Preferred malts.

[pilgrimhudd]

I'm sure someone said it and now can't see who, but I tend to go for Maris Otter. It's not the cheapest but it's pretty much the same across the board, similar efficiency and I like it.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Plus one for Maris Otter quality is about consistency and MO has has it.

 

[An Ankoù]

For those on here living in Devon you can get floor dried malt from Tuckers. Although the maltings in Newton Abbot shut in 2018 they still supply malt from a warehouse in Crediton. This malt is manufactured by Warminster and is also floor dried. I got a 25kg bag 18 months ago for £24 delivered to their old maltings in NA. I used to buy from them when I visited the in laws in Torbay at £30 so now cheaper.

Way back when, I used to buy a lot of my malt from Newton Abbott. They were the only supplier I knew who'd top up a 25Kg sack to 30Kg to get the best value for the delivery charge, I was a regular at their beer festival, the local CAMRA hired a coach from Poole. I have a hazy recollection of wandering out of the festival with a few of the lads to seek out a particular pub that only sold cider. I don't recall very much after that.
Their bottle shop, too, had some very interesting beers.

 

[An Ankoù]

Barley does taste different depending on where it's grown (and Norfolk is the "Bordeaux" of malting barley), but that's not really what I was getting at. It's more that because East Anglia is where most grain is grown, the processors there tend to be the big industrial ones supplying the likes of Greene King and Carling. Maltsters elsewhere don't have the volumes to compete with East Anglia on price, so have to compete on quality - which in the case of Fawcett and Warminster means they've retained the traditional methods like floor malting.

That's an interesting observation and sounds reasonable. I wonder about Crisp's heritage malts though. It seems they've gone to a lot of trouble to re-introduce discontinued varieties and these are necessarily small scale and. I imagine, at a price that wouldn't interest the big brewers. It appears they do a floor-malted range of MO, too, their Number 19 malts. Haven't tried Warminster or Fawcett's for as long as I can remember, but, as I also like the light coloured beers you describe above, I'll see if I can find a supplier who'll ship to France. I think BrewUK in Salisbury might be worth a look.

 

[moto748]

My last base malt was bog-standard Crisp's Best Ale, which I bought from my local brewery. I've seen sacks of Warminster there too, so they use that as well, but I imagine it's a fair bit dearer.

 

[moto748]

I'll see if I can find a supplier who'll ship to France. I think BrewUK in Salisbury might be worth a look.

Wouldn't that be prohibitively expensive, especially post-Brexit? Do you buy much from the UK?

 

[An Ankoù]

Wouldn't that be prohibitively expensive, especially post-Brexit? Do you buy much from the UK?

I get what I can from Autobrasseur in France, who supply malts from Castle Maltings in Belgium at a reasonable price and the malt's fine, but I really don't want to use Belgian Malted Maris Otter of undeclared provenance.
I can order up to 30 Kg for £12 delivery from thehomebrewcompany in Ireland and while geterbrewed is more expensive via DHL, their lower ingredients prices go a long way to offsetting that. I wish they didn't use DHL, they're not very good at all.

 

[NormanHurst]

I think CML have been out of the Pops Pale for a while, no? Have been planning to order some a hop order for a while but no luck.

Was ordering some hope from CML today and noticed Pops Pale was back in so added a few bags. Thought some others here might be interested in trying.

 

[Kold Brygg]

I get what I can from Autobrasseur in France, who supply malts from Castle Maltings in Belgium at a reasonable price and the malt's fine, but I really don't want to use Belgian Malted Maris Otter of undeclared provenance.

Have you tried the Castle MO, I'm able to get it dirt cheap (nearly half price of Crisp MO). If you have tried why didn't you like it?

 

[An Ankoù]

Have you tried the Castle MO, I'm able to get it dirt cheap (nearly half price of Crisp MO). If you have tried why didn't you like it?

I've never tried it, but I'm willing to give it a go. Castle's other malts have all been good. It's not especially cheap at Autobrasseur and they're out of stock anyway. Where are you getting yours from so cheaply?

 

[Kold Brygg]

I've never tried it, but I'm willing to give it a go. Castle's other malts have all been good. It's not especially cheap at Autobrasseur and they're out of stock anyway. Where are you getting yours from so cheaply?

It's a shop here in Norway. I've looked into it, and postage makes the savings minimal from my LBS.

Could be justified if I needed hops or yeast, which is also favorable prices, but I really don't need more of either, i got enough for this year and probably also next year .

 

[Old Fart At Play]

I live near Berwick so I have a natural bias towards Simpsons (big maltings in town, barley largely grown locally). I have a soft spot for Golden Promise, ever since I discovered Tim Taylor's Landlord used GP, so Simpson's GP is the base malt I use most of.

 

[MartinHaworth]

We did a base malt comparison a while back (attached).

If we were doing it again, we'd want to do Plumage Archer, Chevallier, Hana and a few others as well.

I tend to keep in a range of base malts: MO, Chevallier, Plumage Archer, Hana, German Pilsner. Different base malts for different beers.

 

[St00]

I've just had a 25kg sack of Hana delivered as I've tried it in a few commercial lagers and really enjoyed it. I'm about to embark on a personal Lager brewing odyssey so all of my lagers will feature it.

 

[MartinHaworth]

The maltsters at Crisp told us Hana needs step mashing as it is not fully modified.

 

[MartinHaworth]

Link to Crisp Malting recommending Step Mash: Hana Malt | Crisp Heritage Malts | Norfolk Malted Barley For Pilsner Beers

 

[St00]

I step mash all of my lagers, I've been using Thomas Fawcett Floor Malted Pilsner.

 

[AJA]

Anyone noticed the anomaly where if you buy 25kg sacks you don't pay VAT but you do for smaller quantities?

 

[obscure]

Anyone noticed the anomaly where if you buy 25kg sacks you don't pay VAT but you do for smaller quantities?

This is down to the way malt is classified by HMRC ‘Retail packs’ are counted as home brewing supplies and Standard rated.

VFOOD9000 - VAT Food - HMRC internal manual - GOV.UK https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/vat-food/vfood9000

I assume that the sacks are deemed for commercial use so are treated as food and so zero rated (not going to complain but honestly this seems pretty damm odd as most of the time of a retailer is selling only one or two sacks I would think it counts as a retail pack).

 

[dcbrookes]

I tend to step mash anything containing a malt from Weyermann or Bestmalz (Vienna, Munich etc.) but I do not do this with the Crisp or Simpsons UK versions.