National Homebrew Club Ireland

Brewing Discussions => All Grain Brewing => Topic started by: Hefeman on January 08, 2017, 08:54:19 PM

Title: Hefeweizen: Substitute Lager Malt for Pilsner Malt
Post by: Hefeman on January 08, 2017, 08:54:19 PM
Anyone here have experience brewing a traditional Hefeweizen with Lager malt? Currently out of Pilsner and was tempted to try it.
Title: Re: Hefeweizen: Substitute Lager Malt for Pilsner Malt
Post by: Shanna on January 08, 2017, 09:00:15 PM
Yes & had good results but I would say the wheat is more important in a hefe.


Shanna
Title: Re: Hefeweizen: Substitute Lager Malt for Pilsner Malt
Post by: Hefeman on January 08, 2017, 09:01:22 PM
Nice one, will go 65% wheat.

Cheers!
Title: Re: Hefeweizen: Substitute Lager Malt for Pilsner Malt
Post by: Shanna on January 19, 2017, 07:30:51 PM
Quote from: hefeman on January 08, 2017, 09:01:22 PM
Nice one, will go 65% wheat.

Cheers!
Wheat has little or no husk so you will get a lot of flour & a poor quite grain bed with that much wheat. This leaves you open to having a stuck sparge. I would use no more than 50% wheat & also mix in 500grs of washed oat hulls. These will help with sparging.

Shanna
Title: Re: Hefeweizen: Substitute Lager Malt for Pilsner Malt
Post by: Hefeman on January 19, 2017, 10:33:00 PM
Good timing was delayed with this and thinking of brewing this weekend. I have only brewed one weizen in my GF, previously I brewed many no-sparge BIAB where this wouldn't be an issue. I had planned on adding oat hulls but thought I could go higher than 50%, the only reason to go higher was because I am not using Pilsner. So, you would say 50/50 Wheat/Lager Malt would be a good bet?

Cheers,
HM.
Title: Re: Hefeweizen: Substitute Lager Malt for Pilsner Malt
Post by: Shanna on January 20, 2017, 08:01:46 AM
Yes basically the higher wheat content will give you too much flour & combined with the poor grain bed will likely lead to a stuck sparge.

Shanna
Title: Re: Hefeweizen: Substitute Lager Malt for Pilsner Malt
Post by: mr_pinball on January 25, 2017, 10:34:09 AM
Is there really much difference between larger and pilsner Malt?

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Title: Re: Hefeweizen: Substitute Lager Malt for Pilsner Malt
Post by: Shanna on January 25, 2017, 03:25:07 PM
Quote from: mr_pinball on January 25, 2017, 10:34:09 AM
Is there really much difference between larger and pilsner Malt?

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According to this yes - http://byo.com/hops/item/710-grain-on-the-brain

Shanna
Title: Re: Hefeweizen: Substitute Lager Malt for Pilsner Malt
Post by: mr_pinball on January 25, 2017, 09:56:09 PM
Interesting read, cheers, I thought they were much of a muchness.

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Title: Re: Hefeweizen: Substitute Lager Malt for Pilsner Malt
Post by: Hefeman on February 17, 2017, 11:43:39 PM
This hefe turned out pretty good, maybe tastes a little sweeter than usual. Not sure if the lager malt masks the wheat a little but it is subjective and marginal.  I crushed fairly coarse just cracking the grain, used about 55% wheat and 300g rice hulls, had good efficiency and a great grain bed. I made a 1.5L starter out of recently grown/split WLP300.

Regarding the linked article: "Pilsen malt is used to make one type of beer — traditional German or Czech pilsners." - What about weizens?
Title: Re: Hefeweizen: Substitute Lager Malt for Pilsner Malt
Post by: CC on February 23, 2017, 06:47:46 PM
re above-
i think this is a little confusing because i think some maltsters use the terms pilsner and lager interchangeably when describing malts... wheras this article is distinguishing between pilsner, pale malt (lager malt) and pale ale malt....

Title: Re: Hefeweizen: Substitute Lager Malt for Pilsner Malt
Post by: Leann ull on February 24, 2017, 12:10:50 AM
Quote from: mr_pinball on January 25, 2017, 10:34:09 AM
Is there really much difference between larger and pilsner Malt?

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Huge
Title: Re: Hefeweizen: Substitute Lager Malt for Pilsner Malt
Post by: CC on February 25, 2017, 10:32:23 AM
do you know the craic with the minch's pilsner/lager malt ch..... as in which is it or what is it??

what can it be used for?
i'm assuming its not what you'd use if you were going for an authentic pilsner.... but is it good enough to use  in a heifeweizen?
Title: Re: Hefeweizen: Substitute Lager Malt for Pilsner Malt
Post by: molc on February 25, 2017, 03:52:11 PM
I have no idea but the same question.
I normally use castle pilsner and thinking about switching to weyermann pilsner for lagers etc. The castle has a lot of stones that break your heart when milling.

However I have a helles going right now with minch lager and I have to say, it's starting to taste good, even only 2 weeks in.
Title: Re: Hefeweizen: Substitute Lager Malt for Pilsner Malt
Post by: irish_goat on February 25, 2017, 03:55:14 PM
Yellowbelly use Weyermann pilsner malt and it shows. It has a fantastic malt profile, much better than a lot of other Irish lagers.
Title: Re: Hefeweizen: Substitute Lager Malt for Pilsner Malt
Post by: Leann ull on February 25, 2017, 04:43:35 PM
Tried the HH pilsner not as good as Wey FMalted in my opinion, but reflective in price. Pity as HH pale is my go to pale now after trying nearly 10 others.
Title: Re: Hefeweizen: Substitute Lager Malt for Pilsner Malt
Post by: Qs on February 25, 2017, 06:04:28 PM
Quote from: molc on February 25, 2017, 03:52:11 PM
I have no idea but the same question.
I normally use castle pilsner and thinking about switching to weyermann pilsner for lagers etc. The castle has a lot of stones that break your heart when milling.

However I have a helles going right now with minch lager and I have to say, it's starting to taste good, even only 2 weeks in.

I'd a load of stones in the bottom of my kettle last week and I was wondering where they came from, now that you say it I did have Castles aromatic malt in it.
Title: Re: Hefeweizen: Substitute Lager Malt for Pilsner Malt
Post by: Will_D on February 27, 2017, 10:20:46 PM
Surely Shirley, Stones in Malt is a massive commercial no-no.
Title: Re: Hefeweizen: Substitute Lager Malt for Pilsner Malt
Post by: Leann ull on February 27, 2017, 11:20:58 PM
Very unusual to see stones as most float off grain before malting
Title: Re: Hefeweizen: Substitute Lager Malt for Pilsner Malt
Post by: molc on February 28, 2017, 08:40:12 AM
Some were the size of Pebbles for me. Awful grinding nose when you hit them. Had it in two different bags as well. :/