Pilsner Mail for an IPA?

Ingredients
1

Hey everyone,

new member here, but not really new to homebrewing.  I’ve been brewing for about 4 years now, now on all grain but have just recently moved onto building my own recipes.

A friend of mine who owns a bakery recently went to his grain supplier (who also supplies grains to some breweries in the PNW) and got about 10 lbs of Pilsner malt, and 10 lbs of white wheat malt.

I’m not a huge Hef fan, but figured I could at least use the Pilsner malt for something.  Can I use pilsner malt for an IPA?  I’m assuming I may need to add some other grains to build the body a bit, but wanted to see if anyone had some feedback on that.

Or if you have a suggestion on what to use both of those grains on, other than a Hef I’m totally open to suggestions.  Thanks!

2

Sure you can. Done it several times. I normally use Crystal 40 in AIPA, but a little Carahell mixed in is nice as well. Good luck!

3

Pils malt with ~20% Vienna or Munch works well.

4

Contrarian view point: I would go 50/50 Pilsner and Wheat with gravity and hops like an IPA. If you don’t like hefe’s use an American Ale yeast; WLP001/1056/US-05.

:slight_smile: I don’t like to waste malt.

5

I’ve done it, and it will make a decent beer. I use 70:30 Pils to Pale Ale malt in a blend for all my Pale beers now. A little Pale Ale or Vienna malt will bring down the husky/grainy flavors of the Pils and add some toast to round out the malt.

If you want to go the NE IPA route, then you could always use the wheat as 20-30% of the grain bill.

6

Just for the heck of it I tried my standard SMaSM experimental beer with 100% Castle Pilsen last time, it turned out okay, but not great - would have been a lot better if I hadn’t brain farted and added a gallon of water at the end of the boil, thinking I had boiled off more than I had. If I did pilsen in a SMaSH again I’d mash around 156* or so, instead of the normal 149* I do with this recipe.

7

My last IPA I did 60 % pils, 25 % mo, and 15% oat malt. I don’t do a lot of ipas but I think that will be my standard malt bill. I was really happy with how it came out.

8

Wow thanks for all the tips/advice.

I’ve decided to brew up a Mosaic Smash with this grain.  Anyone from Texas is probably aware of Lone Pint Yellow Rose, if not its a delicious IPA which according to their website and bottle also is a smash of Pilsner and Mosaic.  6.8%, around 60 IBU.

Looking forward to brewing this up, first time around I’m going to use a 90 minute boil based on things I’ve heard regarding pilsner malts.

I’ve got a total of 13 lbs of pilsner malt and about 8 oz of Mosaic to play with.  Looking forward to seeing how she turns out!  Starter is rollin away as I speak.

9

You really don’t need a 90 min boil even for pilsner malt.
A 60 min boil will be just fine, IME.

10

This. ^^

11

I agree. My all pilsner malt pilsner has been done with 60&90 minute boils and I have not had any issues with the 60 minute version. Not going back to 90 except for something really high gravity

12

Again, same experience.  I’ve ditched the 90 minute boil.

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”

13

I’ve done SMaSH IPAs with Pils malt several times. I tend to go back and forth between American 2 Row and Pils for pretty much any IPA anyway. Current trend is for little, if any, malt character anyway. I have a beer that I did with a commercial brewery that was 80/20 Pils/rice for the grist. Really light, dry, and easy drinking.

14

I have used a little rice in some IPAs, and I like the results. Maybe 10% for me.

15

Interesting. I’ve been using corn quite a bit lately, but I wasn’t a huge fan of it in the IPA’s I’ve tried it in. I may have to experiment with rice sometime soon.