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Need help with 2 row vs non 2 row

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bbell21

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I am building a Bell's Oberon clone this coming weekend and I visited bells general store to make sure they had my ingredient list so I could pre plan etc. I have ran into the issue of some discrepancies with 2 row vs non 2 row. Here is my ingredient list for grains that I noticed potential problems.

1lb pale ale malt 2 row needed - (bells only carries "pale ale malt")

9.6oz Munich malt needed - (bells only carries "Munich malt 2 row
(bonlander)")

Will regular and two row versions work interchangeably? Or should I order online for the differences? They did offer a regular Munich malt but it was a Michigan malt and not a German. Please help, thanks!!!
 
Also I don't know what bonlander means on the Munich malt version
 
2-row vs 6-row is not really something you have to worry about a lot.
2-row is more common in european malts such as munich, as far as i know there is no 6-row munich.

Generally there 2-row is concidered better, but there are recipies where 6-row works better.
 
There are only two kinds of malt that stores sell to us- two row and six row.

Those varieties you listed are two row. Six row is common in crystal malts, but it's really not as easy to find and you have to look for it in base malt types. Normally, you may want six row for a brew that has little diastatic power for conversion when you use a lot of adjuncts but it's not something that is usually sold as a base malt without you asking for it.

Borlander is a name Briess gave their Munich malt that is about 9L. It's very "German tasting" malt to me, similar to Weyermann's.

Brewers often refer to Brewer's malt as "two row" for a base malt, but generally they mostly all are two-row barley malted a certain color. I think there are a few that aren't, like Briess' Vienna malt might be six row(?) but that's not common.

Pale ale malt is just pale malt ("two row") kilned a tad darker. You probably would like that in a malty beer, but in most simple US beers you are looking for "Brewer's two row", or "pale malt" (different names for the same exact thing).
 
Those are the grains you're looking for--just described slightly differently than your recipe. Bonlander is brand of Munich malt from Briess. It is American but that shouldn't matter.
 
There are only two kinds of malt that stores sell to us- two row and six row.

Those varieties you listed are two row. Six row is common in crystal malts, but it's really not as easy to find and you have to look for it in base malt types. Normally, you may want six row for a brew that has little diastatic power for conversion when you use a lot of adjuncts but it's not something that is usually sold as a base malt without you asking for it.

Borlander is a name Briess gave their Munich malt that is about 9L. It's very "German tasting" malt to me, similar to Weyermann's.

Brewers often refer to Brewer's malt as "two row" for a base malt, but generally they mostly all are two-row barley malted a certain color. I think there are a few that aren't, like Briess' Vienna malt might be six row(?) but that's not common.

Pale ale malt is just pale malt ("two row") kilned a tad darker. You probably would like that in a malty beer, but in most simple US beers you are looking for "Brewer's two row", or "pale malt" (different names for the same exact thing).

You're awesome; that really helped me out a lot. So basically if it doesn't say two row, we can just assume it is since there are usually only two variants (2 and 6 row)?

Thanks everyone else too, love the great feedback on this site
 
There's a lot of screwy, interchangeable, and sometimes overlapping terms used by various maltsters, and sometimes things overlap or aren't consistent. For example, one maltster's chocolate malt may be darker than another maltster's black malt.

When it comes to base malts, unless they explicitily say they are 6 row, they are basically going to be 2 row (some specialty malts are 6 row without saying so, but they're a smaller part of the grain bill and it doesn't matter as much). Like @Yooper said, 6 row has its place when brewing adjunct-heavy beers since it's heavily enzymatic, but for most beers isn't not desirable since the protein content is very high, it provides less fermentable sugar, and the flavor isn't as good.

When it comes to base malts, there's a few key words. With American malts, "Brewer's Malt", "2 row", "pale malt", or some combo of them, is going to be generic US 2 row pale malt. When the word "ale" is thrown in there (as in "pale ale malt"), it usually (but not always) is going to denote a slightly darker kiln and more robust malty flavor than regular 2 row pale malt.

With English malts, they're often called Pale or Pale Ale, and either way are going to be more like the aforementioned American form of Pale Ale Malt (unless they say otherwise- there are English Pilsner malts and Extra Pale malts but they're not common in the US, the latter I've never used but I understand is paler and cleaner than a regular English Pale malt, probably closer to a US 2 row and the former more like a Pils malt). If an English malt just says "pale" or "pale ale", it's usually a maltster's blend of multiple cultivars and should be a good consistent general use English base malt. Others will have specific cultivars (Maris Otter is common, popular, and excellent, as is Golden Promise, others include Optic or Halcyon), each with their own specific character.

Pils malt is the palest, has American, English, or Continental (various countries) versions, all from different barley varietals and with different characters. Munich and Vienna are also European style malts, but American maltsters make them as well. As @Yooper said, Bonlander is Briess's trade name for their Munich malt (American maltster), just like "Ashburne" is their tradename for their mild malt, or Victory their trade name for biscuit malt, or Special Roast sort of similar to a paler amber or brown malt.

It gets even weirder with specialty grains.

Eventually you'll get a hand find what you like for the beers you like (I seldom use American malts for anything, but I also seldom brew American styles where my preferred German and English malts aren't always as appropriate), and you'll get a grasp on the things you need to look for in a specific malt. In any given malt type, American, English, and Continental European malts will usually have a different character, even for the same kind of malt (and even Belgian and German malts can show differences).
 
Thank you!! Very helpful information, I'll let you guys know how my Oberon clone turns out! First all grain batch!! I lowered my efficiency to 70% (raised my grain bill) since this is my first go at it. Going to use the batch sparge method. Wish me luck!!
 

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