A thought or two on malt

Since I started brewing in 10 gallon batches, I've purchased malt and hops in bulk whenever possible to save money. I have always tried to keep a sack of pilsner malt, wheat malt, and 2-row on hand at all times so that I could simply stop by the brew shop, pick up my specialty grains, yeast, and any hops I don't have on hand, then go brew.

I've always purchased Briess base grains probably because that's what the home brew shop has in stock. For me, I always assumed that the specialty grains were where I'd get my malt character and the base grain was there as a sort of blank canvass. Occasionally I'd pick up a sack of Maris Otter or use English malt when trying to make an authentic English beer.

A few weeks ago I brewed a Munich Helles with a 100% German Avangard Pilsner malt bill and I was blown away by the malt character in the beer. Then last week on the Brewing Network's Brew Strong podcast, I was really surprised by the conversation between Jamil Zainasheff and Colin Kaminsky on malts. It boiled down to this: the big American producers of malt give their best yield to the large craft brewers and the megabrewers in the form of contracts. The big brewers demand a higher standard of product because of their bargaining power. This leaves the smaller craft brewers with the rest of the stuff. The home brewing industry, with zero organization and relatively speaking, zero buying power, is left with the rest. They recommended going with small maltsters whenever possible. Since that's an industry that's still in its infancy in this country, they recommended going with smaller European malting companies that have been providing smaller, more discerning operations with quality malt for decades.

For my latest brew, I decided to pick up a sack of Crisp Malting Group "Best Ale Malt," which is their standard Pale Ale malt. I put samples of the Briess 2-row and the Crisp malt side by side to see the difference.

Crisp on the left, Briess on the right

The Crisp Pale Ale malt is slightly darker. The L rating is higher too, so this isn't a surprise. The aroma is way different: the Briess has a papery smell to it while the Crisp has a bready aroma, like a freshly unsealed can of oatmeal. And the flavor, no surprise, puts the Crisp way out ahead as well. Basically, it has flavor. The Briess has a "green" sweetness and only a hint of bread flavor, the Crisp has a sweetness that really jumps out and a depth of bread flavor with a slight bit of toastiness.

If you asked me if I've been unsatisfied with the malt character of my beers prior to this revelation, I would have said no. But when you stack these base malts side by side and actually taste them, it's a no-brainer of which I'd rather use in my beer.

I did the same simple test with Briess Munich malt and Weyermann Dark Munich (which has a lighter L than the Briess). Same result: the Weyermann had depth, the Briess tasted papery and light. Not to mention the Weyermann is 2-row and the Briess is 6-row.

Will I ever use Briess again after my stock runs out? Maybe in a pinch. This has been pretty telling though and I'm looking forward to seeing the difference in my beer.