Lager or pale malt?

[rpt]

When making lager is there any reason to use lager malt? Since I mostly drink ales I am likely to buy a big bag of pale malt but is this OK for making lager? What is the difference - is it just the colour? And what's the difference between British lager malt and imported Pilsner malt?

 

[wilsoa1111]

think lager malts got more dms precursers but tbh doubt i could tell the difference, just like a doubt i could tell the difference to a well done s-05 vs lager yeast... if it were me i would favour the big bag o crisps from the maltmiller....

 

[rpt]

Does anyone use pale malt to make lager?

 

[Dr Mike]

According to an old GW book I have (The CAMRA guide to homebrewing), some commercial lager breweries do (or did) use Pale Malt. If you're going for anything on the strong side (say, over 1050ish) then a beer made with Pale malt might be a bit too dark to be a classic golden pilsener but wouldn't be bad beer.

The reverse is definately true in that Lager malt is used in a few ale recipes (Blonde and golden ales naturally)

 

[rpt]

So the only issue is that the colour might be 'wrong'? Is lager malt just pale malt that is slightly less roasted?

 

[pittsy]

some of the more better lagers out there use German pilsner malt , Belgian pale ale malt , bohemian malt ,vienna malt even british pale ale malt (otter) but i've not seen clone recipes with lager malt to be honest .

 

[pittsy]

p.s i've used lager malt and it was 1 of my worst beers so far .

 

[Dr Mike]

p.s i've used lager malt and it was 1 of my worst beers so far .

Was that in an ale or in a lager ?

 

[pittsy]

a wit beer , i used em cuz that was all i had . should of used pilsner malt .

 

[Dr Mike]

I should have guessed !

What was wrong with the final beer ?

 

[rpt]

Apparently lager malt is less well modified (whatever that means) than pale ale malt and it is cured at a lower temperature so there are more DMS precursors. What difference it makes in practice I don't know.

 

[critch]

virtually all english malt is fully modified(ie it can enzymatically convert its starch to sugars in a simple infusion mash rather than a decoction) so dms precursors shouldnt be a problem with any english lager malt chris garret(head maltster at warminster) told me their lager malt is just extra pale ale malt(and is sometimes sold under that title) and is fully modified

most continental stuff(ie wyermans pilsner) does need a stepped mashing proceedure to break down the starches ,ime, but im sure someone will alert me to how wrong i am :grin:

 

[zgoda]

Except for few available floor malts pilsner malts do not require step mashing. Very special exception is authentic Czech floor malt (not the Weyermann's "bohemian" stuff) which requires decoction mashing because it's made of traditional hard barley varieties. Anyway, this is extremely rare stuff, even in Poland.

 

[Dr Mike]

"Modification" refers to the breakdown of proteins during the malting process. A poorly modified malt needs a step infusion or decoction to finish off the protein breakdown, otherwise you'd get cloudy beer, but they would still convert OK.

But as others have said, in this day and age, almost all malts are fully modified and can be used in single step infusion without clarity issues.