Viking malt trials Homebrew west

[brenmurph]

25kg bag here in kildare for our current south kildare members. If anyone wants to brew and review let me know.

Arturas, BB, Hasset and myself, anyone else? before we use it up.

As I paid the 6 euros shipping Ive already used 6kg so 19kg up for review in 5, 5, 5 & 4kg lots

[brenmurph]

O k Ive brewed my seasonal Beetroot ale yesterday with the Viking malt.

BB and hassetbrew are brewing a beer in near future and Arturus is brewing nxt week with the viking malt.

[StuF]

Hi Bren,

When is the beetroot ale ready for tasting? 
Thanks for the help and advice with the beer last week by the way.

[Kellie]

Beetroot Ale coming on nicely, we'll give you a shout when it's ready for sampling

[StuF]

Excellent thanks Kellie 

[HomeBrewWest]

Any chance of some more feedback on the Viking pilsner malt? Thanks.

[brenmurph]

Hi HBW

you were contacted on twitter as was Viking malt. No Comment or reply from either of ye re reporting feedback

[HomeBrewWest]

Hi Bren,
I don't really follow twitter, can you please PM me the comments?

[brenmurph]

NO problem can do that next couple days. Pm on which platform, Twitter, facebook, the NHC forum or HBW addy?

As we received a viking pilsner to test i have brewed pilsners and lagers with it.  A bohemian and a Dortmnder as well as a marzen and a bittter pils between Arturas, BB and myself.

[HomeBrewWest]

Here I guess.

[brenmurph]

Viking Pisner report, ( still ongoing) A bohemian, Dortmnder, Marzen and a Bittter pils between Arturas, BB and myself. Heres our combined overview:

Still have enough for one homebrew batch.
One thing stood out with this malt is that its husk is coarse, far more than normal German or Irish malt. This is a good thing once you know about it because the husk forms the filterbed to screen the solids from the wort. I found on three batches brewed with arthus ( Alian) were all showing a coarse husk ( nothing to do with the mill setting) and batch-1 ran off too fast. Batch 2 and 3 I reduced the mill settings to make a finer grind and hey presto, back to normal.
Results. The return is on par with expectations ~90% with our kit. The sulphur levels seem lower for a pils malt ( not a bad thing) when using our house lager yeast.

With normal water treatments the performance was fine, run off clear, fermenting healthy and clarity good after 5-6 weeks but less than expected leaving us wondering if there is more protein than normal or what else would cause slow clearing of the finished beer.

Flavour is good from the malt both in the beer and as a tasty wholegrain snack, slighty biscuity pilsner but a little ale-like in the final  product. maybe thats because it has not got the very distinctive sulphury pils charactor found in some other established brands especially from germany.


Overall, as with all malts you choose to suit your recipe or your expected outcome in the brew. If I was to try define the charactor I would say bready / Biscuity like a pils but a hint of english pale-ale charactor.  Which beer would it suit best?  I'd say a southern germany malty ale (weissbeer) or a malty lager ( helles) or part of the grist in bock /dunkel. Efficiency is on par or slightly less using our system here in Kildare, but beware that efficiency requires the brewer understanding the ingredients and water not just the brewhouse. May not bring out the true North german sulphury Pilsner charactor as much as some other malts but more than typical ale malts.

Overall, a pleasant experience and no issues to report. On a positive finish we have had superb reviews with them on some of our professional tastings at lock 13 gastropub sallins. Passed with flying colours with the locals.

Thats our tuppence on the Viking Pilsner malt, hope its useful.