What's your favorite malster and why?

Yakima 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Beer-lord

Beer-lord

Supporting Member
HBT Supporter
Joined
Jan 17, 2012
Messages
2,116
Reaction score
490
Location
Burbs of the Big Easy
I like to try as many different brands of malt that I can. It's cost me lots of money to purchase sacks of grain from different companies but i do enjoy trying them.
So far, I really like (as well as others I share my beer with) Mecca Grade Lamonta. Their Munich, Vienna and Pislen are good as well. I am also a fan of Proximity Malt. They've made me very good beers the last 3 years.
Of course, I still use Rahr, Great Western and others that I can get at my LHBS but trying boutique maltsters has been fun. I can tell the difference in my Pales and IPA's but not so much my stouts. I can't tell the brand but I can tell when I've used these more expensive malts.

What's your favorite and why.
 
Have you brewed with Avangard? I would be curious how they compare. I use them exclusively for my base malts since I am able to get it from a brewery at cost.
 
I used their pale malt once, only 10 lbs but didn't get good efficiency which is what I've sometimes read about. Of course, it's always a YMMV type of thing but the beer tasted fine. I think I'll give them another try. I normally buy by the sack to save some money and the LHBS only stocks a small variety of sacked grain.
I wonder what the local breweries would say if I asked to buy grain from them, never have but they certainly are aware and friendly with the owner of the one and only LHBS.
 
I'm currently using malts from Simpson and Crisp. I've used Bairds and TF in the past as well. I like all four of those. I'm only getting my base malt (Maris Otter) by the 55# sack. Everything else is typically 5-10# purchases from the LHBS. Since the LHBS has all the additional malts I'm using, it's a win-win. Plus I've been able to get them to order me things that would have cost me more with shipping. ;)

As for why I use these maltsters... I simply like what they produce. Crisp No 19 is a very nice base malt. Simpson produces the majority of the other malts I use. Not needing to hunt around to find a malt my recipe calls for is no minor thing. Plus, sticking with malts produced by the same company lends to a level of stability for your recipe. Knowing that these are grown items, with humans in the process, so small variations can happen. My end product has all been within acceptable parameters.
 
Last edited:
Beer-lord said:
I used their pale malt once, only 10 lbs but didn't get good efficiency which is what I've sometimes read about. Of course, it's always a YMMV type of thing but the beer tasted fine. I think I'll give them another try. I normally buy by the sack to save some money and the LHBS only stocks a small variety of sacked grain.
I wonder what the local breweries would say if I asked to buy grain from them, never have but they certainly are aware and friendly with the owner of the one and only LHBS.
Click to expand...

🤯 I have struggled to get my efficiencies from the low to mid 60s......I've tried all kinds of modifications to my process to try and help too, never once did I consider it was the malt itself....
 
For inexpensive base malt, I use Rahr Standard 2 row. For lagers, I use Weyermann Barke. For English malts, I am really liking Crisp Chevallier. For locally grown and malted grains, Root Shoot is my favorite.
 
Sugar Creek is local here in Indiana. They make a mean English pale malt, as well as good Munich and Vienna. Their range and quality of smoked malts is what sets them apart, though. Traditional German rauchmalz and Grodziskie malts are much more intense and characterful than, say, Weyermann, plus they've got Nordic smoked malts (alder and birch woods), and they're the only source I've found for lavender-smoked malt. That, I used in a lavender-smoked helles eisbock, which is possibly my favorite beer I've ever brewed.
 
I really try to support local maltsters, and I'm lucky to have a couple near by. So, I tend to purchase base grains from either Root Shoot malting or Proximity. For other specialty grains, I'll try to purchase US grains for my miniscule support to reduce shipping impacts from other countries, but sometimes I just want to have a specific malt. I really like Simpsons DRC so I keep that in stock.
 
I buy Breiss 2 row in a 50lb sack and I use that for the majority of American styles. For British styles I buy whatever Maris Otter I can get. Lately the shops I buy from have Crisp. Or I have used Fawcett Golden Promise.

For lagers I bought a sack of BestMalz pilsen from the local brewpub who I am grateful to for selling it to me. He’s my neighbor. I really like this malt. It even came pre-crushed because thats how he buys it. I was leery of that at first but it worked out well.

I haven’t brewed with malts from too many different maltsters. When I had my store I used to be able to get floor malted Warminster Maris Otter but that was ages ago.

In the end we can only buy what our stores sell or whats available online from the big places. And its hard to buy sacks online when free shipping doesn’t apply.
 
Usually it's Rahr for base malt, whatever my LHBS has for specialty, and Weyermann for German stuff. Avangard was mentioned earlier, so just throwing out that it's Russian owned, if you care about that sort of thing.
 
BrewMan13 said:
Usually it's Rahr for base malt, whatever my LHBS has for specialty, and Weyermann for German stuff. Avangard was mentioned earlier, so just throwing out that it's Russian owned, if you care about that sort of thing.
Click to expand...
I didn’t know that, even though, I never liked it much. I always thought German. I’d love to find a domestic Pils that I really liked.
 
For domestic beers, I love Great Western malt. Consistent flavor, yield, and quality all around!

With that said, I use Weyerman for my continental beers, and either Bairds' Maris Otter or Simpson's Golden Promise for UK beers.

I buy all my grains at Morebeer in ten-pound bags.
 
My favorite maltster is Rahr because they gave me a free hat.

I am also a big fan of Gabrinus Honey Malt. If I am going to tweak a grain bill, it will probably involve this malt.

The malt with the biggest wow factor though is Mecca Grade Opal 44. If it wasn't so cost prohibitive, I would eat a heaping bowl of it every Sunday.
 
I use a fair amount of Munich in my recipes, including the occasional all-Munich malt brew. After years of just buying it one recipe at a time, I bought a sack of it, and got Avangard. But then I found several of my beer recipes did not taste the same, they were too sweet. So I gave away what was left of the sack and bought Weyermann. So far, so good.
 
Last edited:
Are others seeing pretty massive price hikes on sacks of malt? There is a local shop near me that I have always expected to have a pretty solid selection of malt at reasonable prices. Just looking, it seems that some of the American brands are up maybe $5 a sack (Briess is $60 vs $55) but many of the European malts seem to be up about $15 per sack. Crisp Marris Otter $80, Dingemanns Pilsner $85, Weyermann Floor Malted Pils $90!

Luckily have have enough Maris Otter (Crisp) and German Pils (Avangard) to last for several months. I probably need to grab a bag of American 2-Row soon. I have been pretty happy with Rahr (now at $65 for 55 lbs). I am a little curious about the Montana American 2 Row Brewers Malt that is $60 for a 55 Lb sack. I see another thread on that malt and people were getting it for $35 to $46 per sack (though I live in a very high cost of living area, so nothing around me is dirt cheap).
 
Canada Malting Company is what I usually get from a brewery.

I have special ordered Franco-Belages Pilsen malt for my Belgian beers and I thought that they came out better with it, but it might have been in my head. I had thought that there was "just something missing" with my Belgian beers and then thought, "What malt would the Belgians most likely use?". I ordered a sack of it and thought that those batches turned out better.
 
Dr_Jeff said:
Canada Malting Company is what I usually get from a brewery.

I have special ordered Franco-Belages Pilsen malt for my Belgian beers and I thought that they came out better with it, but it might have been in my head. I had thought that there was "just something missing" with my Belgian beers and then thought, "What malt would the Belgians most likely use?". I ordered a sack of it and thought that those batches turned out better.
Click to expand...
I've heard people state with great authority that their (German or Belgian) beers require (German or Belgian) malts to yield excellent results. I appreciate the more skeptical evaluation you've offered.

I used malts for my first-ever Belgian style beer and was pleased by the results, which at least remind me of Chimay Red. What if I hadn't used Dingemanns...? I'll never know.

I used British malts for years for my main styles but haven't much looked back since going almost all American. Last year I bought a sack of Maris Otter and mostly noticed the ferocious dough balls at mash-in. My palate may not be sensitive enough to justify shipping malt across the Atlantic.

Cheers!
 
It's really cool how many smaller maltsters you have in the US. I mean, I'm sure there are lots in Germany as well, but there's no way to buy from them at the homebrew level.

We don't really have a lot of homebrew stores in Germany, so I usually buy my malts online. Most online stores stock Weyermann, so that's my "default maltster". I ordered a 25kg bag of Crisp Maris Otter once, that was great. Crisp Crystal 120 EBC is by far my favourite crystal malt, so much better than CaraMunich that I always sub out any other crystal malts by this one.
Then I got a bag of Bestmalz Pilsner; can't say I could tell a difference between that and Weyermann, although I haven't done a side-by-side tasting. Same goes for Dingemans... I think the differences between regular base malts from different maltsters are usually going to be miniscule in the final product, but honestly I'd like to be wrong about that.

What I'd like to find is a slightly undermodified malt. It's often claimed that e.g. Weyermann Floor Malted Bohemian Pilsner was undermodified, but looking at the specs, that's just clearly not the case.

Very recently I discovered there was an animal feed store nearby that actually makes and sells their own pilsner malt, made from regional barley. So that intrigued me. The area surrounding Munich is geologically interesting (it's basically gravel brought in by glaciers during the ice ages), don't know if and how that is reflected in the barley.

The malt has a deep, bready taste, and appears to be a shade darker than Bestmalz pilsner, which is very light tasting and a bit one-dimensional in comparison. I'd say the taste is somewhere in between a pilsner and a munich malt.

I've now brewed my first beer (a Czech pilsner inspired lager) with it and while it's still very young, the flavour is quite close to what I had expected from tasting the grains. I regret having added a small dose of CaraHell, since the base malt already has so much character. I'll brew a similar beer without the CaraHell to see more clearly what the malt is like.
Sorry for rambling on about this; I'm just very excited about it.
 
monkeymath said:
It's really cool how many smaller maltsters you have in the US. I mean, I'm sure there are lots in Germany as well, but there's no way to buy from them at the homebrew level.

We don't really have a lot of homebrew stores in Germany, so I usually buy my malts online. Most online stores stock Weyermann, so that's my "default maltster". I ordered a 25kg bag of Crisp Maris Otter once, that was great. Crisp Crystal 120 EBC is by far my favourite crystal malt, so much better than CaraMunich that I always sub out any other crystal malts by this one.
Then I got a bag of Bestmalz Pilsner
Click to expand...
I’m finishing up a sack of BestMalz Pilsener. Only a couple pounds left. I got that sack from my neighbor who owns a brewpub in town. First time I used it and I really like it.

I’m driving far to a homebrew store here early next week to pick up 2 sacks. I’m getting Breiss 2 row and Simpson’s “Best” malt which is a UK malt I plan to use in British recipes where I would use Maris Otter. This will be my first time trying this one.

https://www.simpsonsmalt.co.uk/our-malts/best-pale-ale-malt/
And yes, prices are up everywhere
 
Ozarks_Mountain_Brew said:
last couple of years I'm only using Pale ale malt, not to be confused with pale malt and usually Rahr pale ale, I also use Dingemans and Weyermann Malting. Mostly I'm trying brew with the same grains to perfect some recipes taste, changing brands too much is confusing my pallet
Click to expand...
Thats where I get caught up. Different base malts for different recipes.

You want pilsener malt for American or German lagers. You want pale ale malt for American ales. You want British malt for British beers. I try to always have those 3. I plan to make a pre-prohibition lager soon so I want 6 row for that. Different again. I don’t do Belgians but people who do have different malts for those.

I’m not sure I could get to one base malt I would use for everything. Just like there’s not one hop or one yeast that works for everything.
 
bwible said:
Thats where I get caught up. Different base malts for different recipes.
Click to expand...

What I have been keeping on hand for the past few years is:
  • American 2-Row/Pale: I have used several over the years. Briess the most because of price and availability. A local shop that closed a few years ago had Canada Malting for a good price, and it seemed like a nice malt. My last bag has been Rahr. I have been very happy with the Rahr. I find it is a clean slate with just a touch of "grainy" character, where Briess can have a touch of a straw character.
  • German Pilsner: I mostly use Pilsner for brewing Belgians, but the price and limited access to Belgians has pushed me to using
    German Pilsner. My prior bag was Weyermann Floor Malted Bohemian. It seemed like a great malt for making German/Czech pilsners. My current bag is Avangard, mostly based on price. It has less flavor that the Bohemian, but provides a light colored neutral canvas which works well for me. I want to play more with Dingemans Belgian Pilsner Malt.
  • English Pale Ale: My last several bags have been Crisp Marris Otter (not the floor malted one). I have been very happy with the character, and I feel that it adds an English character to English beers (even if that is just in my head). I am not a huge fan of using English Pale Ale in styles like APA or IPA, as I don't care for the biscuit type flavors in those styles.
I have done a number of small batch single malt trial batches. My overall take away was that there are definitely differences between types of malt and maltsters (sometimes subtle), but there is not a clear better or worse. I do think that it might be worth it to spend a few extra dollars on a "premium" malt, just because as a brewer you like the idea of using a premium malt.

Ozarks_Mountain_Brew said:
Mostly I'm trying brew with the same grains to perfect some recipes taste, changing brands too much is confusing my pallet
Click to expand...

That seems like solid advice.
 
So I’m brand new at brewing. So far only 3 extract kits (and they’ve all been good). But I’m assembling my own BIAB system which will be finished in a month. I just returned from Findlay Ohio. There’s a microscopic sized malt house about 25 miles outside Findlay called Barley Five Malt House. I bought a 2 row from them and also some wheat and oats. I enter “malt house” in G maps and up they popped. I started looking around Arkansas and neighboring states to see if there are any and I’m surprised a few exist. I have no idea of taste, but at the prices I paid in Ohio, I can afford to experiment a huge number of times. I’m a small biz and I love supporting other fledgling operations. I paid 40 bucks per bag, so if it’s crap, no biggie. Opinions? (And yeah, I don’t know anything yet so please don’t bomb me :)
 
Can't say I have a favorite maltster. After having brewed enough batches to dial in consistency in styles I like to drink, I find the origin of malt is one of the final keys for hitting any given style.
 
Beer-lord said:
I like to try as many different brands of malt that I can. It's cost me lots of money to purchase sacks of grain from different companies but i do enjoy trying them.
So far, I really like (as well as others I share my beer with) Mecca Grade Lamonta. Their Munich, Vienna and Pislen are good as well. I am also a fan of Proximity Malt. They've made me very good beers the last 3 years.
Of course, I still use Rahr, Great Western and others that I can get at my LHBS but trying boutique maltsters has been fun. I can tell the difference in my Pales and IPA's but not so much my stouts. I can't tell the brand but I can tell when I've used these more expensive malts.

What's your favorite and why.
Click to expand...
They come in the whole grain form or crushed?
And you never thought about buying grain from your local farmers market and malt them yourself and save money?
 
BrewingWisdom said:
And you never thought about buying grain from your local farmers market and malt them yourself and save money?
Click to expand...
I care far more about the quality of the malt than the price.

A local maltster, Root Shoot also grows fairly specific barley just for beer, They have their own VERY sophisticated malt house by SCHULZ. I believe it is the only one in North America. What they offer is far superior to anything that could be made in a home.

 
Wayne1 said:
I care far more about the quality of the malt than the price...A local maltster...far superior to anything that could be made in a home.
Click to expand...
Yes, cool (esp. for those of us with spare cash to burn - I just spent over $100 for a sack of malt for the first time). And...

First let me say that both quality and quantity matter to everyone, albeit in different degrees.

Second, as homebrewers whose results sometimes exceed high-quality commercial beer, some of us might also be imagined to make damn fine malt at home with non-artisanal barley.

Finally, price and quality often compete, but there are bargains in this world - you don't always "get what you paid for."

P. S.: separate from quality, there's something truly impressive - even noble? - in @bracconiere 's infamous $1 12-pack. Beating the "drug dealers" at their own game!
 
Wayne1 said:
I care far more about the quality of the malt than the price.

A local maltster, Root Shoot also grows fairly specific barley just for beer, They have their own VERY sophisticated malt house by SCHULZ. I believe it is the only one in North America. What they offer is far superior to anything that could be made in a home.

Click to expand...

Doing something commercially on a larger scale using the required complicated machinery doesn't translate to superiority.
I have watched that video the following processes similar to homebrewing were done to acheived the end result which is MALT .
1)Cleaning and rinsing.
2)Steeping or soaking few times .
3) Germination
4) Drying
5) Kilning it later removing rootlets .
After crushing the malt is ready to brew.
The cleanliness which they are bragging about in the video is an issue where thousand tons malt is made. On a smaller scale for 10 gallons of beer that's not an issue.
 

Similar threads

CyberFox
Comparisons of base malts between malt brands
Replies
14
Views
2K
faithie999
F
Ki-ri-n
What's the deal with UK malt?
Replies
4
Views
345
Steveruch
Steveruch
S
What’s your favorite craft Pilsner malt?
Replies
34
Views
3K
CascadesBrewer
CascadesBrewer
beersk
Domestic Ingredients
2
Replies
54
Views
2K
beersk
beersk
McMullan
What Didn’t Get Delivered Today?
Replies
9
Views
409
McMullan
McMullan
Williams Brewing 300

Latest posts

Back
Top