Favorite Pilsner?

[AlexKay]

I'm finishing up a bag of Weyermann's floor-malted Bohemian and looking to get a new bag of the best-tasting malt I can find. Price is no object! No, really: I make small batches, so the big investment, no matter what the malt costs, ends up being my time. So ... what's your favorite Pilsner malt? I mostly use Pilsner for German styles, but there is the occasional Belgian.

 

[passedpawn]

Regarding ingredients, there is no big investment.

I like the barke malts from Weyermann. I keep brewing with them and they keep giving me the flavors I seek.

 

[Steveruch]

I like Bestmaltz pilsner malt.

 

[Sammy86]

I'm a Wyeremann guy myself, however I've had some good luck with Viking Pilsner on my last two brews and have been pleased with the results.

 

[riceral]

I like Mecca Grade Pelton and (echoing PassedPawn's recommendation) Weyermann Barke Pils.

 

[AlexKay]

All right now ... for SCIENCE!

I've ordered a pound each of the following; basically, every Pils I could find from a handful on online home-brew retailers (and including all of the suggestions so far - thanks!):

1. Admiral Maltings Admiral Pils
2. Avangard German Pilsner
3. Best Malz German Pilsen
4. Briess Pilsen
5. Dingemans Pilsen
6. Epiphany Modern Pilsner
7. Franco-Belges Pilsen
8. Great Western Superior Pilsen
9. Leopold Bros. Floor Malted Pilsner
10. MaltWerks Pilsner
11. Mecca Grade Pelton
12. Prairie Malt German Pilsner
13. Rahr North Star Pils
14. Rahr Pilsner
15. Sugar Creek 2 Row Pilsner
16. Viking Pilsner
17. Weyermann Barke Pilsner
18. Weyermann Eraclea Italian Pilsner
19. Weyermann Floor Malted Bohemian Pilsner

I'm going to do a bracket with the raw grain to narrow it down to four or so, then brew mini batches with those. If I'm missing a possible strong contender, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

I'll report back.

 

[Beermeister32]

Weyermann Barke Pilsner malt gets my vote.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Crisp have started malting small amounts of Haná, the Czech land race barley which makes fantastic lager. They've even started doing it as a Vienna now, as well as floor-malted pilsner. It's the sort of thing that only a handful of their favourite stockists carry as a regular item, but I imagine you could probably order it via a Crisp stockist. Alternatively, you can order it direct from the UK from eg
https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/?s=hana
I look forward to hearing how you get on with your trials, but Crisp Haná was my immediate reaction for a "money-no-object" lager malt - to give you an idea, here it's priced at about the same as the Crisp Chevallier, and 50% more than their Otter.

And you might want to compare with some of the British Extra Pale malts, which may not be labelled as pilsner but that's pretty much what they are. Malt Miller has Crisp ordinary and No 19 floor-malted in both regular and Otter, Warminster floor-malted and Simpson.

 

[AlexKay]

Now I'm sad I can't try that one. Malt Miller (as well as a few other UK sites I found) won't ship to me here in the USA. (Also seems hard to find British Extra Pales here, too.)

 

[cactusgarrett]

This isn't as extensive of a list as what you've got, but at 7 malts this is really well done.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/weyermann-barke-pilsner-i-made-fire.672018/page-3#post-8763283

 

[moreb33rplz]

I've never done a comparison experiment, but I have made dozens of the same'ish light lager recipe using basically every malt under the sun, and my opinion is it doesn't really matter. I'm sure they taste a bit different side by side but not enough to tell from batch to batch and I have no clear favorite.

 

[AlexKay]

This isn't as extensive of a list as what you've got, but at 7 malts this is really well done.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/weyermann-barke-pilsner-i-made-fire.672018/page-3#post-8763283

Wow! So this is why we search the forums. (I did search, actually, but apparently not successfully.) Thanks for finding this for me!

This is more or less what I'd like to do, except I won't do it as well, because I'm the only one going to be tasting. (Then again, since the point is for me to determine my favorite Pils malt...) Plus there will be the preliminary step of tasting the raw malts, in order to narrow the field to 4 or 6 or so.

If my conclusion is that malt really doesn't matter, I'm just going to mix all 20 or so malts together and use that for all my batches for the next few months.

Btw, added to the list: Briess Synergy Select, Hudson Valley Germantown, Prostejov.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Now I'm sad I can't try that one. Malt Miller (as well as a few other UK sites I found) won't ship to me here in the USA. (Also seems hard to find British Extra Pales here, too.)

Ah, that sucks - I'm pretty sure they used to but one way the shipping companies have been coping with Brexit is by refusing to handle anything with extra paperwork, including "food". I guess your best bet is to find somewhere Stateside that is selling Crisp Chevallier and ask if they can get some Hana in, it certainly brings something that's a bit different compared to other "me too" pilsners. I've never really thought about how Extra Pales compare to pilsner, they're not something I ever use much.

 

[VirginiaHops1]

I haven't done a ton of pilsners, I think my 6th is carbing up right now. The one I did with Mecca Grade pils and vienna was my favorite so far. Incredibly rich malt flavor

 

[Falstaff]

Pilsner Urquell because it's important to respect your ROOTS. I used to hate it, but I think they used to use green bottles, then.

I can also crush a twelve pack when I need bottles... I prefer to buy mine full.

Also, shout-out to Weihenstephaner and Rothaus, for imports and Sixpoint, and Von Trapp for domestic.

 

[bkboiler]

Counting only Pils beers (not broader category of lagers like Czech premium, etc...)
I'd have to go with Trumer Pils.
Now...to broaden it up a bit, I think Czechvar is kinda competitive with Pilsner Urquell, but some consider it in a premium category...whatever....
If we take style guidelines away, Czechvar is my fav Pils worldwide.

 

[Snark_Wolf_Brewing]

I've always had good luck with the Pilsen Avangard Malz Premium that Adventures In Homebrewing carries as their Pilsner malt selection. It's an excellent base malt for a lot of different recipes.

 

[Beermeister32]

Here is the best I've been able to find in the US. BTW, get the Trumer in the cans, not the green glass. Wish they'd change that over to brown glass.... I'd buy more .. I've quit buying beer in green glass....

 

[Snark_Wolf_Brewing]

Here is the best I've been able to find in the US. BTW, get the Trumer in the cans, not the green glass. Wish they'd change that over to brown glass.... I'd buy more .. I've quit buying beer in green glass....
View attachment 740150

Agreed. Green glass is how you wind up with skunk beer.

 

[Beermeister32]

Also to all PILS manufacturer's and distributors: WE WANT THESE AVAILABLE IN 16.9 OZ / 500 ML CANS OR BOTTLES... enough of the sissy 11-12 ouncers!

 

[csantoni]

Ayinger was the first beer I ever bought for myself, as a teenager in a pub in London. Obviously, this was before i knew anything about English beer. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in California but I should probably look harder.

 

[Falstaff]

Ayinger was the first beer I ever bought for myself, as a teenager in a pub in London. Obviously, this was before i knew anything about English beer. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in California but I should probably look harder.

Funny you should mention. Not a pilsner but damn good.

 

[moreb33rplz]

+1 for Trumer. I remember living 1/2 mile from the brewery, good times

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Pilsner Urquell because it's important to respect your ROOTS. I used to hate it, but I think they used to use green bottles, then.

Might I gently point out to Falstaff and others that they might like to actually read the thread, that this is in the Ingredients forum and the OP was talking about Pilsner malts, not Pilsner beer?

Although it is useful to see who bothers to read a thread rather than just broadcasting their opinions...

 

[cactusgarrett]

I've always had good luck with the Pilsen Avangard

I've used Avangard's pils for the longest time, as it was easy/cheap to get sacks of it from my LHBS. But after changing to Best Malz pils (with the occasional Barke from Weyermann), I don't think I'll ever go back to Avangard.

 

[Beermeister32]

Might I gently point out to Falstaff and others that they might like to actually read the thread, that this is in the Ingredients forum and the OP was talking about Pilsner malts, not Pilsner beer?

I think you’re right, obviously we must all be drinking...!

 

[Falstaff]

Might I gently point out to Falstaff and others that they might like to actually read the thread, that this is in the Ingredients forum and the OP was talking about Pilsner malts, not Pilsner beer?

Although it is useful to see who bothers to read a thread rather than just broadcasting their opinions...

Woops. My bad.

 

[monkeymath]

I've never done a comparison experiment, but I have made dozens of the same'ish light lager recipe using basically every malt under the sun, and my opinion is it doesn't really matter. I'm sure they taste a bit different side by side but not enough to tell from batch to batch and I have no clear favorite.

I second this. I'd even doubt that most untrained tasters could distinguish beers made from the different malts in a triangle test.

Of course, some of these malts really are quite different (e.g. Weyermann Floor Malted Bohemian Pilsner) from "standard pilsner malt", but I think it'd be really hard to distinguish say Bestmalz Pils and Weyermann Pils in the final product.

 

[AlexKay]

It's true; the whole exercise may turn out to be futile. Much of the malt has arrived, and I've been eating the grain. Unblinded, it seems like some of the malts you'd expect to be very different (Weyermann Barke vs. Ericlea, for example) are just barely differentiable.

I'm going to taste the malts blind and rank them (probably just group them best-better-ok), and then repeat a few times and look for consistency. Anything that scores in the "best" group every time will get made into beer.

Worst case scenario, I have 20-some pounds of Pilsner that I've determined to be similar enough that I can just mix them together.

 

[Bramling Cross]

I've always had good luck with the Pilsen Avangard Malz Premium that Adventures In Homebrewing carries as their Pilsner malt selection. It's an excellent base malt for a lot of different recipes.

Snark, I used Avangard for years. It's a great malt! However, last year I decided to see what all the fuss was about regarding Barke Pils malt. The first pint of Barke that I poured elicited a loud "Wow!" from me. I'm not knocking Avangard, but I will say that I think Barke is worth trying.

 

[couchsending]

Used just about every base malt from Weyermann. Barke, Ereclea, standard Pils, floor malted, etc etc over the last 5 years. Probably 50-60 different lager, Kolsch, Alt brews within that time.

I’ll be using Ireks from now on. Amazing depth of flavor and character. Hard to find on the Homebrew scale. I think there’s only one vendor online. Use a bunch of Ireks malt in almost every commercial batch at my brewery now.

Needed a bag of Avangard Vienna for a beer and tasting it next to the Ireks Vienna was pretty mind blowing The difference. Was bummed we even had to use the Avangard in the beer.

 

[AlexKay]

I’ll be using Ireks from now on. Amazing depth of flavor and character. Hard to find on the Homebrew scale. I think there’s only one vendor online. Use a bunch of Ireks malt in almost every commercial batch at my brewery now.

Thanks for the tip. Texas Brewing sells Ireks in pound quantities. I just put in an order.

 

[AlexKay]

I have now eaten too much raw pilsner malt.

I tasted 19 different malts blind, ranking each one best (3), good (2), or meh (1). I recorded the score for each malt, and then repeated the tasting for a total of 3 times. Scores were:

9: Epiphany (0.5)
8: Avangard (1.3)
7: Prostejov, Weyermann Eraclea (3.4)
6: BestMalz, Briess, Dingemans, Franco-Belges, Leopold Bros, Weyermann Barke, Weyermann floor-malted (4.2)
5: Admiral, Rahr, Sugar Creek, Viking (5)
4: Great Western, Mecca Grade (2.9)
3: MaltWerks, Rahr North Star (1.6)

The number in parentheses is the number of malts you'd expect at that score if selection was completely random. (These numbers are adjusted by the fact that I turned out to be more likely to rate something as "meh" than as "best.")

In other words, I have not disproved the statement, "I can not tell the difference between maltsters just by tasting raw malt."

I'm set up to make 6 batches of SMaSH lager. Have to figure out how to select the competitors; I'm thinking that if someone's mentioned it in this thread I'll include it.

 

[dirty_martini]

I’m a big fan of bestmalz. Nothing wrong with weyermann, considering it’s what so many of the top US lager makers use, which is probably why I like bestmalz because I don’t want to do what everyone else is doing. I’m curious how the American craft malts come through. I like the idea of helping support them and grow craft malt to a point is can compete better with the big guys.

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

Was Pils Urquell, but now my own homebrewed Pils.

 

[AlexKay]

Ok, here's an update. I brewed five 12-oz batches using BestMalz, Ireks, Weyermann floor-malted Bohemian, Weyermann Barke, and Epiphany. The recipe was:

0.25 lb. Pilsner malt
0.25 g Magnum @ 60 minutes
2.3 g W34/70

The Barke fermenter smashed on the floor before I could bottle it.

The remaining four have finished bottle conditioning, and I just tasted them side-by-side. They taste identical. I know I don't have the most sensitive palate, but maybe this is the point: as far as I can taste, for my own beer, the maltster just doesn't matter that much for Pilsner malt.

So my plan is to mix up all 20+ pounds of malt I ordered for this taste test, and use that until it's done. And then I can order anything I want, with the assurance that it's not going to affect the outcome in a way I can taste. I will probably support a small, craft maltster, unless it's prohibitively expensive to do so.

 

[Beermeister32]

Five 12 oz batches of Pilsners in 30 days? Ummm.. I think I'd re-do that test with maybe 1-2 gallon batches, and let these things age out a bit. I lager my Pilsners 90 days. If it were me I wouldn't put that much confidence in a 12 oz batch. Just saying........

 

[Dr_Jeff]

I prefer Belgian beers and one day thought, "What would the Belgians use?", and decided on Franco-Belges Pilsen and ordered a sack of it.
It may be all in my mind, but I thought that the beers brewed with it were better.