I just noticed there is a 2-Row Brewers malt available…anyone using this? What’s the difference outside of being a little cheaper.
Not much. Standard “go to” malt for pretty much anything. I’m sure the malt guys can give you more specifics.
Dave
If you want to use Briess, there’s not much difference. Personally, that’s a brand I try to avoid.
Why’s that?
I find a general lack of flavor in Briess malts and often what flavor is there I don’t care for. I far prefer Rahr or Great Western.
+1. Briess doesn’t have any offending flavor (to me), just doesn’t have much flavor. Sort of like Coors Light - neutral to a fault. I use it in a pinch when I can’t get Rahr.
LMGTFY. Here is Briess’ description Base/Specialty Base Malts - Brewing With Briess
Found this handy chart. Color and DP are the major differences, as you can see in Kramerog’s post.
Well I can see that there is difference based on the description…I was more interested with the qualitative stuff that brewers could comment about.
I think the Pale Ale Malt is richer and more flavorful than the Brewers Malt. The Pale Ale Malt description mentions “hints of biscuit and nutlike flavors”. I don’t really taste that.
I think the Brewer’s malt tastes very clean and lacking in any characterful flavor. That could be what you want. I think the Rahr 2-row tastes a tiny bit fuller and has a bit more malt flavor (not much of a description).
I actually like the Briess Pale Ale malt for what it is. I think it works well in Amber beers. It is not an English pale equivalent and I have only tried Rahr Pale Ale malt once or twice.
Pale malt and what people call “two row”’ is the same thing. (Other types of malt are also made from two row.) Pale ale malt is a darker malt. You have to distinguish which people are talking about because I’ve seen a lot of people say pale malt when they mean pale ale malt.
I like the Briess Pale malt, it’s fine as a base malt for pale ales and dark beers, especially American ones. Briess has a reputation as a big maltster but it is actually one of the smaller ones. I’m not a huge fan of all their malts but some of them are quite nice. the Pale malt has asubtle “cookie” like character I think most will enjoy. That said, it’s not going to make very authentic English/Scotch/Irish tatsing beers if that is what you are going for.
Both Briess and Weyermann are on the small side. Both are known more for the specialty malts. When you find some data on the biggest maltsters in their respective countries, they are not anywhere near the top.
This was a very informative thread.
I’ve mostly used a Briess for my grains, including 2-row for most everything. I’ll need to try some pale ale malt…
For whatever reason, Briess kilns their brewers malt to the same color as most maltsters Pilsner malt (1.8L). Most pale malts I’ve seen are in the 2-2.5L rating. Their pale ale malt is spot with most english kilnings (3.5L), and you can fool many judges into thinking you used a traditional english malt with it.
Some germans simply refer to pilsner malt as pale malt. A lot of american say pale malt when they mean pale ale malt. Be careful. Go by the maltster specs to make sure you understand what it is they are making, not necessarily what you hear it called.
Another vote for avoiding Briess base malt. Much prefer T. Fawcett Maris Otter, Weyermann Pils and Great Western Pale Ale as my base malts.