Hefeweizen: Substitute Lager Malt for Pilsner Malt

[Hefeman]

Anyone here have experience brewing a traditional Hefeweizen with Lager malt? Currently out of Pilsner and was tempted to try it.

[Shanna]

Yes & had good results but I would say the wheat is more important in a hefe.


Shanna

[Hefeman]

Nice one, will go 65% wheat.

Cheers!

[Shanna]

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

[Hefeman]

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.

[Shanna]

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

[mr_pinball]

Is there really much difference between larger and pilsner Malt?

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[Shanna]

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

[mr_pinball]

Interesting read, cheers, I thought they were much of a muchness.

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[Hefeman]

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?

[CC]

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....

[Leann ull]

Is there really much difference between larger and pilsner Malt?

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Huge

[CC]

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?

[molc]

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.

[irish_goat]

Yellowbelly use Weyermann pilsner malt and it shows. It has a fantastic malt profile, much better than a lot of other Irish lagers.