I've got a picture of a blend of my malts that I had bought from my local brew supply shop. It is what is left of my Schwarzbier. I was working on a Frankenmuth Dark beer clone. A clone is an attempt to mimic another beer you've tasted. It turns out the Frankenmuth Dark was actually the brewmaster's grandfather's Schwarzbier recipe. So, now I call it Frankenmuth Schwarz.
There are many malts that are available through the internet or your local brew shop. You can shop locally and just tell the brew supply staff what are the weights of the specific malts you need. For a 1 gallon batch, I usually have a total of about 2.25 to 2.5 lbs of malt to start with. The shop staff may have a grinder in the store and they can grind them for you. My shop offers it. The most exciting part of homebrewing beer is either choosing your hops (if you are into bitter) or the malts (if you are into sweet). I'm more into the taste of malts than I am with hops.
I was going to participate in a beer group competition on social media. The contest was going to be if someone could make a good German Pilsner. If I had to construct a recipe I have several books on hand. Some of the recipes can be from your local library as well. From all the recipes I've seen, the Pilsner would usually be Pilsner malt and a smaller amount of Crystal 20L malt. I'd try it both ways with or without the Crystal malt to see what comes closer. The "L" has to do with Lovibonds is a scale that measures the color of your beer. Crystal 20L is really light and can give your beer a caramel taste to it. I think there are severaI companies on the internet offering different pilsner malts. You just have to search on Pilsner malt to find a few. I had run behind with several batches of beer going that I was just not going to be able to finish the contest on time so I dropped out.
My Paulaner Wiesn Beer clone wasn't too hard to figure out the starting malts. The list of the malts that they use for the beer are on their website that displays their product. I'm dealing with Dark Munich and Pilsner malts. It is the same as their Oktoberfest Märzen, but a slightly different ratio of malts. The Wiesn is a lot lighter in color. The trick is to find out the right ratio by trial and error. Make a batch, try it to see how close you come and then try another percentage with another batch.
I've had enough Swarzbier because I wasn't noticing I bought a recipe for 10 lbs. of grain. It was meant for a 5 gallon recipe and I really was out to get a 1 gallon recipe. After the brew shop ground the grains, I was kind enough to purchase the mistake which is what happens when you aren't paying attention. If a recipe is for 5 gallons of beer you usually divide by 5 to get a 1 gallon recipe. If they say 6 gallons of water to start with means to start with 1 1/5 gallons of water. I prefer 1 gallon recipes as I have 1 gallon carboys. One gallon batches are more manageable, and besides, when you make a mistake you don't have to drink up 5 gallons worth of mistake!
One of my favorites was Fred Scheer's Oktoberfest which others have called just a fest bier. The ingredients show it isn't a true Oktoberfest. He used 2-row pale lager malts for 85% of the recipe, with the remainder filled with Munich and Carapils malts. The trick is to get the right ratio of Carapils and you can find that out from recommendations at websites. Check on Carapils on the web and see how much they recommend. If you go with that recommendation you can fill in the rest of the recipe - Munich malts makes up the remaining percentage. So, if you wanted a 2 lb recipe (for 1 gallon of beer) you'd multiply 0.85 by 2 to get the amount of 2-row pale malts. You can then compute the rest of the grains needed for the recipe.
Scheer's Frankenmuth Dark (which is actually a Schwarzbier) was pale malts, Munich, Caramel 60L and Black Patent malts. I tried my first attempt at decoction mashing, which I shall discuss later, and it brought too much of the Black Patent malts out. A multi-step infusion, which I shall cover later also, brought the bitterness of the Black Patent down. I learned to research the web and look at what they recommend for specialty malts. I learned the hard way to keep Black Patent malts to 2-3% of the recipe.
I'm working on some recipes of my own. My best Helles lager recipe will be called Heaven or Helles. My best dark lager will be the Deustchland Dark. My best tasting Oktoberfest will be called Bavaria's Best Oktoberfest. These recipes will be given out to my family if they want them. Mainly, it is great recipe just like any food recipe in the kitchen. What you like the best is not likely to be consensus of everyone. Your job is make the best tasting beer and take time to enjoy the best tasting beer you can make.
As a comparison, I want to say what I would use to make a German Pils. I would try a variety of Pilsner malts. I noticed that one of the websites has Salzgitter German Pilsner and Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner available. There is also an under-modified malt from Weyermann too. Under-modified malt would be good when I cover multi-step infusion next month.
I'm debating on whether Pils would be good with just a Pilsner malt or a combination of Pilsner malt and some 20L Crystal malt also. My future tests will determine this and I will let you know.
There are many malts that are available through the internet or your local brew shop. You can shop locally and just tell the brew supply staff what are the weights of the specific malts you need. For a 1 gallon batch, I usually have a total of about 2.25 to 2.5 lbs of malt to start with. The shop staff may have a grinder in the store and they can grind them for you. My shop offers it. The most exciting part of homebrewing beer is either choosing your hops (if you are into bitter) or the malts (if you are into sweet). I'm more into the taste of malts than I am with hops.
I was going to participate in a beer group competition on social media. The contest was going to be if someone could make a good German Pilsner. If I had to construct a recipe I have several books on hand. Some of the recipes can be from your local library as well. From all the recipes I've seen, the Pilsner would usually be Pilsner malt and a smaller amount of Crystal 20L malt. I'd try it both ways with or without the Crystal malt to see what comes closer. The "L" has to do with Lovibonds is a scale that measures the color of your beer. Crystal 20L is really light and can give your beer a caramel taste to it. I think there are severaI companies on the internet offering different pilsner malts. You just have to search on Pilsner malt to find a few. I had run behind with several batches of beer going that I was just not going to be able to finish the contest on time so I dropped out.
My Paulaner Wiesn Beer clone wasn't too hard to figure out the starting malts. The list of the malts that they use for the beer are on their website that displays their product. I'm dealing with Dark Munich and Pilsner malts. It is the same as their Oktoberfest Märzen, but a slightly different ratio of malts. The Wiesn is a lot lighter in color. The trick is to find out the right ratio by trial and error. Make a batch, try it to see how close you come and then try another percentage with another batch.
I've had enough Swarzbier because I wasn't noticing I bought a recipe for 10 lbs. of grain. It was meant for a 5 gallon recipe and I really was out to get a 1 gallon recipe. After the brew shop ground the grains, I was kind enough to purchase the mistake which is what happens when you aren't paying attention. If a recipe is for 5 gallons of beer you usually divide by 5 to get a 1 gallon recipe. If they say 6 gallons of water to start with means to start with 1 1/5 gallons of water. I prefer 1 gallon recipes as I have 1 gallon carboys. One gallon batches are more manageable, and besides, when you make a mistake you don't have to drink up 5 gallons worth of mistake!
One of my favorites was Fred Scheer's Oktoberfest which others have called just a fest bier. The ingredients show it isn't a true Oktoberfest. He used 2-row pale lager malts for 85% of the recipe, with the remainder filled with Munich and Carapils malts. The trick is to get the right ratio of Carapils and you can find that out from recommendations at websites. Check on Carapils on the web and see how much they recommend. If you go with that recommendation you can fill in the rest of the recipe - Munich malts makes up the remaining percentage. So, if you wanted a 2 lb recipe (for 1 gallon of beer) you'd multiply 0.85 by 2 to get the amount of 2-row pale malts. You can then compute the rest of the grains needed for the recipe.
Scheer's Frankenmuth Dark (which is actually a Schwarzbier) was pale malts, Munich, Caramel 60L and Black Patent malts. I tried my first attempt at decoction mashing, which I shall discuss later, and it brought too much of the Black Patent malts out. A multi-step infusion, which I shall cover later also, brought the bitterness of the Black Patent down. I learned to research the web and look at what they recommend for specialty malts. I learned the hard way to keep Black Patent malts to 2-3% of the recipe.
I'm working on some recipes of my own. My best Helles lager recipe will be called Heaven or Helles. My best dark lager will be the Deustchland Dark. My best tasting Oktoberfest will be called Bavaria's Best Oktoberfest. These recipes will be given out to my family if they want them. Mainly, it is great recipe just like any food recipe in the kitchen. What you like the best is not likely to be consensus of everyone. Your job is make the best tasting beer and take time to enjoy the best tasting beer you can make.
As a comparison, I want to say what I would use to make a German Pils. I would try a variety of Pilsner malts. I noticed that one of the websites has Salzgitter German Pilsner and Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner available. There is also an under-modified malt from Weyermann too. Under-modified malt would be good when I cover multi-step infusion next month.
I'm debating on whether Pils would be good with just a Pilsner malt or a combination of Pilsner malt and some 20L Crystal malt also. My future tests will determine this and I will let you know.