I ordered a sack of GW 2-row from the LHBS. They ordered the Gambrinus by mistake. I haven’t paid for it, yet, until I find out about it. I’ve never used it. Any feedback? How does it compare to GW?
I know a lot of people who like Gambrinus, but I’m not one of them. I ended up with 2 sacks on a group grain buy and I got terrible efficiency and a not so great flavor from them. One bag was almost all husk! This may have been an anomaly, so let’s see what other people say.
I believe that Gambrinus packs 25kg bags rather than 50lbs. That’s about 10% more, so check the price that your being charged. If you’re paying the same/bag, you can throw an extra half pound into the grist to raise the gravity.
I bought a sack of their Pilsner malt & made a pretty good lager from that. I’ve not tried Gambrinus 2-row (or GW pilsner) so I don’t have a direct comparison.
I’ve never used Gambrinus regular Pale malt…but I have bought sacks of their ESB, Munich, Vienna, and wheat malts in the past, and thought they were excellent.
I haven’t used any for about 4 years now, though…I used to buy Gambrinus from Larry’s in Seattle, and it been 5 years since I last drove to Seattle.
One of my favorite PNW breweries, Double Mountain in Hood River, OR; uses Gambrinus Pils as their base malt in nearly everything they brew. I find it to be a nice alternative to European Pils malt, since I try to keep things local as much as possible when it isn’t too much of a hassle. I’m guessing you have gambrinus pale, not pils, which is, IMHO, fairly similar to Briess Pale, though I rarely use it since GW 2-row is much cheaper for me.
15-20 of us did Saisons for a possible upstart brewery. We tasted 6 before and all had different yeast.
Condensed Opinion-Unless you are 100% locked on Dupont, then use 3711.
I did half my batch on 3711 and half on wlp550. I no issues with stuck ferm. I put a kg of jaggery in the end of the boil. Had no trouble dropping from 1.060 to .0006 -dry.
My only “Do over” would be to not use any pellets as the 2nd carboy had some extra hopiness because i had a tough time with my pickup.
****SORRY, I started on the siason thread and would up here
I really like the Gambrinus ESB malt. Never had any efficiency problems, hull problems, and the flavor’s very good – biscuity.