What’s your favorite craft Pilsner malt?

[Jack Arandir]

Weyermann Bohemian Floor-Malted Pilsner. This malt changed pilsners for me. So delicious.

I also tried Sekado Czech Pilsen malt. Very complex, earthy, tasted like a farm-to-table product. Great in Czech Amber.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

For those in the US, Northern Brewer is selling Hana by the pound and by the bag:
Hana Heritage Malt - Crisp
$2.79/pound is pretty steep for base malt. It's a bit cheaper by the bag (and ships free.)

It's a labour of love for them, there's only a couple of acres being grown of it. Here in the UK, it's about the same as Chevalier, 5% more than the Crisp floor-malted Otter, and about 15% more than their regular Otter.

Last year they made some Vienna with Hana, I don't know if they've repeated that this year.

 

[jdauria]

Would you say IREKS is better than barke and Mecca grade in your experience?

I wouldn't really say better than Barke, but equal to regular Weyermann malts. As for Mecca Grade, no, I think Mecca is more favorable than Ireks. Weirdly though, most of my beers with Mecca don't seem to perform as well in comps as those with Barke or Ireks. The other think about Ireks, and the Stone Path I mentioned, was that last year, due to a shipping container shortage, it was hard to get Weyermann malts and my LHBS was done to just a few sacks of Weyermann specialty malts and Avagard base malts...so being able to get Ireks via Stone Path allowed me to get by during the shortage.

 

[Spartan1979]

I prefer the regular Weyermann Pilsner malt.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I also tried Sekado Czech Pilsen malt. Very complex, earthy, tasted like a farm-to-table product. Great in Czech Amber.

Ahhh...my local shop has been shifting their offerings of bulk malts due to availability and costs. They had that Sekado malt in stock so I just grabbed a bag to give it a try. I mostly use Pils malt for brewing Belgians, but was also looking for something more characterful than Avangard to use in a West Coast Pilsner.

As far as this thread goes...I had great luck brewing some batches with Pilsner (and also 2-Row and English) malt from Murphy & Rude here in Virginia. I wish I had easier access to their malts, but I can probably get some through one of the local breweries. Overall I like the concept of using locally malted grains that were grown in the area.
https://www.murphyrudemalting.com/