I bought a bag of Rahr Premium Pilsner. Has anyone compared this with continental Pilsner malts? I recognize that if I make a Bo-Pils, it won’t be authentic, but how would it differ from one?
The price difference was compelling.
I find continental pilsner malt (ie Bestmalz which I usually use for german styles or Dingemanns for Belgians) to have a bit fuller body than our North American pilsner malt. They seem to have a touch more sweetness and roundness to them. I have also noticed that especially when using the Rahr that the beers tend to dry out more from attenuation than when using the Continental versions in the same recipe using the same mash temps and specs. YMMV…
It’s a subtle thing. perhaps too subtle for me. I mostly use domestic ingredients out of a desire to minimize the distance travelled by my beer and mostly it’s not even noted in competition. in fact one of the beers that made it through to the second round was an amber lager brewed with domestic ingredients. I entered the same beer in another contest and a grand master 4 judge was on that panel. he picked it out. The first time anyone has.
I think there is a difference, but it’s quite subtle. There’s a certain sumpin’ sumpin’ that German pils malt has over domestic pils. I prefer to use authentic ingredients for my brewing, but I don’t know if it’d matter much in something like a schwarzbier. I do typically use Rahr white wheat for my hefes though…so I wonder much different it’d be with something like Weyermann or Best. Guess I’ll find out since I’ve got a sack of Best wheat comin’. My guess is it won’t be much different as hefes are mainly driven by the yeast.
Definitely a difference. I think the Belgian/French pils is most different from domestic sources but German pils is subtly different but in a way that really seems to matter. I find the Belgian and French pils is more crackery than domestic and German is similar in overall taste to domestic but more complex.
while I prefer Best Pils to Rahr Pils, Rahr is very good and a good bit bit cheaper.
I find domestic Pils unacceptable for German lagers. I think that German Pils is a touch more bready/cracker like, Belgian Pils seems a bit more grape like, and domestic Pils is just grainy. To be sure about the German/Belgian thing, I’m doing some experiments currently.
The Belgian Pils I use pretty much every time is Castle, and I think it has a subtle sweet grape character, where Weyermann is the German Pils I’ve used mostly (though Best is great) and I think it has a slightly grainy, crackery character. But I just made a German Pils with all Avangard - My LHBS is going with Avangard as their only German Pils , so I gave it a shot. I’m curious to see how it compares to other pils malts. I have heard good things about it from a few brewers though.
Couple things to keep in mind. Some Belgian breweries use German Pils to make their beers. Most of you favorite American breweries use domestic pils to make their Belgian inspired beers. I know for a fact that russian River uses Rahr.
While true, what professional breweries do is of little real interest to homebrewers. I cannot copy what a pro does and expect it to work in my garage. I just use what works for me. 8)
Hmmmm…sounds a lot like a book I just read…
Hey, I use Best pils at my brewery for most of my beers (that use pils anyway). So I’m just sayin’. But I know for a homebrew level and commercial level that Rahr pils is pretty darn good. Don’t be afraid to brew with it. It won’t make a bad beer.
The last lager I made with Weyermann was described as “crackery”.
I want more of a grainy character so domestic is probably going to be my preference unless the beer is gonna be a Czech pils.
You use some wheat malt.
Yes, for wheat beer. 
Aha. I do not do wheat beer.
Thanks to all who shared their experience. I look forward to my experiments with domestic pilsner malt and will refer back to these comments when I taste the results. I may even make the same recipe twice but switch out the malts. That would be educational.
I used Canada Malting Pilsner for pretty much everything at this point. I use it for my Kolsch which may be frowned upon but works for me…