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Swaen Malts


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#21 Steve Urquell

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Posted 05 July 2017 - 04:11 PM

With this pilsner malt arriving today, I'm trying to think of ways to showcase it in a beer by making it the vast majority of the grist but without the beer being boring. With this "American Premium" that I make, the grist is about 60% pils, 20% Munich 1, 10% corn and the rest made up with carahell, carafoam or carapils. There are bittering hops (maybe 20 IBUs) and then an ounce of Hallertau or Tettnanger with 5 minutes left. I could make it the same way but I'm not sure how much "showcasing" would be going on with only 60% or so being pils. Would anyone care to whip up a recipe that wouldn't be boring but would still have the vast majority be pilsner? I suppose my helles (about 82% pilsner malt) is a decent-enough test for this malt.

Ken, do an all pils and acid malt batch with S-189 shooting for 1.042OG,  ~15 IBUs and a small flavor addition of nobles at 15mins. My light beer recipe with straight Rahr pils was fantastic.


Edited by Steve Urquell, 05 July 2017 - 04:12 PM.


#22 Big Nake

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Posted 05 July 2017 - 04:49 PM

Ken, do an all pils and acid malt batch with S-189 shooting for 1.042OG,  ~15 IBUs and a small flavor addition of nobles at 15mins. My light beer recipe with straight Rahr pils was fantastic.

Mmm, I could do that. I do not plan to fire up S-189 in the foreseeable future because I have quite a bit of liquid yeast that I would like to use but I could still do it with another yeast. This Swaen pilsner malt is in the house and I can't wait to brew with it. I have about 5 lbs of Rahr Pils left and 10 lbs of Dingemans which I think will be used in recipes that call for pils but in lesser amounts... like Vienna and Dunkel.

#23 Big Nake

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Posted 21 July 2017 - 10:02 AM

I racked my Vienna Lager to a secondary (No open kegs at the moment) and I'm making a Munich Helles with this Swaen Pilsner malt either tonight or tomorrow morning. I popped a few kernels in my mouth and it's delicious. Malty, slightly sweet, crackery, grape-nuts, honey, graham cracker, etc. This will be my standard helles and I'll ferment it with the Augustiner/Bayern yeast. Cheers.

#24 Steve Urquell

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Posted 21 July 2017 - 03:29 PM

I racked my Vienna Lager to a secondary (No open kegs at the moment) and I'm making a Munich Helles with this Swaen Pilsner malt either tonight or tomorrow morning. I popped a few kernels in my mouth and it's delicious. Malty, slightly sweet, crackery, grape-nuts, honey, graham cracker, etc. This will be my standard helles and I'll ferment it with the Augustiner/Bayern yeast. Cheers.


Sounds like itll make some great beer. I need to order some.

#25 Big Nake

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Posted 21 July 2017 - 03:55 PM

I brewed it this afternoon and everything is done, cleaned up and put away. The malt behaved nicely and I got a very clear and pale wort from it. I have made this recipe with Barke Pils as the base and 2124 as the yeast many, many times so I should be prepared to compare this next batch with previous batches and make a determination whether it's not as good, as good, better, etc. The flavor of the malt from the bag was quite good so fingers crossed.

#26 Steve Urquell

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Posted 21 July 2017 - 04:33 PM

I brewed it this afternoon and everything is done, cleaned up and put away. The malt behaved nicely and I got a very clear and pale wort from it. I have made this recipe with Barke Pils as the base and 2124 as the yeast many, many times so I should be prepared to compare this next batch with previous batches and make a determination whether it's not as good, as good, better, etc. The flavor of the malt from the bag was quite good so fingers crossed.


I can get a bag delivered for $60. Finger on the trigger here.

#27 Big Nake

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Posted 21 July 2017 - 05:01 PM

I can get a bag delivered for $60. Finger on the trigger here.

Yeah, I mentioned that the delivered price was probably lower than I could buy it locally so that's what made me buy it. I think it was $52 with shipping. I think the last sack of Rahr Pale Ale malt I bought was over $60 and that's a domestic product and I picked it up myself!

I'll also say that this was my first 30-minute boil helles and I use a FWH on my helles so I used an ounce of Tettnanger 3.9% as a FWH and then I used an ounce of Halleratu Mittelfruh 4.4% for 30 and I added another ¼ ounce of Saaz that I had available for 30 as well. The IBUs showed the same (about 25) but we'll see when this beer is ready to go.

#28 Big Nake

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Posted 07 August 2017 - 04:10 PM

I'm drinking the first glass from a keg of helles where this Swaen Pils was used. I wasn't sure but I checked my notes and it shows First use of Swaen Pils malt. The beer is really good. This is also my first 30-minute boil on a helles and I was a little concerned because it's a relatively low-hopped beer and it has a FWH addition too so I didn't know how that would go. The spicy nobles come through, the color is a nice golden, this Augustiner yeast is doing its important work and the beer has good depth. I've used a lot of pilsner malts and I would have to say that this is a very, very good one. Some come out flat and shallow, no flavor or depth but this is really nice malt. I'll snap a pic when it's looking clearer.

#29 HVB

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Posted 07 August 2017 - 06:00 PM

I told you a Helles and 30 minute boil would be fine! That beer sounds delightful.

#30 Big Nake

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Posted 07 August 2017 - 07:02 PM

I told you a Helles and 30 minute boil would be fine! That beer sounds delightful.

You did tell me that but I have to see it to believe it! :lol: Of course I had to UP the hops a little to account for the 30m boil and it appears to have worked nicely. Cheers Drez.

#31 neddles

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Posted 07 August 2017 - 07:48 PM

I've used a lot of pilsner malts and I would have to say that this is a very, very good one. Some come out flat and shallow, no flavor or depth but this is really nice malt.

Thats good to know. Which ones came out flat and shallow, lacking flavor?



#32 Big Nake

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Posted 07 August 2017 - 07:57 PM

Thats good to know. Which ones came out flat and shallow, lacking flavor?

Believe it or not, some of the Weyermann products let me down. I never had any bad Barke Pils from Weyermann but their standard pils and also the floor-malted stuff came out poorly on a number of occasions. But I think the truth is that it can just happen sometimes. Some of the Weyermann stuff has been just fine for me. Best Malz was always good as was Avangard and also Durst. This particular beer is very good with the Swaen malt and I just made a Festbier with it too which will hopefully be good. I also used Rahr Premium Pils recently which was also good and I have a 10lb bag of Dingemans in my stash and I don't think I have ever used it so that will be new to me.

#33 neddles

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Posted 07 August 2017 - 09:17 PM

Good info, thank you. I wont hesitate to give this Swaen Malt a try should I run across it. I havent beeen disappointed with Weyermann yet but I dont think I have ever used their standard pils. I went through a few bags of Best and enjoyed them quite a bit before getting a bag that was apparently a stinker. Bland character and unusually low yield. Dingemans and Franco-Belges have worked very well too but I've only used them in Belgian styles.

Edited by neddles, 07 August 2017 - 09:19 PM.


#34 Big Nake

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Posted 08 August 2017 - 06:36 AM

Good info, thank you. I wont hesitate to give this Swaen Malt a try should I run across it. I havent beeen disappointed with Weyermann yet but I dont think I have ever used their standard pils. I went through a few bags of Best and enjoyed them quite a bit before getting a bag that was apparently a stinker. Bland character and unusually low yield. Dingemans and Franco-Belges have worked very well too but I've only used them in Belgian styles.

I think Chils mentioned having good batches with some of the Weyermann products and then getting a bad sack and the resulting beers were bad. I don't think I have ever had an entire 50-lb (or 55) sack be bad... that would be some very bad juju because what do you do when the whole sack is bad? I occasionally order just 15-20 lbs of this or that and have had less-than-stellar results. But Chils' experience was bad enough to swear off Weyermann for good. I think I had that with some Briess Pils too. I have intentionally steered away from Briess lately. It seems like any brand could have a bad lot and I suppose that goes for Swaen too but this is very good stuff. Remember too that it was only something like $37. I have a bag of their pale ale malt that has not been opened yet and some pale ales will be made with that shortly. Cheers.

#35 Big Nake

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Posted 14 December 2017 - 07:23 PM

A quick note on the Swaen malt: I worked most of the way through a sack of pilsner and all of those beers were very good. Last night I put my first ale on tap that used the Swaen Pale Ale malt. It's not quite as deep and rich as I expected. I have been in the habit of using 50/50 pale ale malt with wheat on pale ales but for some reason on this batch I went more like 70/30 pale ale/wheat. Still... the beer is a little thin-tasting. This is a beer I have made many times (a Goldings APA) and it's fine but it doesn't have quite the OOMPH that something like MO, GP or even Rahr Pale Ale malt has. On some of the upcoming batches I might have to boost it with some Munich 1 or something. It's almost like it's just "Swaen Ale" or "Swaen 2-row" and not really "pale ale" malt. Just my 2¢.

#36 Steve Urquell

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Posted 15 December 2017 - 05:33 AM

Good to hear. I've had tasty beer using Castle Pale ale. It's a bit darker than expected and very flavorful.

I finally gave the weyermann floor malted bopils to someone for goat feed. ~100lbs. I had opened a new sack and brewed a 1 gallon smash with it which tasted like dirty dishwater. The rest of the bad batches were from another sack from the same purchase. Probably the same lot which I think we determined were allowed to mold in storage.

Something like this shakes your confidence in your brewing skills. Brewing good beer then all of a sudden everything is terrible. Initially not knowing if you have an infection or what. Took ~9 mths and 4 batches to trace it to the malt.

#37 Big Nake

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Posted 15 December 2017 - 07:12 AM

Good to hear. I've had tasty beer using Castle Pale ale. It's a bit darker than expected and very flavorful.

I finally gave the weyermann floor malted bopils to someone for goat feed. ~100lbs. I had opened a new sack and brewed a 1 gallon smash with it which tasted like dirty dishwater. The rest of the bad batches were from another sack from the same purchase. Probably the same lot which I think we determined were allowed to mold in storage.

Something like this shakes your confidence in your brewing skills. Brewing good beer then all of a sudden everything is terrible. Initially not knowing if you have an infection or what. Took ~9 mths and 4 batches to trace it to the malt.

On one hand, your dirty dishwater beers came to mind when I tasted this beer but I should say... this beer is not bad, it's just a little short on depth. What that tells me is that I should use 100% pale ale malt and possibly boost it a little bit. It also tells me that it's clean enough to make a nice blonde ale, American Wheat, etc. and have the beer come out clean and crisp. I have used A LOT of Rahr Pale Ale malt. It's got some richness to it but if you used it 100% in something that you wanted to be light and crisp you'd be disappointed because it's deeper than that. Maybe I should mash a little higher or something. Also, this beer was made with West Coast (a high attenuator) and some other beers were made with 1469 and maybe those will be "deeper" because of the yeast being a lower attenuator. So make a note. This stuff seems more in line with something like Canada Malting 2-row or something. Not bad but personally I like the results with the pilsner more than the "pale ale".

#38 Big Nake

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Posted 15 December 2017 - 09:13 AM

In light of all of this I adjusted some upcoming recipes... slightly higher mash temp, a tweaking of the water to boost chloride and lower sulfate, the use of some carapils, etc. It's also possible that this yeast is responsible for some of this. This is the first batch I have made with Omega West Coast. I didn't think the attenuation was UBER-high but it's possible that it really lowered the FG and made the beer a little thin. Also, this was the batch where I first double-milled my grain... I conditioned it, let it sit for 20 minutes, milled it and then milled it again and I have done that on every subsequent batch. Not sure if that's a factor or not.

#39 Steve Urquell

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Posted 15 December 2017 - 04:53 PM

Ken my bad beers initially tasted bland like they needed more aging. After aging the crappy flavor came out. I could taste that flavor in the raw grain. Before you brew too many batches with that grain give a few kernels a chomp.

I recently tried CZ Prostejov malt. The raw grain was bland and so were the beers brewed with it.

#40 Big Nake

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Posted 15 December 2017 - 10:14 PM

Ken my bad beers initially tasted bland like they needed more aging. After aging the crappy flavor came out. I could taste that flavor in the raw grain. Before you brew too many batches with that grain give a few kernels a chomp.

I recently tried CZ Prostejov malt. The raw grain was bland and so were the beers brewed with it.

I'll do that. I planned to brew this weekend so I'll snack on a few kernels beforehand. Cheers.


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