Pilsner Malts

[Tim Bulin]

A local guy was bringing in containers of Sekado for a while and I used that exclusively for a couple of years. Hands down best malt I've used. The Floor Malted Pils was great and their 2-Row was fantastic - very rich, malty and crackery rather than candy-sweet.

Well, I'll be getting a bag, hopefully by the end of March. Checked with the Wine and Hop Shop in Madison, distributer is out of stock right now, should be a fresh lot coming in soon and they are going to order me a bag.

 

[J A]

Well, I'll be getting a bag, hopefully by the end of March. Checked with the Wine and Hop Shop in Madison, distributer is out of stock right now, should be a fresh lot coming in soon and they are going to order me a bag.

The best part was that we'd do a quantity buy and get it for less than $30 a bag. Initial price for Pilsner was $26 a bag. over the period that he was selling he raised prices a little but it was still less than $30. It was crazy that local brewers didn't support his enterprise and buy that stuff. I guess most breweries want to stay with established importers and suppliers for consistency of product.

 

[The Brew Mentor]

The best part was that we'd do a quantity buy and get it for less than $30 a bag. Initial price for Pilsner was $26 a bag. over the period that he was selling he raised prices a little but it was still less than $30. It was crazy that local brewers didn't support his enterprise and buy that stuff. I guess most breweries want to stay with established importers and suppliers for consistency of product.

As much as I support Local, if I buy from a local maltster, I'll only do it for a 1 off.
Inconsistent product can't be what I serve as surprisingly, the customer today has a much better pallet than even a few years ago and will notice a difference.
Cheers

 

[J A]

As much as I support Local, if I buy from a local maltster, I'll only do it for a 1 off.
Inconsistent product can't be what I serve as surprisingly, the customer today has a much better pallet than even a few years ago and will notice a difference.
Cheers

I was thinking more in terms of dependable supply to avoid the necessity of substitution rather than consistency of product. In this case, the local importer was offering malt from Sekado, a large and European venerable maltser. Ironically, local breweries seem to use malts pretty regularly from our only local small maltser, which I found to be inconsistent even for my own homebrewing.
There seems to be a profusion of one-off and "collaboration" beers in our local market, so there's plenty of leeway for experimentation, I guess. Most often, those beers are just another version of hazy and juicy - I'll be glad to see craft brewing move past that phase, if it ever happens.

 

[Tim Bulin]

just another version of hazy and juicy - I'll be glad to see craft brewing move past that phase, if it ever happens.

I know what you mean, I'll only do about 1 or 2 IPA/APA beers in a year, patiently waiting for firmly hopped, well balanced, full bodied lagers to come back into fashion...

 

[J A]

I know what you mean, I'll only do about 1 or 2 IPA/APA beers in a year, patiently waiting for firmly hopped, well balanced, full bodied lagers to come back into fashion...

Luckily, along with the profusion of haze, our local brewers have been putting out plenty of very, very proper lagers. It is Texas and we can't ignore the need for crisp, refreshing beers when the temps have 3 numbers.
Real Ale, our longest running craft brewery had for some years had one of the best German Pilsners (Hans Pils) made outside of Germany and recently introduced a rice lager that would rival any American style lager you could have gotten since prohibition. Austin Beer Work, another of the larger regional brewers puts out one that competes with the Hans in every way as well as a killer clean German style Helles. One of our first big and very successful brew pubs has for years been producing a couple of gold-medal winning lagers and in the last couple of years another of the fast-growing brew pubs is killing it with 2 or 3 regular lager offerings. And even the smaller breweries and brew pubs offer at least an on-style Kolsch.
Hard to complain around here.

 

[Over The Cliff Brewing]

I brew lots of IPA but maybe one out of 4 is hazy and juicy. The juicy IPA phase for me, has worn off. I like the hop flavors and bitterness but the orange juice effect is not what I brew these days.

 

[J A]

but the orange juice effect is not what I brew these days

That! A friend brought over a sixer of Dogfish Head Hazy "O" and while it's a nice tasting brew and a proper IPA at 7% ABV, it's like drinking beer mixed with orange-pineapple juice. It's just hard for me to enjoy that any more.