Brand of malts

[Lee69]

Just looking at malts from different suppliers, is there a brand or brands that are better quality than others? Or are they all a similar product?

So far I've come across...
Bestmalz
Weyermann
Crisp
Looking at buying 25 kilo sacks of uncrushed.

Any help or info from using any of these brands (or different!) would be great.
Cheers

 

[samale]

What style of beers do you plan to brew. I buy 25kg Minch malt of the homebrew company. This will cover most styles, I will also use geterbrewed if I need a mixture of base malts and adjusts

 

[Lee69]

Mainly....
Hoppy IPA's
Pale ales
Pilsners
High abv stouts and Belgian style beers.

Think that covers it, no sours or anything

 

[Agentgonzo]

I can't say I've noticed any difference in brands.I normally just go with the cheapest one

 

[Pennine]

What style of beers do you plan to brew. I buy 25kg Minch malt of the homebrew company. This will cover most styles, I will also use geterbrewed if I need a mixture of base malts and adjusts

Minch hook head ale malt is a fantastic malt, the only thing better I have used is golden promise.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Just looking at malts from different suppliers, is there a brand or brands that are better quality than others? Or are they all a similar product?

So far I've come across...
Bestmalz
Weyermann
Crisp
Looking at buying 25 kilo sacks of uncrushed.

Any help or info from using any of these brands (or different!) would be great.
Cheers

Bear in mind that this is a question like asking what is the best car, a lot depends on who you ask. Nissans vastly outsell Ferraris, so does that mean Nissan make a better car than Ferrari? Or does it mean that most people just want something that's good enough for the school run, and is cheap?

On the other hand, the fact that Ferrari are still in business suggests that they have advantages that outweigh their higher prices, even if only a minority are prepared to pay the premium for the better product.

So it is with malt. Most people can readily tell the difference between maltsters if you taste them side by side, but that's not something you often get the opportunity to do. There are differences, but it is up to you whether those differences are worth spending extra money on and that depends somewhat on why you are brewing. If I was brewing a golden ale for a competition I would definitely use the best malt I could find - something like Warminster Otter or Simpson Golden Promise - whereas if I was making a Guinness clone for my mates to swill at a Paddy's Day party then I'd save myself a few quid and use generic pale malt from one of the big East Anglian maltsers - the roast malt would swamp any differences in the base malt and they wouldn't care anyway.

Since I don't brew that often the cost difference isn't that material and I take the view that my time is precious so why waste that time on ingredients that are less than the best? So I normally only have one base malt in stock, which is usually a sack of floor-malted pale Otter from Warminster or Fawcett - I might get Simpson Golden Promise next time just for a change.

As a general rule, you won't go too far wrong using malt from the home country of a beer style. But imported malt costs more, particularly since Brexit. And British barley is the envy of the world - it's a bit like with wine, mild cool climates give the best flavour even if they're more challenging for the farmer - so you're fine to use British malt for foreign styles even if the reverse doesn't always work so well. You just have to bland it down a bit to match foreign malts - use "ordinary" British barley rather than the named varieties like Otter and Golden Promise which have more flavour. But you're fine using ordinary extra pale as a substitute for European pilsner malts, and a blend of pale and extra pale to approximate US 2-row.

This kind of thing has been discussed quite a bit in other threads such as
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/maris-otter.101033/#post-1188001

 

[LeeH]

Minch for me also, cheapest I can find apart from begging a sack from the local micro.

 

[The Baron]

I use Minch and have done for years from THBC, probably the cheapest too and you can even make pseudo lagers with it

 

[Lee69]

Thanks for all your input guys, cheers!

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

I get my malt from a local brewery. I think they go for whatever is best value as the brands I get from them varies. I can’t say that Ive noticed any flavour differences but I do find that my BHE is much lower with Bairds Malts compared with others.

 

[Lee69]

Interesting that your efficiency is lower with one particular brand, any ideas about why?

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

Interesting that your efficiency is lower with one particular brand, any ideas about why?

No idea. I could be something as simple as a more course crush Perhaps. Either way it isn’t an issue now I know and can just add a bit more to the mash.

 

[LeeH]

I use Minch and have done for years from THBC, probably the cheapest too and you can even make pseudo lagers with it

Now 40 quid a go. Golden Promise is new cheaper at 33!

 

[The Baron]

I have been waiting for this Lee as it was in the press that grain prices were rising on the 1st of Jan. Give it a week or 2 and see how everybody's prices are. I bought a sack in December to pre-empt the rise

 

[samale]

Now 40 quid a go. Golden Promise is new cheaper at 33!

Jesus I just checked, it's went from 28 euro to 45 euro a sack

 

[LeeH]

Cheapest malt in the UK that I can find. 39.95 inc postage.

I spoke to the local micro (5 mins away) in november and they said they would sell me a sack of Bairds for 19. Dropping by on Monday!

 

[Tripps]

I got talking to a hb supplier earlier in the week and they told me pale ale has gone up by at least 30p a kilo across the board. Speciality malt by a tad more. So that's about a £7.50 increase a sack :/ And I'm in the Highlands so there's a delivery surcharge too :/

 

[Agentgonzo]

I bought a couple of sacks last year, which should last me 12 months. I'll contact the local breweries when that gets low

 

[An Ankoù]

I've used Minch Hook Head pale for ages and it's good malt. Used their lager malt recently and found the degree of extraction quite astonishing. Haven't tasted the beer yet and, in truth, I don't expect it to taste like a Pilsner malt. But as I'm having a bit of a thing with these so-called pseudo- or faux- lagers, I reckon it's probably better suited. Have also been following a number of NZ and Oz recipes for lagers and I guess (and it is just a guess) that Minch lager malt is closer to Gladfield's than, say, Bestmalz Pilsner or Best Heidelberg.
Further to this, I shall be using Minch lager malt in recipes calling for M O extra pale to see if there's any appreciable loss (or gain) of quality.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Thank goodness for the South Cheshire Coop buying crisp malts at very good prices. Even when they will increase in price this year we’ve got tremendous value. Thankyou to the team there.