Floor Malted Bohemian Pils from Weyermann

“Just curious in peoples experience with this malt…

I purchased Floor Malted Bohemian Pils from Weyermann once to brew my reconstruction of an 1896 Michelob beer (Bohemian Pilsner). I conducted a single temperature infusion mash and this ‘worked’ just fine (i.e., I achieved my target OG and FG values). But the resulting beer had a flavor quality that I would describe as “earthy” and this aspect was not for my palate. I drank a lot of Bohemian Pilsners (Czech Pale Lagers) during my two week vacation to the Czech Republic in 2019 and none of those beers had “earthy” as part of their flavor profile.

I made a mental note to never brew with Floor Malted Bohemian Pils from Weyermann ever again.

I hope that the flavor profile of this product is more appealing to your palate. Please report back your thoughts about the flavor profile.

Cheers!

 

it's awesome stuff. Did a 3x decocted czech pils with it that might've been my favorite beer I've made

 

IIRC, the degree of modification for Weyermann's floor malted pils is higher than their regular pils, so I wouldn't recommend a protein rest unless there's a specific issue/reason to do one.

 

About 90% of my brews are lagers - for my palate, esters are quite disagreeable. With these modified malts, you don't really need to do a protein rest. I always do a single rest, usually at about 150 F or lower. Also, I often do a single decoction (of about 1/3 total grain) for at least 20-30 minutes. It adds an authentic German flavor to it that melanoidin malt can't provide. For simplicity, I usually do the decoction completely separate and prior to the rest of the mash, timing the rest of the mash so that I can add the decoction when the rest of the mash is finished and ready to be boosted to 68 F. Trying to do it the standard way by taking a portion of the total mash, decocting it and adding it back in is a real P.I.T.A. This other approach is seldom mentioned but is a LOT easier to manage, and is just as effective.

 

It sounds like a good idea for a single infusion mash. But I would guess the reason it's seldom mentioned is that 99.9% of decoctions are intended to raise the mash temperature to the next step in a step mash.

 

I've brewed with it I think 3 times and can recall that I enjoyed the beers. I did play around with decoction with that malt. However, I never tried it side by side with a different pils malt, so my perceptions of increased maltiness or graininess could just be confirmation bias.

 

Which is very possible; we all have unique palates and what we enjoy in given beer styles.

Yes, there is indeed a trade-off here especially on a homebrew setup. Commercial breweries that are properly setup for decoction mashing have the ability to transfer a portion (typically 1/3) of malt/liquid via an underlet from the mash tun to the boiling vessel which addresses some of the issues you mentioned.

And needless to say decoction mashing increases the length of the brew-day (significantly for a double/triple decoction).

You have 55 lbs. of malt so there is the opportunity to brew multiple batches with differing mashing schemes. Keep careful brewing notes including reviews of each batch and learn which method(s) are best for your personal palate.

Please tag me (if you remember) since I do not follow that thread.

Best of luck here!

Cheers!