Briess synergy select "maltgems"Pilsner malt

[day_trippr]

[...]Weyermann probably has the best protection due to their inner liner[...]

I totally agree, their bag is the best of any I've handled. I wish everyone used it

Cheers!

 

[Dland]

OK, first report, in case anyone is ordering grain this morning, just mashed in w 100% of this new malt.

The crush is finer than I would mill it, probably about right for BIAB brewers actually. It is too fine for the false bottom in my mash tun..which is regular type with the holes. Since I do not have any brew bags, or whatever they call them, I improvised by breaking handle off a kitchen strainer and putting it over the hole in bottom of tun (iverted keggle type). Seems to be working so far, hope it stays in place, or this is going to be fun.

It is true that it absorbs less water. I usually mash in with about 6.75 gallons for 20#s, but I only put in 6, and could have used less, probably.

Anyway, more updates when after the wort is in fermentor.

 

[SanPancho]

Aside from the storage and transport time issues, seems interesting and worth a test batch. Gotta finish the sack of two row I just ordered tho so gonna be a while. Looking forward to updates.

 

[Dland]

Brew day went well, other than the crush being too fine for false bottom, everything worked as it should. Found out that a cheap 5 inch stainless kitchen sieve works OK for false bottom, no issues with stuck mash or grist in pump, if anything percolation was better than average.

Color is what one would expect for a good pils malt, extraction a little better than average. I got about 1.060 starting gravity out of 20#s for approx 10+ gallons of wort. That is on the normal to high side of efficiency for my rig. Wort tastes good, no reason to believe it will not beer really good beer.

I don't see why this won't keep fairly well in sealed bags. It is shipped in a sack that is two heavy layers of paper, and one of plastic. I guess it might not store as well as un milled malt over long term, but am not too worried about it.

 

[SanPancho]

Good to hear.

Waiting to finish that sack of two row, and for the inevitable LoDo pearl clutching to commence.

 

[Broothru]

Brew day went well, other than the crush being too fine for false bottom, everything worked as it should. Found out that a cheap 5 inch stainless kitchen sieve works OK for false bottom, no issues with stuck mash or grist in pump, if anything percolation was better than average.

Color is what one would expect for a good pils malt, extraction a little better than average. I got about 1.060 starting gravity out of 20#s for approx 10+ gallons of wort. That is on the normal to high side of efficiency for my rig. Wort tastes good, no reason to believe it will not beer really good beer.

I don't see why this won't keep fairly well in sealed bags. It is shipped in a sack that is two heavy layers of paper, and one of plastic. I guess it might not store as well as un milled malt over long term, but am not too worried about it.

Thanks for the update. I'll be brewing with MaltGems tomorrow, starting out simple and basic: a Blonde Ale using 89% base grain with the remainder split equally with carapils and 20L crystal. The rest of the bill is 28 IBUs of Citra, Mosaic and Galaxy and a pitch of Imperial 09 Pub yeast. My mash setup is a Braumeister continuous circulation and temperature control. I replaced the top and bottom screens (false "bottoms") with Swiss voile material like what I used when I did BIAB mashing. It traps EVERYTHING and never seems to clog, so I'm not anticipating any issues with the crush size. My plan is to brew a normal (for me) process and then see how much more efficiency I get with the husk-free grist. Target O.G is 1.042, so it'll be interesting to see if/how much higher the measured O.G. comes out. This experimental Blonde may end up an APA instead.

 

[Jayjay1976]

...a Blonde Ale using 89% base grain with the remainder split equally with carapils and 20L crystal. The rest of the bill is 28 IBUs of Citra, Mosaic and Galaxy and a pitch of Imperial 09 Pub yeast.

I really like the way you wrote this recipe, a bit long for a haiku but poetic nonetheless. I'm going to try this myself when I get my hands on some malt gems.

 

[eric19312]

Brew day went well, other than the crush being too fine for false bottom, everything worked as it should. Found out that a cheap 5 inch stainless kitchen sieve works OK for false bottom, no issues with stuck mash or grist in pump, if anything percolation was better than average.

Color is what one would expect for a good pils malt, extraction a little better than average. I got about 1.060 starting gravity out of 20#s for approx 10+ gallons of wort. That is on the normal to high side of efficiency for my rig. Wort tastes good, no reason to believe it will not beer really good beer.

I don't see why this won't keep fairly well in sealed bags. It is shipped in a sack that is two heavy layers of paper, and one of plastic. I guess it might not store as well as un milled malt over long term, but am not too worried about it.

Thanks for the update I was worried about the packaging as all I can see right now is the outer most paper sack. Glad to hear there is more to it I’ll stick with my plan to open one sack at a time, brew, and put remains in gamma seal lidded buckets. My rig uses NorCal false bottom and a wilser bag with continous recirc. This grain sounds perfect for me excited to try it out.

 

[Broothru]

I'll be brewing with MaltGems tomorrow, starting out simple and basic: a Blonde Ale using 89% base grain with the remainder split equally with carapils and 20L crystal.

Quoting and updating myself: yesterday's brew session didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped. Like a Charles Dickens novel, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

The "best": the spreadsheet I built to accurately track and predict wort volumes through every stage from mash-in to boil to final volume into the fermenter worked beyond my wildest expectations, accurately predicting to the nearest tenth of a liter and converting it to gallons, so I've finally got that phase dialed in to my equipment profile. Before I'd only had a rough estimate and never really knew what volume was in the fermenter since I pump from the kettle into a sealed stainless steel conical (no sight glass, pressure vessel). My predicted O.G was 1.043, Actual was 1.042. Predicted volume was 7.31 gallons, Actual was 7.3 gallons. The biggest surprise was where the losses were occurring, as well as where they were not.

The "Worst:" the mash was a physical and logistical nightmare. About half way through the Beta amylase step I started hearing a splashing noise underneath the mash cap. Bad sign. The way my Braumeister works is a malt pipe (open cylinder) is placed into the kettle with screens on the bottom and on the top with the grist inside the malt pipe. The screens keep the grain contained. The strike water is added (under letted) into the kettle. Water flows into the grain bed through the bottom screen and into the surrounding area between the outside of the malt pipe and the interior wall of the kettle. The electric heating elements are located at the bottom of the kettle, outside of the bottom of the malt pipe. An internal pump draws heated water from around the heating elements and then introduces it to the void underneath the bottom screen of the malt pipe. So circulating wort flows up through the grain bed and out through the top screen to cascade down to the heating elements to be pumped through the grain once again at the programmed temperature.

It's an extremely efficient mash process with numbers regularly in the high 88% range, even without sparging. Over the years I've figured the best gap setting for my grain mill is 1.6 mm, fine enough to achieve these numbers without causing stuck flow. It looks like the MaltGems is significantly smaller than this. My concern with this grain was keeping it contained and not passing through the screens. I focused on the wrong thing. The grain bed had gotten compacted to such an extent that it had blocked the flow through the screens. The wort was being forced between the seal at the top of the malt pipe and the top screen causing extreme fountaining and horizontal geysers. Tiny grain bits were everywhere inside and outside the malt pipe. I quickly suspended the mash to assess the damage. It soon became apparent that the only course of action was to drain the kettle, get the grains out of the malt pipe, clean everything, and start over where the mash had been suspended.

Thank goodness I never got rid of all the old brew buckets that have been collecting dust and taking up space for the last several years. Clean, sanitize, rinse, repeat. Literally. Obviously my best laid plans for LoDO were out the window. So I cleaned up all the old gear, got the wort into two plastic buckets and the grains into another. Then I had to clean the Braumeister, malt pipe, screens, etc. I also had to disassemble and clean the pump and the plumbing between the kettle wall and the bottom screen which had gotten crammed full with grist. I feel lucky that I didn't burn up the pump. All this work is tedious enough on a good day, let alone twice along with all the old plastic stuff. Finally after scrubbing and sanitizing and reassembling everything it was time to get the grains back into the malt pipe. Fortunately I had a partial bag of rice hulls on hand to help loosen up the grist a bit, so I chucked in about 4 hands-full where I would have normally put in one or two at most. It partially filled the void left by the 1~1.5 pounds of grain that I wasn't able to salvage. Then I poured the wort into the repacked grain bed, thinking that the bed would filter the massive amount of grain that was still in the wort and trap it in the malt pipe. That actually worked very nicely, so now with the top filter screen in place and mostly grain-free wort in the kettle, I took a deep breath and restarted the mash.

After a few minutes of recirculation I began to get some return of the fountaining, but greatly reduced from before. There was some minor splashing which is bad for LoDO, but was within acceptable limits otherwise, so apparently the rice hulls were doing their job. For the most part the grains were staying inside the malt pipe and not getting blown out into the space between the malt pipe and the heating element/pump inlet. This whole fiasco cost me a two-hour extension to my brew day and a stiff back this morning.

Now the followup: After the boil was complete I chilled and whirlpooled as per normal. After settling and before transferring to the fermenter I sneaked a peek at the wort. I usually transfer "blind" to limit O2 exposure, but since that ship had already sailed I raised the lid and found 7+ gallons of the clearest wort I have ever produced. Normally I would transfer directly into the fermenter, chill down to pitching temperature, and perform a mini-trub dump of the kettle tailings that got pumped over. After three hours of chilling and settling in the fermenter, the sight glass was still clear. Usually I'll get a liter or two of murky gunk/hops/grain bits. This time, Nada. So I pitched a 1 liter starter of krausening Imperial A09 "Pub" yeast (shameless plug for JayBird's 3" Sight Glass Yeast Brink), hit it with 90 seconds of O2 through the carb stone, set the temperature to 67F, and pulled the tap on a cold pint of my Red Ale, affectionately known as "Irish Foreplay." This morning, after extracting my sore back from bed, I was rewarded with the sight of bubbles actively escaping from the blow-off line into a Mason jar of StarSan solution. "I made BEER!!"

TL;DR
So, the jury's still out, and will be for the next few weeks, to see how this will all turn out. The lack of adherence to LoDO techniques will shorten the shelf life along with other subtle degradations, but it's a Blonde Ale and it's still summertime and it's a simple beer and it'll go fast. So there's that. I hit all my brew day targets with high accuracy, though given the nature of the husk-free grain the O.G. should have been significantly higher when using "standard" guidelines for predicting "normal" malts. I hit every one of my pH marks from mash-in to post boil, so there shouldn't be any additional astringency due to the extended mashing and handling exposure. The color is very pale which is to be expected from a 90% 1.8L pilsner malt with only 10% additional grist of carapils and 20L crystal malt. Despite the pain and aggravation of yesterday's brew session, I have high hopes and expectations for this beer, and by extension this malt. In the future I'll definitely limit it to 50% or less of the grain bill and add copious amounts of rice hulls until I can get a handle on the crush size and how best to use it in my equipment.

Cheers!

 

[Dland]

Sorry to hear you had so much trouble.

I had clear wort too. I found percolation good during fly sparge and vorlauf, though I would have had pump clogging problems if I had tried to use my normal false bottom.

No mash cap or hot side Lodo here, just old fashion 3 vessel fly sparge, though I do underlet the strike water, because it is easier. During sparge I keep at least a gallon on top of grist until the the end, this might help grain bed stay loose.

Your rig sounds complicated to me, but sounds like you have it dialed in, the fine crush just not a good fit.

Anyway, I ordered another 50#, since it is so inexpensive and I was impressed with flavor, and I already broke the handle off the kitchen strainer.

My other options for false bottom were a big china cap I have w some old resturaunt gear, or window screen wired on the false bottom. Glad I spotted the strainer before I went with one of those, though they may have worked OK too.

 

[eric19312]

A BIAB bag in a three vessel mash tun is a real game changer.

 

[Broothru]

A BIAB bag in a three vessel mash tun is a real game changer.

I was thinking exactly the same thing. I still have several of the BIAB bags that my wife sewed for me using Swiss voile. It's the same material used for curtain sheers like what you'd have in a formal living room. She got it at JoAnn's Fabric, but it's a bit pricey at $20-something per yard. With some 'McGuyvering' I could probably rig a bag that would fit inside my kettle. The main hangup would be the non-removable center post rod, but I could set a grommet that would allow the bag to slide up for removal after the mash is complete.

The Swiss voile is amazing stuff, very thin and feather-light, great tensile strength, non-toxic (naturally) and temperature stable past 400F. I would limit myself to 16# mashes, only because my pot was just 10 gallons and the hoist I used to pull the bag was pretty shaky. I'm still hoping to find a solution to the grist issue with MaltGems, but given my setup I'm afraid I'll be limited to some percentage less than what I'd like in the malt bill. I was simply stunned to see how clear the wort was, with no sparge, no vorlauf, and the disaster I had with dumping the grain bed mid-mash.

How was your efficiency used the MaltGems? Anecdotally I know I got at least 20% more extract but there's no way to determine that number precisely with all the unplanned issues I had with this batch. I've still got 10# to play with, so I'll probably go with 50%/50% MaltGems with some Barke Pilsener in a Helles. With PLENTY of rice hulls.

 

[Broothru]

Sorry to hear you had so much trouble.

I had clear wort too. I found percolation good during fly sparge and vorlauf, though I would have had pump clogging problems if I had tried to use my normal false bottom.

No mash cap or hot side Lodo here, just old fashion 3 vessel fly sparge, though I do underlet the strike water, because it is easier. During sparge I keep at least a gallon on top of grist until the the end, this might help grain bed stay loose.

Your rig sounds complicated to me, but sounds like you have it dialed in, the fine crush just not a good fit.

Anyway, I ordered another 50#, since it is so inexpensive and I was impressed with flavor, and I already broke the handle off the kitchen strainer.

My other options for false bottom were a big china cap I have w some old resturaunt gear, or window screen wired on the false bottom. Glad I spotted the strainer before I went with one of those, though they may have worked OK too.

The unit does sound complicated, but it's much easier to use than to describe. The hardest thing about it is the cleanup because of all the various moving parts. That said, the unit is very sturdy and robust, an is quite accurate in temperature control. I've had this one for over six years and wouldn't want to brew without it. Just gotta' find a way to make this MaltGems work with my setup.

 

[Dland]

A BIAB bag in a three vessel mash tun is a real game changer.

Glad it works for you. Glad I don't have to deal with any bags...

 

[Carolina_Matt]

Looks like no more free shipping. I assume it was either an intro price to get people to try it, or they made a mistake when adding it to the website.

 

[eric19312]

Got four sacks before the free shipping went away. First brew yesterday and so far I'm very pleased with the product.

First the package. I'd say excellent--as good as any I've seen. Three layers of craft paper with a plastic liner sandwiched in between two of the layers. Bag is sealed/glued not sewn. I'm leaving it in the sacks until opened I don't see shelf life being improved with a transfer to gamma sealed buckets.

Second I did figure out an estimate for Beersmith potential from data provided by Briess. 1.038. And used that in recipe calculation. That bumped my recipe target OG from 1.050 to 1.052 so I stuck with same quantity. But wow my mash tun looked super empty. 30 pounds of malt gems takes a lot less volume than 30 pounds of regular pilsner or two row.

Nailed my mash pH using the updated beersmith formula. Targeted 5.40 came in at 5.39.

I cut back on my sparge water volume by 10%. Could of cut it further.

And my efficiency went way up. Just one batch but I saw 10 point increase over typical for efficiency on my system and ended up overshooting OG by seven points.

 

[yeastseeker]

Im a single vessel BIAB no sparge brewer and see this product being advantageous for when I max out my systems capacity for very high gravity beers

 

[day_trippr]

I think maximizing tun volume is pretty much the point of this product...

Cheers!

 

[eric19312]

I think maximizing tun volume is pretty much the point of this product...

Cheers!

Agreed

The removing the husks to provide a clean flavor makes me wonder if they are spinning a problem as a feature. I'm thinking very traditional malt forward styles might seem to be lacking if husks were important contributor of the traditional flavor.

But wow I'm thinking I could do 17 gallons of 1.080 with this stuff in my 15 gallon mash tun easily. And a very clean bright simple malt character might be just the ticket for hoppy styles.

 

[Dland]

The flavor seems good to me, but have yet to crash and condition. It is a fairly clean open taste, the 100% brew I made last week. The yield is good, I would not be surprised if this lightly hopped test batch lets a little alcohol flavor though, which is fine with me with a cold, tasty, straw colored summer ale.

Will use as 50-75% base malt until I use up. I did just get another 50#, so have 80, will be using for next 6-7 batches. Will have a more informed opinion then.

 

[day_trippr]

I would take the less husk -> better flavor claim with oodles of skepticism
Husk tannins are a water issue. Treat the brew day liquor properly and tannins are a non-issue, imo...

Cheers!

 

[Dland]

No problems w husk tannins here. I said the flavor was good, do not yet know if it is better. Have done a 100% pils test mash w regular Briess, GW, Viking and Weyerman also. They all made good drinkable basic beers, I suspect the latter being the best tatsting (also most expensive). From what I can tell so far, this product will compare favorably.

Perhaps you should try some and inform your opinion.

This pre milled grain is not likely to be my "go to", but have no regrets buying, and would buy again if the price was right. I think it would be a benifit to some BIAB brewers, depending on their rigs, and others w mash tun volume constraints.

 

[Dland]

I tapped into the beer from the 100% test batch of this malt on 8/9. Made with my standard mash, which is 20# grist with a 6.5 gallon strike and 9.5 gallon fly sparge for 10+ gallons finished beer. Fermented with US-05 at 65F, hopped to around 28 IBUs plus a hop step with leaf cascade at around 160F, came out around 6.5% ABV.

Visually, it has not cleared as much as I would have expected after being crashed for over 2 weeks at 30F, despite addition of whirlflock in same procedure I always use that usually results in clear beer. I have my suspicion that this malt is resonsible for the haze, at least in its interaction with my rig & process. If this is the case, this might be an good base malt for making hazy styles of beer, but not so good for crisp, clear ones.

The flavor is good, moderately malty with a fresh flavor, was expecting to be able to taste the alcohol more, but there is enough flavor that it is not forward. There is a lack of "bite" in finish which I'm guessing is the result of the relative absence of hulls. While this is touted as a good thing in malt description, it almost tastes like something is missing to me, but I have to think about it to notice.

A batch of rye "cream ale" I made with 50% of this malt has been crashed for 5 days. I'll be looking to see if the haziness is repeated. I'll compare to the batch I made just before the 100% test batch with the same recipe, but with fresh milled Viking pils, which is crystal clear.

 

[Broothru]

I tapped into the beer from the 100% test batch of this malt on 8/9. Made with my standard mash, which is 20# grist with a 6.5 gallon strike and 9.5 gallon fly sparge for 10+ gallons finished beer. Fermented with US-05 at 65F, hopped to around 28 IBUs plus a hop step with leaf cascade at around 160F, came out around 6.5% ABV.

Visually, it has not cleared as much as I would have expected after being crashed for over 2 weeks at 30F, despite addition of whirlflock in same procedure I always use that usually results in clear beer. I have my suspicion that this malt is resonsible for the haze, at least in its interaction with my rig & process. If this is the case, this might be an good base malt for making hazy styles of beer, but not so good for crisp, clear ones.

The flavor is good, moderately malty with a fresh flavor, was expecting to be able to taste the alcohol more, but there is enough flavor that it is not forward. There is a lack of "bite" in finish which I'm guessing is the result of the relative absence of hulls. While this is touted as a good thing in malt description, it almost tastes like something is missing to me, but I have to think about it to notice.

A batch of rye "cream ale" I made with 50% of this malt has been crashed for 5 days. I'll be looking to see if the haziness is repeated. I'll compare to the batch I made just before the 100% test batch with the same recipe, but with fresh milled Viking pils, which is crystal clear.

Interesting. My Blond Ale (which ended up being closer to an APA) has been conditioning at 38F for two weeks now. My kegerator has been 'down' awaiting parts for the faucets. UPS is promising delivery today, so hopefully I'll get to tap it in the next day or so.

My brew was ~90% MaltGems with the remainder 20L Crystal and Carafoam. It was remarkably clear going into the keg, seemed sweeter than anticipated, and had a higher than planned ABV. It also yielded 5+ gallons when I usually get ~4.5 gallons into the keg. Didn't calculate overall efficiency, but clearly it was higher than normal for my setup.

Anxious to see how it comes out.

Brooo Brother

 

[Dland]

The wort in the test batch was quite clear also, which is why I'm a little surprised the beer did not clear up more by now. I checked the written log I keep during brew days, and I did add the wirlflock.

 

[Broothru]

The wort in the test batch was quite clear also, which is why I'm a little surprised the beer did not clear up more by now. I checked the written log I keep during brew days, and I did add the wirlflock.

The FC repair kit for the Perlick came today along with a Nukatap I'd ordered from MoreBeer last week. The rebuild went smoothly and I installed the Intertap faucet on the other shank after cleaning and sanitizing. Here's the first pour from the MaltGems Blonde Ale, exactly 18 days grain to glass.

Darker than I'd expected, sweeter and slightly higher ABV than a true Blonde. Delicate lace that persists on the glass. Clear-ish, but not near the 'brilliant' clarity I was after. Hops (citra, mosaic, galaxy) are very prominent. A09 "Pub" yeast was fermented cool at 63F, and presented a few esters but nothing over-powering.

Very quaffable beer. Enjoying one right now.

 

[Dland]

That is about the same clarity as mine. Usually my brews come out clearer. Had some of the 50% batch this evening, brewed two weeks ago, crashed 5 days, is good, but also not clear.

If anyone knows what property in this pre milled, sifted and hull removed malt would make it more cloudy, I'd like to know. I'm guessing something about protein, or changed pH due to lack of hulls, or maybe a little bit of hull tannen helps with clarity.

 

[Broothru]

That is about the same clarity as mine. Usually my brews come out clearer. Had some of the 50% batch this evening, brewed two weeks ago, crashed 5 days, is good, but also not clear.

If anyone knows what property in this pre milled, sifted and hull removed malt would make it more cloudy, I'd like to know. I'm guessing something about protein, or changed pH due to lack of hulls, or maybe a little bit of hull tannen helps with clarity.

I'm curious as well. I prefer a clear beer (when appropriate for style) and was hoping for greater clarity and lighter color. There's obviously a learning curve for this malt.

One thing I noticed while holding my near-empty glass up to the fading sunlight was the visible presence of tiny particles in the glass. This was an early pour (2 weeks since kegging and refrigerating). If individual particle specks can be seen today, hopefully time and gravity will settle them out. I generally don't like to dose my beers with finings, but I suspect if I hit this one with gelatin or keiselsol/chitosan that it would sparkle by tomorrow.

Like SWMBO'd keeps telling me, "Patience, Grasshopper."

Brooo Brother

 

[eric19312]

Have you guys noticed the data sheet for the malt gems and plain versions of Briess Synergy Select Pilsen Malt include identical statistics. Don't understand how this can be true.

https://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Assets/PDFs/Briess_PISB_SynergySelectPilsen.pdfTYPICAL ANALYSIS*
Mealy / Half / Glassy ................................................... 100% / 0% / 0%
Plump ........................................................................................................... 98%
Thru ................................................................................................................. 0%
Moisture .................................................................................................... 4.4%
Extract FG, Dry Basis ........................................................................ 83.3%
Extract CG, Dry Basis ....................................................................... 82.4%
Extract FG/CG Difference ................................................................ 0.9%
Protein ......................................................................................................... 10.9
S/T .................................................................................................................... 42
Alpha Amylase............................................................................................. 58
Diastatic Power (Lintner) ..................................................................... 100
Color ........................................................................................ 1.8º Lovibond

https://maltgems.brewingwithbriess.com/documents/2020_SynergySelectMaltGems_SS_5-21-20.pdf

 

[Broothru]

Have you guys noticed the data sheet for the malt gems and plain versions of Briess Synergy Select Pilsen Malt include identical statistics. Don't understand how this can be true.

https://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Assets/PDFs/Briess_PISB_SynergySelectPilsen.pdfTYPICAL ANALYSIS*
Mealy / Half / Glassy ................................................... 100% / 0% / 0%
Plump ........................................................................................................... 98%
Thru ................................................................................................................. 0%
Moisture .................................................................................................... 4.4%
Extract FG, Dry Basis ........................................................................ 83.3%
Extract CG, Dry Basis ....................................................................... 82.4%
Extract FG/CG Difference ................................................................ 0.9%
Protein ......................................................................................................... 10.9
S/T .................................................................................................................... 42
Alpha Amylase............................................................................................. 58
Diastatic Power (Lintner) ..................................................................... 100
Color ........................................................................................ 1.8º Lovibond

https://maltgems.brewingwithbriess.com/documents/2020_SynergySelectMaltGems_SS_5-21-20.pdfView attachment 697066

Interesting. Hadn't examined the Spec Sheet for Synergy to compare with MaltGems (also Synergy). Agree there should be a difference. Looks like somebody at Briess simply did a cut & paste of the Synergy Select data.

Brooo Brother