Best Pilsner base malt to impart noticeable breadiness?

[Silver_Is_Money]

Call me crazy if you must, but I really like a noticeable level of breadiness in a Pilsner. What would be the most likely Pilsner base malt to impart this characteristic? Can I cheat and add say up to 10% white wheat base malt to my Pilsner grist to gain this characteristic? Would a bit of Victory (say 3%-5%) work? Or is the yeast perhaps the key here. I've been using W-34/70.

I just tasted my latest Pilsner during bottling last night, and it does not appear to have the noticeable bread characteristic that I'm seeking. My grist was 10 lbs Avangard Pilsner, 1 Lb. Briess Vienna, 8 Oz. Weyermann Melanoidin, and 6 Oz. Weyermann Acidulated. ~6.1 gallons to the fermenter. 60 x 12 oz. bottles filled. OG 1.053, FG 1.010. Hopefully the characteristics of this brew will improve with carbonation.

I've used up the last of my Avangard malt, and I'm about to crack open a 25 KG bag of Swaen Pilsner malt. Thinking of replacing the Melanoidin straight up with Victory, and also replacing the Vienna straight up with White Wheat for my next attempt. Your thoughts?

 

[SoCal-Doug]

I like some breadiness in some styles also (I always have a wit or hef on tap). One of my fav's is Pilsner Urquel. Bready, malty, and very well balanced with Saaz hops.

Everyone's taste and perception is different, and brands will vary, but I would rank the options like this (from lowest breadiness to highest, but remaining somewhat pale)

Generic 2-row
Pilsner malt
Maris Otter
Vienna
[Victory would go here, but I find the toastiness a little much for light clean pilsners]
Munich

Be careful of your yeast and hops to assure the malt and bready is perceivable. Go for balance so the hops don't knock away other flavors. Yeast should be clean with pilsner intentions, without throwing any off flavors. Keep good control of your fermentation.

 

[Paulaner]

Simply add around 30% Pale Malt to either Barke Pils/Floor Malted Bohemian Pils and around 3% Carahell and you'll get quite noticeable breadiness.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Simply add around 30% Pale Malt to either Barke Pils/Floor Malted Bohemian Pils and around 3% Carahell and you'll get quite noticeable breadiness.

By pale malt do you mean standard '2-Row', or 'Pale Ale' malt? Any brand preference(s) here?

 

[Paulaner]

By pale malt do you mean standard '2-Row', or 'Pale Ale' malt? Any brand preference(s) here?

My bad, I would recommend using Weyermann Pale Ale Malt.

 

[MrPowers]

I would start with Barke Pils or Floor Malted Bohemian Pils from Weyermann like Paulaner said. I've never tried it with Pale Malt, but adding some Carahell or a small amount of Munich to that gets pretty bready.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Since I already have a 25 Kg. bag of Swaen Pilsner malt, along with some other Swaen malts, how would this grist and hops profile look for achieving a somewhat bready Bohemian style Pilsner, sized for 72% efficiency, and ~6.1 gallons to the fermenter:

10 lbs. Swaen Pilsner, ~1.8L
1 lb. Swaen Munich Light, ~5L
8 oz. GoldSwaen Red (caramel), ~19L
5 oz. Swaen Acidulated malt

0.5 Oz. Magnum, 12.4% AA, 60 min.
1.0 Oz. Sterling, 8.4% AA, 15 min.
1.0 Oz. Saaz, 3.0% AA, 5 min.

Water: RO with 0.7 grams of CaCl2 added to every gallon (strike and sparge).

Secondary objective: Achieve the noticeable orange/red hue of Pilsner Urquell. ~4.5 to 5 SRM by my guess.

 

[jmcquesten]

Since I already have a 25 Kg. bag of Swaen Pilsner malt, along with some other Swaen malts, how would this grist and hops profile look for achieving a somewhat bready Bohemian style Pilsner, sized for 72% efficiency, and ~6.1 gallons to the fermenter:

10 lbs. Swaen Pilsner, ~1.8L
1 lb. Swaen Munich Light, ~5L
8 oz. GoldSwaen Red (caramel), ~19L
5 oz. Swaen Acidulated malt

0.5 Oz. Magnum, 12.4% AA, 60 min.
1.0 Oz. Sterling, 8.4% AA, 15 min.
1.0 Oz. Saaz, 3.0% AA, 5 min.

Water: RO with 0.7 grams of CaCl2 added to every gallon (strike and sparge).

Secondary objective: Achieve the noticeable orange/red hue of Pilsner Urquell. ~4.5 to 5 SRM by my guess.

That swaen pilsner is a great malt. It produced an award winning Helles for me.

 

[okiedog]

Weyermann's Floor Malted Bohemian Pilsner malt does it for me. I recently tried this malt, and have been very happy with the flavor profile.

 

[BrewerBrad82]

I will throw in another vote for Weyermann Barke Pilsner malt, it is awesome stuff. Adding about 5% Barke Vienna works wonders as well.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Weyermann's Floor Malted Bohemian Pilsner malt does it for me. I recently tried this malt, and have been very happy with the flavor profile.

Does this malt require step-infusion mashing or decoction, or is it sufficiently modified to work well with single infusion mashing?

 

[Paulaner]

Does this malt require step-infusion mashing or decoction, or is it sufficiently modified to work well with single infusion mashing?

It has a Kolbach index of Min 38% Max 44% this is off of their malt analysis sheet, so it's right at well modified to very highly modified according to Kunze. You can use a single infusion mash and be ok, or if possible do a stepped mash and it will be even better, but if you don't have the ability to don't sweat it.

If you're looking for a red/orange hue use 2% carabohemian, also this is my personal preference so take it for what it's worth, but if you're looking for Pilsner Urquell/Czech Pale Lager type beer, use 100% Saaz hops, once you've drank enough of these beers in the Czech Republic you'll be able to pick out one that hasn't used 100% Saaz in a heartbeat.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

It has a Kolbach index of Min 38% Max 44% this is off of their malt analysis sheet, so it's right at well modified to very highly modified according to Kunze. You can use a single infusion mash and be ok, or if possible do a stepped mash and it will be even better, but if you don't have the ability to don't sweat it.

If you're looking for a red/orange hue use 2% carabohemian, also this is my personal preference so take it for what it's worth, but if you're looking for Pilsner Urquell/Czech Pale Lager type beer, use 100% Saaz hops, once you've drank enough of these beers in the Czech Republic you'll be able to pick out one that hasn't used 100% Saaz in a heartbeat.

Some excellent news and advice there. Thank you!!!