Which brand of malt would you choose for lager?
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Depends on the type of lager
Anything floor malted from the Czech Republic
Why floor malted? What does that add to the flavor?
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If this is your first attempt at lager I wouldn’t worry much about the brand of malt. Once you make your style choice and figure out your recipe there’s lots of good choices for malt from traditional lager regions like Germany and Czechia, but feel free to use whatever is most easily available to you. If you have a homebrew shop nearby I’m sure they will be glad to help. If you keep the recipe and mash schedule pretty simple that will let you concentrate on the cold fermentation and lagering phases. Good luck!
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Echoing answers above, it really does depend on what kind of lager - German pils? American pilsner? Munich dunkel?
My hot take* is that any decent pilsner or light 2-row pale malt can make a great pale lager. One of my very best homebrewed lagers used Rahr 2-row pale malt, patterned after a clone of Schill’s pilsner. There are some really great American malts nowadays; they may be different from great European malts, but sometimes I think the difference is less meaningful than homebrewing tradition dictates. (and I say this as someone who often splurges on imported malts)
*hot take because I accept that many won’t agree with me on this, and I’m okay with that.
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well…. It’s what a lot of the Czech craft breweries I visited used. Beers were incredible
There’s an interesting article “Base Malt Is the Architect. Specialty Malt Is the Designer.”
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The freshest. I used to buy imported but there are a few local craft maltsters here now, and i have been using their pale malt for my lagers. I prefer it now.
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No doubt about it. But I’ve always wondered what floor malting brings to the game.
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I recently took second place in a club competition using maris otter in a munich dunkel.
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I am not at all sold on the notion that floor-malted barley is better. I am also not sold on the notion that to make an authentic tasting German-style lager, one must use German or European malt. IMO these are merely nods to tradition. There are plenty of excellent domestic malts that make great lagers.
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There ya go…it’s the results that matter.
Agreed. My most used for lagers is Rahr North Star pils.
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I think there’s never been a better time to brew lagers with North American malt. With smaller craft maltsters like RootShoot, Leopold Bros., Sugar Creek, etc. there are so many options, plus Rahr North Star and Premium Pils are well suited to Germanic styles to the point that one very traditional lager brewery I know is blending Weyermann and North Star 50/50 in their Helles with no perceptible change (and saving $$ in the process). Last year I brewed a FestBier and was running out of Barke Pils, so I split the pilsner malt portion of the recipe 50/50 Weyermann/RootShoot. I couldn’t detect any meaningful difference or “American” flavor in that beer. If someone was looking to brew their first Germanic lager I would still advise them to start with German malt and hops as a default, but there are now many great options on this side of the Atlantic.
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Barke pilsner malt is a cheat code if you are chasing that bready character for German lagers
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I get whichever one is the cheapest from Europe. They’re all great honestly. I haven’t figured out which brand is my favorite yet. Been happy with most of my lagers lately, various brands.
Where do you find Leopold Bros. for sale these days?
I live about fifteen minutes from them and they used to sell sacks in their tasting room but a few years back they stopped when they transitioned to supersacks only which is way too much. They offered to let me fill buckets out of their milled silo which is a cool offer but I don’t brew enormous batches and I’ve never liked the idea of buying pre-milled grain. These days I use Root Shoot which is also great but I was really enjoying the Leopold Bros. grain, too.
If you’re shooting for a very specific European style, it’s never going to hurt to use what brewers in that region use. Some of the pilsner malts in particular are fairly different across regions of Europe.
If regional/style accuracy isn’t an absolute goal and you’re just trying to make a great tasting lager, @OttoKringer is right the smaller maltsters in the US are putting out great grain with a lot of flavor that make great beers.
Agree 100%. First get your recipe and fermentation dialed in then you can start playing with the base malt.
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