if I need a pound or two of something I will go with the lhbs, who carries only briess or AHS if I plan ahead. I have no idea what malster AHS gets their grain from.

 

[CBBaron]

Supposedly all their specialty malts are made with 6-row.

Briess has both 6-row and 2-row specialty malts but I have seldom seen the 2-row malts for sale.

For those complaining about Briess 2-row base malt. Does you complaints also include the other base malts? Briess makes Pale Ale, Vienna, Mild, and several varieties of Munich malts also.

I have been using Munton's Maris Otter for my base malt because that is what is sold in the bag at my LHBS. However I was considering driving down to The Grape and Granary to pick up Briess Pale Ale malt because it would be considerably cheaper if I didn't have to pay for shipping.

Craig