Briess synergy select "maltgems"Pilsner malt

[Dland]

I just got 50#s of this, reading the fine print, says lots of good sounding stuff, but also says part of hulls removed.

One of the things I was wondering is how reduced hull volume will affect mash permeability and sparging characteristics. I already use rye malt in some brews, so I have rice hulls on hand.

Anyone here brew with this stuff? I'll be trying it soon, and will post results. If anyone has already used this, would be good to hear how it worked out for you. Thanks.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/briess-maltgems-pilsen-malt-50-lb-sack.html

 

[Brettomomyces]

https://www.brewersassociation.org/...ng-the-Heart-of-the-Malt-for-Clean-Flavor.pdf
They found pretty good lautering all by itself due to the removal of flour and smaller particles

 

[Broothru]

I just picked up 20# as well. I didn't really have a specific use in mind when I ordered it, just a general notion to use it as a base for a light Continental lager. It piqued my interest, and I like to experiment. How are you planning to utilize it? The crush looks a bit finer than the gap setting of my mill though that could be due to lack of husks. I'll probably use 70% as much as my normal grain bill since the yield is supposed to be 30% higher.

Brooo Brother

 

[day_trippr]

Wait - this Breiss grain is pre-crushed from the malt house?

Cheers!

 

[Broothru]

Wait - this Breiss grain is pre-crushed from the malt house?

Cheers!

Yeah, they crush and then separate the majority of the husks from the grist. So you get proportionately more sweet wort per pound of grain, and supposedly no reduction in laundering ability. I mash in a Braumeister and usually don't sparge since there is constant recirculation (high efficiency in a full volume mash). "Fountaining" can be an issue with this setup since recirc is bottom up, so hopefully the grain bed won't be too compact and I'll still get good flow and extraction.

Brooo Brother

 

[Dland]

I did not realize it was milled, might not have bought it, but it did qualify for free shipping, even though a full 50#s. It was going into regular stock rotation, but I guess I'll use first,, even though it just arrived. We will see how it does in 3 vessel rig w fly sparge this weekend.

I use pilsner as base malt, 50% of grist usually, in lagers, blonde ales, cream ales, etc. Might try first batch at 100% just to get to know it, that will use 20# right there.

 

[Carolina_Matt]

I've never heard of this and there are no reviews on the site. Is this a brand new product? The price seems good, and it seems like you need to use fewer pounds of this compared to regular base malt - so you get more for your money. I'm assuming you'd need to do some trial and error to see how it differs from their regular base malt though?

If a few people make good beer from it, then I may need to buy a sack. The description makes it sound good for my Blonde Ale.

 

[dpeters]

I have bought a few 50# bags of this already and it has never been crushed unless maltgems is some other option I have never seen.

 

[Broothru]

I did not realize it was milled, might not have bought it, but it did qualify for free shipping, even though a full 50#s. It was going into regular stock rotation, but I guess I'll use first,, even though it just arrived. We will see how it does in 3 vessel rig w fly sparge this weekend.

I use pilsner as base malt, 50% of grist usually, in lagers, blonde ales, cream ales, etc. Might try first batch at 100% just to get to know it, that will use 20# right there.

Yeah, blond ale with a base of this grain would probably make a great beer. Also a cream ale. I've recently 'kicked' kegs of pils and Coor's Light clone and am in need of a lawnmower beer. Maybe Yooper's or Biermuncher's recipe would be good as well.

 

[Broothru]

I have bought a few 50# bags of this already and it has never been crushed unless maltgems is some other option I have never seen.

The Breiss website describes MaltGems as "custom milled in small batches", "crafted by removing the majority of husk, fine grit and flour from our milled Synergy Select Pilsen Malt".

Are you sure it was MaltGems (tm) and not one of the Breiss premium malts?

 

[eric19312]

According to the Morebeer site it is not milled. But on the Briess website they say it is milled and you should not mill it again. I didn't realize this either when I ordered, just needed some base malt and jumped on free shipping for 50 pound sacks at this price and grabbed 4 of them. Hope I like it

 

[Broothru]

According to the Morebeer site it is not milled. But on the Briess website they say it is milled and you should not mill it again. I didn't realize this either when I ordered, just needed some base malt and jumped on free shipping for 50 pound sacks at this price and grabbed 4 of them. Hope I like it

When I ordered (2 weeks ago) the only online vendor I found was Northern Brewer. I haven't been ordering from them lately but went ahead and rolled the dice. My "go to" for mail order is usually More Beer but I didn't see it there. If I'd seen 50# sacks with free shipping I'd have jumped on it.

Brooo Brother

 

[Dland]

I can confirm the 50# bag I just got from morebeer is milled. It looks to be a somewaht fine crush, but not powdery.

 

[Brettomomyces]

I have bought a few 50# bags of this already and it has never been crushed unless maltgems is some other option I have never seen.

MaltGems is a new thing...they take Synergy pils, crush, and then filter out a lot of the husk and smaller bits. I'm afraid of stocking it because it HAS to come pre-crushed and I don't like any grain on the shelf with that short of a useable window.

 

[Brettomomyces]

I've never heard of this and there are no reviews on the site. Is this a brand new product? The price seems good, and it seems like you need to use fewer pounds of this compared to regular base malt - so you get more for your money. I'm assuming you'd need to do some trial and error to see how it differs from their regular base malt though?

If a few people make good beer from it, then I may need to buy a sack. The description makes it sound good for my Blonde Ale.

I didn't see a specific % point but I would say it's probably 10% if not more concentrated by weight due to the loss of husk material. I definitely want to try some at some point but I'm reticent to stock pre-milled grain. Husk or not oxygen is still getting in there

 

[Brettomomyces]

What you see on the right is what you get when you buy this

 

[Dland]

Yup, that is what it looks like.

Anyone know specifics as to storeability of pre ground malt vs un ground? Have never bought pre milled before, wondering how fast I should try to use. I guess it might be LIFO, in accounting terms, stock rotation wise..

 

[day_trippr]

I buy base malt by the bag, but regularly use a just few different malts - Golden Promise, Weyermann Pilsner, and Breiss Two-Row Pale. Occasionally I'll pick up something different to try out - eg: bought some Valley Malt floor malted two row recently. I would not want to have to manage pre-milled grain in my workflow because one has to believe the degradation is greatly accelerated vs unmilled malt.

And to what end that couldn't be equaled with a bit more "fresh" base malt? Seems to me removing flour will actually lower yield at some modest (if any) improvement of lauterability (totally depends on their crush), but even that is likely nullified by the husk reduction.

Nope. I don't get it...

Cheers!

 

[eric19312]

Here is Briess' website promoting the product:
https://maltgems.brewingwithbriess....dJCpSOct4JRhQw-tafW-22-e9SrhXf3hoC11MQAvD_BwE
This powerpoint is pretty interesting:
https://maltgems.brewingwithbriess....ng-the-Heart-of-the-Malt-for-Clean-Flavor.pdf
Interesting theories on reason to reduce husk (color, polyphenols) and flour (acrospire content).

Lautering performance looks pretty appealing for traditional lauter/sparge techniques at commercial craft scale (3-10 BBL described). No data presented on whether this would be helpful in BIAB at homebrew scale but the crush seems larger than most BIABers on HBT recommend. I'm a traditional 3 vessel brewer and am pretty excited about the potential of reduced grain water absorption and increased density (I'm almost always brewing pretty close to the limit of my mash tun).

As for the downside of storing crushed grain I guess I will be the one to find out. The 4 sacks on their way to me should last about 5-6 months over 6-7 batches. Will just have to see how that impacts the beer. My guess is un opened sacks of grain have a decent shelf life so my plan is to leave them un opened until needed and then transfer what I don't use into gamma lid sealed storage containers.

 

[Jayjay1976]

I'm going to order a sack on Friday. I store my base malt in buckets with air tight gamma lids so I won't worry too much about the effect of oxygen on flavor. I BIAB, recently having switched to a coarser crush and did not experience any loss in efficiency. If necessary I can run this stuff through the mill if I see any issues because I suspect that Briess advises against crushing a second time to avoid stuck sparge, etc. in a conventional lautering system.

 

[yeastseeker]

If im understanding the presentation correctly, this is a malt geared towards brewers who want to either reduce their water usage, since less husk will be absorbing water, or brewers looking to brew higher gravity beers and or increase the amount of beer they can brew on their system. Am I missing anything?

 

[Brettomomyces]

If im understanding the presentation correctly, this is a malt geared towards brewers who want to either reduce their water usage, since less husk will be absorbing water, or brewers looking to brew higher gravity beers and or increase the amount of beer they can brew on their system. Am I missing anything?

It's supposed to present as a lighter flavor profile with less astringency and less husk flavor

 

[eric19312]

If im understanding the presentation correctly, this is a malt geared towards brewers who want to either reduce their water usage, since less husk will be absorbing water, or brewers looking to brew higher gravity beers and or increase the amount of beer they can brew on their system. Am I missing anything?

It's not about saving water because water is precious. It's about brewhouse efficiency since less water should be retained in the grain bed and all the water retained in the grain bed contains sugars that didn't make it to the kettle.

It is also about getting a different flavor profile from the malt since you are not mashing with the husks or acrospires. They are claiming a "unique clean flavor" attributing i guess to not including husk, rootlets and acrospires into the mash...I'm hoping it is not them working really hard to turn a negative into a positive--perhaps those components contribute a flavor character we expect in a well made beer. Like a touch of sulfur in some lagers.

 

[Broothru]

Yup, that is what it looks like.

Anyone know specifics as to storeability of pre ground malt vs un ground? Have never bought pre milled before, wondering how fast I should try to use. I guess it might be LIFO, in accounting terms, stock rotation wise..

That's a concern of course. When I make a bulk purchase I separate the grain into smaller units and then vacuum seal them (like a 50# bag separated into 5 x 10# vacuum bags). The potential problem with the MaltGems is that not only are the grains milled at the vendor, but they're milled at the malthouse. Might be a couple of months (or more) between milling and mashing. I brewed today but not with the MaltGems. I'll prolly brew with them in the next few days however. Thinkin' it'll be a blond ale.

Brooo Brother

 

[Jayjay1976]

That's a concern of course. When I make a bulk purchase I separate the grain into smaller units and then vacuum seal them (like a 50# bag separated into 5 x 10# vacuum bags). The potential problem with the MaltGems is that not only are the grains milled at the vendor, but they're milled at the malthouse. Might be a couple of months (or more) between milling and mashing. I brewed today but not with the MaltGems. I'll prolly brew with them in the next few days however. Thinkin' it'll be a blond ale.

Brooo Brother

Vacuum bagging in smaller quantities is a great idea, thanks.

 

[eric19312]

I'm going to order a sack on Friday. I store my base malt in buckets with air tight gamma lids so I won't worry too much about the effect of oxygen on flavor. I BIAB, recently having switched to a coarser crush and did not experience any loss in efficiency. If necessary I can run this stuff through the mill if I see any issues because I suspect that Briess advises against crushing a second time to avoid stuck sparge, etc. in a conventional lautering system.

I'm wondering if the unopened factory sealed bags are better or worse container than the homer buckets with gamma seals. These new grain sacks I'm seeing lately seem pretty well made.

 

[yeastseeker]

It's not about saving water because water is precious. It's about brewhouse efficiency since less water should be retained in the grain bed and all the water retained in the grain bed contains sugars that didn't make it to the kettle.

It is also about getting a different flavor profile from the malt since you are not mashing with the husks or acrospires. They are claiming a "unique clean flavor" attributing i guess to not including husk, rootlets and acrospires into the mash...I'm hoping it is not them working really hard to turn a negative into a positive--perhaps those components contribute a flavor character we expect in a well made beer. Like a touch of sulfur in some lagers.

gotcha, and agree with you on the last point.
This seems like a product that would be more attractive to a commercial brewery trying to maximize efficiency. On a homebrew scale, Im not sure I see the draw.

 

[yeastseeker]

It's supposed to present as a lighter flavor profile with less astringency and less husk flavor

this is what would spark my interest. Although I cant imagine a lighter flavor that the standard Briess Pils malt. It is the lighter colored and flavored pils I have ever brewed with.

 

[Jayjay1976]

I'm wondering if the unopened factory sealed bags are better or worse container than the homer buckets with gamma seals. These new grain sacks I'm seeing lately seem pretty well made.

That's a really good question. Coincidentally, my neighbor who is a doctor of chemistry was over one day drinking beers in the garage when I started pinning up my empty grain sacks on the wall; he grabbed one and started busting out details about the bag construction, material thickness, stitching, etc. I think he used to work for a company that manufactures that type of packaging when he was in college. He called out a big difference in quality/specification between the different brands. IIRC, he liked Bestmalz and Avangard (Cargill) sacks over Castle and Dingemann's. When I get my sack of maltgems, I'll ask him what he thinks of the bag. I would expect that pre-crushed grains come in premium level packaging in order to extend the shelf life.

 

[Brettomomyces]

Even if the bags are thicker material there is still air incursion where they are stitched shut because it's just thread.

Weyermann probably has the best protection due to their inner liner; the bags that Briess uses for their smoked malts is pretty damn thick but I have no idea what these come in.