Where to Find Ireks Malts?

[jdauria]

Now that Texas Brewing Supply has switched to pro business only, I have not be able to find any online shops that sell Ireks malts. Does anyone know of a place?

There is a maltster here in Mass, Stone Path, that sells sacks of Ireks through a partnership deal with them, selling base grains under the Stone Path brand and specialty grains under Ireks name. But really to prefer to order grain per recipe for the most part, at least until my sacks of Barke Pils and Barke Munich are gone.

 

[LokiM4]

Interested too, I'd like to know where sacks of Ireks might be available

 

[wepeeler]

That stinks about Texas Brewing Supply. I will say, I bought IREKS a few years ago from them and couldn't really tell that much of a difference. What specific IREKS grain are you looking for?

 

[jdauria]

That stinks about Texas Brewing Supply. I will say, I bought IREKS a few years ago from them and couldn't really tell that much of a difference. What specific IREKS grain are you looking for?

Mainly their base malts, Pils, Munich and Vienna. When using in the past I preferred them to Weyermann's base malts, though Weyermann's Barke malts are much better.

 

[wepeeler]

Mainly their base malts, Pils, Munich and Vienna. When using in the past I preferred them to Weyermann's base malts, though Weyermann's Barke malts are much better.

I guess I shouldn't jump to a conclusion after only using a certain malt once or twice. My process is infinitely better than what it was a few years ago, so maybe IREKS is amazing. My local brewery loves it for their Festbier, but says it's expensive and harder to get now.

 

[jdauria]

I guess I shouldn't jump to a conclusion after only using a certain malt once or twice. My process is infinitely better than what it was a few years ago, so maybe IREKS is amazing. My local brewery loves it for their Festbier, but says it's expensive and harder to get now.

Yeah I think a lot of European malts are more expensive these days. Few online shops I use always seem to be out of a lot of Euro malts. One of these days I will get to the malthouse in my state that has a partnership with Ireks and get a sack through them. My big question there is if they are really Ireks malts, or US grown barley malted at their place to Ireks specs.

 

[wepeeler]

Yeah I think a lot of European malts are more expensive these days. Few online shops I use always seem to be out of a lot of Euro malts. One of these days I will get to the malthouse in my state that has a partnership with Ireks and get a sack through them. My big question there is if they are really Ireks malts, or US grown barley malted at their place to Ireks specs.

My understanding is that IREKS is indeed German malt, BUT it can be renamed under an American distributor? That's completely hearsay, but it was from the mouth of a reputable brewery owner.

 

[ntempleton]

Prairie Malt distributes Ireks, at least in the western states. You could reach out to Prairie and ask if there are any local breweries or homebrew stores that carry their malt.

https://www.prairiemalt.com/products/ireks-pilsner-malt

 

[Witherby]

Yeah I think a lot of European malts are more expensive these days. Few online shops I use always seem to be out of a lot of Euro malts. One of these days I will get to the malthouse in my state that has a partnership with Ireks and get a sack through them. My big question there is if they are really Ireks malts, or US grown barley malted at their place to Ireks specs.

Many of us in my homebrew club in central Mass (the WIZARDS) have been doing group buys from Stone Path for quite a few years now. No discount, just going in together on an order and splitting bags when that makes sense. I have been through 3 or 4 bags of the IREKS pilsner malt (which they call SPM pilsner) and a sack of Vienna and a sack of Munich (actually two half sacks that I split with a friend who also brews Dunkels) but none of the specialty malts since we don't have enough interest in splitting them. I really like the malts, but I haven't brewed with any other German base malts for such a long time that I can't compare other than the fact that I am happy with the outcome.

When we picked up the first order I spoke with one of the owners and they confirmed that it is indeed imported German IREKS malt and not just some branding or marketing deal with IREKS. The team at Stone Path is friendly and responds to email and happy to fill small orders with a little notice.

I would like to decrease my carbon footprint and find locally grown malt to replace the German and English malts I usually use for my lagers and British beers. Stone Path has their own line of locally grown malts, but I haven't tried them yet. Valley Malt, despite being supported by homebrewers in their early days, basically ignored the homebrew market for a very long time. They are finally selling to homebrewers again and have rolled out malts specifically made for British beers (they have a malt modeled after Golden Promise and are working on a mild malt) and continental lagers. Once I get through my current stock I am going to try a year of local malts.

 

[ntempleton]

I would like to decrease my carbon footprint and find locally grown malt to replace the German and English malts I usually use for my lagers and British beers.

Massive thread drift, sorry.

I've been trying for years to find an American malt that replicates German malt. I haven't been successful.

 

[Witherby]

Massive thread drift, sorry.

I've been trying for years to find an American malt that replicates German malt. I haven't been successful.

I just read this yesterday in the new Modern Lager Beer chapter on malt:

"Fully modified infusion-capable malts from Europe still have higher average β-glucan levels, which protects against coloring reactions and allows for extra kilning time and higher temperatures without excessively darkening the malt. Thus, more toasted malt flavors can be developed in European malts than in US malts of comparable color. This manifests in what Ashton Lewis calls the "almond-like" flavor profile of German Pilsner malt, which is distinct from the rounder and sweeter flavor profile of US-grown two-row malt. Growing conditions also create notable differences. The US two-row crop has less disease pressure due to the drier and hotter environment but is less plump as a consequence, while European barley is plumper due to wetter growing conditions."

Fingers crossed that the locally-grown barley in New England is closer to the barley grown in Europe compared to the midwestern barley.

 

[Unicorn_Platypus]

My club is working on a collaboration with a local brewery modeled after the Augustiner Bräu Mülln (Salzburg) Bräustübl beer Märzen.

We are planning to source the Ireks malt from Stone Path. Beer is targeted to be brewed sometime in Jan or February and will be tapped in March or April.

Looking forward to trying this malt for the first time on that beer. It's supposedly what the brewery in Salzburg uses based on the extensive research I've done.

I can post more details about the collaboration at a later date. Pretty sure there will also be some availability of the beer at the brewery for those not in the club.

Need to keep the details a little hush hush for now. For those in Massachusetts will be an excellent beer to try when it's ready

 

[rmr9]

My club is working on a collaboration with a local brewery modeled after the Augustiner Bräu Mülln (Salzburg) Bräustübl beer Märzen.

We are planning to source the Ireks malt from Stone Path. Beer is targeted to be brewed sometime in Jan or February and will be tapped in March or April.

Looking forward to trying this malt for the first time on that beer. It's supposedly what the brewery in Salzburg uses based on the extensive research I've done.

I can post more details about the collaboration at a later date. Pretty sure there will also be some availability of the beer at the brewery for those not in the club.

Need to keep the details a little hush hush for now. For those in Massachusetts will be an excellent beer to try when it's ready

I’m very curious about the details when they’re available! I was in Salzburg in September and absolutely loved the beer at the Augustiner Bräu Müln.

 

[02fx4dude]

I purchased some Ireks malts from a homebrew place in Oklahoma a little over a year ago, High Gravity Fermentations (IIRC). The grain price was decent but their shipping was pretty high, worse than Northern Brewer, I won't order from them again. I was pleased with the results after using Weyerman for many years. My next purchase of base malt's I'm going to try Avangard, from a local place.

 

[monkeymath]

They're actually not even that easy to find in Germany... Looks one of the newer shops now stocks 25kg bags of the different base malts, at least.