17 Oct
2002
17 Oct
'02
4:45 p.m.
About time for some controversy. I would have to side with Dave on
this one. Use the malt that provides the best results while
considering the COGS (cost of goods sold) or in our case (COGP) cost of
goods produced. Sure we can justify usage of higher price base malts
and in the end, it only costs us a few dollars here and there. Ramp the
costs up to a production brewery and the choice of raw materials has a
significant effect on profit, maintenance budgets, equipment purchases,
direct labor etc. English malts are nice as are malts produced in
Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Canada, and American. They all taste
slightly different due to different grain varieties, growing conditions,
soil chemistry, and malting techniques. Mashing, sparging, and brewing
techniques also affect final malt flavor. Sometimes that heavy malt
taste is too much of a good thing.
The good thing is from our perspective, we have the opportunity to
experiment with different malts and if we really hate the results, the
drain is an option. My personal brewery uses a little German malt for
most lagers and Kolsch. If I find a good deal on English malt, I use it
for an IPA or special bitter. The remainder of the pale ales seem to
work out fairly well with domestic two row and a combination of domestic
and imported specialty malts.
A funny thought just came to mind. Ever see a BJCP judge complain that
a beer was too malty?
Now go have a cool beer and start your week end early.
Rick
David Berg
President, Minnesota Craft Brewer's Guild
Head Brewer, Water Tower Brewing Company
http://www.mncraftbrew.org
________________________________________________________________
>> Will Holway <brew987(a)yahoo.com> 10/17/02
04:17PM >>>
My only comparison was with Briess 2 row. I have found
all of the imported Pale Ale malts to give a much
fuller flavor than Briess at least. I still think
English Pale Ale malts (Hugh Barid and Maris
Otter)give the beer a certain warmth and fullness that
Briess could not do. However, I haven't tried
Minnesota Malt, but since I have had good luck with
English malts, I haven't wanted to mess the equation
...
--- David H Berg <bergbrew(a)juno.com> wrote:
Higher quality is a fairly nebulous term. Lower
protein, color,
moisture, Kolbach index??? Better flavor? Hey, I
used Maris Otter for 4
years. I wouldn't have switched to Minnesota
Malting if I didn't think
the beer was better.
That holds for base malts. Specialty malts, on the
other hand, are a
different matter.
On Thu, 17 Oct 2002 13:11:33 -0700 (PDT) Will Holway
<brew987(a)yahoo.com>
writes:
________________________________________________________________
Iy just so happens that malt from those places
tends
to be of a higher quality than that which is
domestically produced (in my opinion) ...
--- David H Berg <bergbrew(a)juno.com> wrote:
>
> Ok, I'll sock you! While I agree with the
overall
> statement about using
> the best, cost and quality are not necessarily
> related. Shipping
> ingredients from England, Germany, etc is
obviously
> going to raise the
> cost. So because you are paying for the extra
> freight costs, the product
> is better? Damn engineers! You don't work for
the
> US government, do
> you? ;^)
>
> On Thu, 17 Oct 2002 11:34:39 -0500 "Rick Larson"
> <rick(a)mnbrewers.com>
> writes:
> >
> > Al asks:
> > > What's your favorite "trick" ingredients?
> > >
> > > ie...
> > > Carapils malt... for Body
> > > Wheat malt... for Head
> > >
> > > - Al
> >
> > Some might say cardamon in Saisons but I
wouldn't
> have this
> > spice in the same room as the brewery let
alone
> use it.
> >
> > Cumin in wits and Saisons might be found in
some
> homebrewed
> > examples.
> >
> > I've heard vanilla in English pale ales.
> >
> > I could be just making this up...
> >
> > rick
> > ps. There is no reason not to use the best
base
> malts,
> > hops and yeasts in a homebrew. Spend the
extra
> $$. The
> > cheap stuff is for the professional brewer
(I'm
going to
get socked for saying this ;-).
David Berg
President, Minnesota Craft Brewer's Guild
Head Brewer, Water Tower Brewing Company
http://www.mncraftbrew.org
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