Which base malt do you think is best for general brewing?

[TandemTails]

I just finished up my 55lb sack of Chateau Pilsen and want to get another bag of base malt to have on hand. With the pilsen malt I brewed a lot of beers that obviously relied heavily on pilsner malt.

I was debating if I wanted to get another bag of pilsner or go with something different. I was kinda leaning toward standard 2-row but maris otter was also up on the list as well. I don't really have a specific style or type of beer I want to brew... just a malt that will be pretty diverse.

If you could pick one general purpose malt to have on hand, which would you choose?

 

[ESBrewer]

It depends on the type of beer. There is really no general base malt, although you could manage to brew many styles with something like pilsen or US 2-row. But the results won't be optimal. So you really want to decide what you are going to focus on or buy more than one malt. If you are an occasional brewer and want to experiment with many different styles one after the other, you could also buy several malts per pounds / kgs. Even if the 50 lbs sacks tend to be a little bit cheaper. Or you can try to find another brewer nearby and split the costs & grains.

British styles (bitters, barley wines, strong ales, Irish red, Scottish ales)- pale ale malt such as maris otter (or some other variety), kilned to > 5 EBC
Belgian styles - mainly pilsner but you will soon need wheat etc.
German lagers - mainly pilsner, but you may soon need Münich etc.
Wheat beers - pale wheat malt, but you need some barley(pilsner, but sometimes Munich), too..
US beers - depends on style, but US 2 row would be typical especially for pale and not very malt-driven beers and beers that are high in non-malted grains. But darker pale ale malt such as Maris Otter could be useful, too.

 

[waldoar15]

All depends on what you brew. I brew with Golden Promise quite a bit. I like it in lagers that just don't "have" to be pils.

 

[MX1]

MO - always a good choice
English/Belgium Pale - also good
Irish Ale or Stout might be good as well

 

[VTX1300]

Definitely MO! It's My go to malt for pale ale an IPA. It just brings a little something extra to the beers that I usually brew.

 

[z-bob]

I go through a sack of plain ol' American or Canadian 2-row faster than any other malt. (I was surprised by that.) I also really like Belgian pilsner malt. I haven't tried MO yet.

 

[mongoose33]

Which is best? Whatever you like the most!

My base grain is Maris Otter. About 80 percent of my beer is brewed with that as the base malt. If it's a pilsner, Pilsen malt. I do a California Common with 2-row as the base.

 

[Dog House Brew]

Weyermann Barke Pils Lagers
Rahr for American ales
Golden Promise for my IPA beers. I tend to blend 70/30 Pils and Rahr for most beers.
GP and Rahr 75/25 for my IPA.

 

[thehaze]

Maris Otter
Golden Promise
Simpsons Extra Pale Ale malt
Any german/belgian pale malt

 

[mabrungard]

Echo the above: It depends on what beer styles you like and prefer.

Pils malt has no substitute. It is the palest malt and its flavor and color cannot be duplicated in my opinion. Whether the maltster calls it lager malt, extra pale malt, or something else, if the color is below 2.2L, its a Pils malt.

If DMS is ever your problem when brewing with Pils malts and you don't really prefer the palest, sweetest beer styles, then moving up to some variant of Pale malt could be wise. Pale malt is any malt between 2.2L and 4L. You'll tend to taste bready or nutty flavor from that class of malt. Of course, you won't be able to brew those palest and sweetest styles, but that may be OK for your beer preferences. Pale malts have low SMM and they won't daunt you as easily with DMS issues.

While there is terrior factors and barley variety factors, the main factor that I find in differenciating base malt is its color rating. Pay more attention to that when deciding your base malt selection and its applicability to the styles you prefer to brew.

PS: I keep a German Pils malt and a US Pale malt in my brewhouse since my beer preferences are too broad to fit in a single base malt category.

 

[Qhrumphf]

For "general" I'd use a "pale ale" malt- not necessarily something English but something malted in that fashion.

They bridge the gap between a generic domestic US 2 row malt and something like Maris Otter (although they do tend towards the latter).

Rahr makes a decent one and it's inexpensive.

You could also use an English extra pale malt that'll be in the same sort of realm.

At my previous job I learned to love Weyermann Pale Ale malt. Sort of a weird continental-English hybrid. Can't say I've seen a homebrew shop supply it, but any shop that orders from BSG/stocks Weyermann products could probably get it by the sack for you.

Personally, I like Weyermann Bohemian Pils and/or Barke Pils, and Fawcett or Gleneagles Maris Otter as go-to bases (although Crisp has rebranded the Gleneagles I think). Edit: Crisp now sells Gleneagles MO as No. 19 Floor Malted MO

 

[jerbrew]

Pelton Pilsner malt. Look it up, that stuff is domestically grown and malted and tastes fantastic.

 

[PADave]

Why lock yourself into 55 lbs of a base malt that you are unsure of just to save a few dollars? Buy smaller amounts of what's appropriate for the recipe that you are brewing. Then you could try different base malts and figure out which ones you like.

 

[NitrogenWidget]

I bought 55lbs of 2-row and 20lbs of Vienna and been making beers with that this summer. More Vienna for pales, less for lighter ales.
Just basic light brews with different hops for easy drinking.
i'll probably change it up when this is gone for fall winter brews.

 

[catdaddy66]

I brew a LOT of US and British beers and typically will switch between 2-row and Pale ale malt. I always like to keep about 5# of Munich, Vienna, Pilsen and wheat on hand at any given time. This gives me a lot of flexibility in my brew schedule. Several styles of specialty and adjunct malts round out the inventory in my stash.

 

[z-bob]

For "general" I'd use a "pale ale" malt- not necessarily something English but something malted in that fashion.

They bridge the gap between a generic domestic US 2 row malt and something like Maris Otter (although they do tend towards the latter).

Rahr makes a decent one and it's inexpensive.

You could also use an English extra pale malt that'll be in the same sort of realm.

At my previous job I learned to love Weyermann Pale Ale malt. Sort of a weird continental-English hybrid. Can't say I've seen a homebrew shop supply it, but any shop that orders from BSG/stocks Weyermann products could probably get it by the sack for you.

Personally, I like Weyermann Bohemian Pils and/or Barke Pils, and Fawcett or Gleneagles Maris Otter as go-to bases (although Crisp has rebranded the Gleneagles I think). Edit: Crisp now sells Gleneagles MO as No. 19 Floor Malted MO

My last malt purchase was Rahr pale ale. I've only brewed once with it; that beer is about ready to bottle.

 

[Dcpcooks]

Floor malted pilsner for my Germans and farmhouse ale

Best malz pils or MFB pils for my saisions

Breiss brewers malt for ipa Base malt

MO for Stouts and English beers.

Wild naked oats neipa
Unmalted white wheat neipa

Flakes oats and malted white wheat. Everything else that needs oats and wheat.

 

[applescrap]

I have tasted malts many times at my lhbs and i like golden promise, maybe the best. It seems that golden promise and maris otter are the two main malts a lot of people use. That being said recently is the first time i ever paid more for golden promise as i get a really good deal on malteurop 2 row. I dont think I will buy cheaper malt again. I perceive the golden promise beers as way better. Stick a teaspoon of each malt in your mouth every time you go to the brew store and one or two will stick out as your favorite. After doing that a lot, the grain that came forward for me is golden promise.

 

[madscientist451]

I was debating if I wanted to get another bag of pilsner or go with something different.

If you could pick one general purpose malt to have on hand, which would you choose?

The quick answer isn't really what you are looking for, but here it is:

I wouldn't constrain myself to choosing one general purpose malt.

The longer answer:
Right now I have sacks of Pilsner, Domestic (USA) 2 row, malted rye, malted oats, and Marris Otter.
When I use up more of the above collection I'm going to add a sack each of Golden Promise and
and some special malt from one of the new "craft" malthouses, maybe some Mecca Grade Estate Malt.
Storage can become an issue, but you can solve that with cheap food grade buckets. You can put the grain in big ziplocks, then in the bucket with lid, then stack the buckets 3 high, it all doesn't take up as much space that way. I usually have a few pounds of 20 different specialty malts on hand, its fun to brew what you want, when you want without making a trip to the store. Its also interesting to sub out ingredients in recipes and see what how it comes out. Its also interesting to blend base malts. A recipe that calls for all 2 row can be blended with 50% pilsner, for instance.
So my 2 cents: get some buckets and stock up on 3-4 base malts, then buy your specialty malts in 10 lbs lots, its a little cheaper that way.