So I stopped at a LHBS today that I had only been to once before. It's actually pretty close to me but I didn't like the shop the first time I went. I picked up some stuff and grabbed 15 pounds of this Weyermann Barke Pils too. The lady running the place had me taste it and it's got a really nice flavor. I also told her about the inconsistent floor-malted stuff and she told me that there was a fungus that had caused some of the Weyermann malting floor-malted pils to get funky. I asked her if it was a distribution thing or if I happened in the US and she told me that it happened at the maltster in Germany which surprised me. She could be FOS but she seems pretty knowledgeable and has been brewing since 1986. Anyway... who has brewed with this Barke pils? Denny, Chils... any experience? I plan to make some Helles with it.
I haven't used the Barke but this fiasco has me burned on Weyermann I must say. I've been talking with a CS rep at Northern Brewer who said Weyermann has denied any problem with the malt. He said a couple weeks ago that he would send me enough for a batch and see if it was OK then replace the rest if it was. Haven't heard back after I told him to send 10lbs on 5-19.
He kept referring to a possible storage condition problem on my end or the age of the malt(~1.25yrs right now). My malt is stored inside the house in a cool closet under my stairs. I tie up the opened sacks, place them inside space bags and vacuum all the air out. I've used 3yr old malt which was as good as when I opened it. The bad batches started w/in 3 months of buying that malt. It didn't taste good the day I opened it.
