Pilsner malt in a pale ale

Yes, you can. Not all pilsner malts taste the same.

I use 80-90% Breiss Pilsner for pale ales and IPAs often. The rest of the malt bill could contain 10-15% Vienna, Wheat or Munich and typically less than 7% specialty malt.

The end result has hints of macro swill pilsner beer in terms of malt, but not enough to be a problem.

 

Look up Avangard Pilsner malt. Works well in an IPA.

 

I fell in love with Pilsner Malt a few years ago and never looked back. I had an abso-freaking-lutely exquisite Czech Pilsner at a local brew pub and just couldn't get that wonderful flavor out of my head. I now use it as 100% of the base in most of my beers, IPA included. I may cut it with plain 2-row from time to time but, more often than not, it's all by itself. My Cream Ale is all Pilsner - I even cut out the corn (I suppose I should stop calling it a Cream Ale). FWIW, I use German Pilsner, which is not quite as 'pilsner-ey' as Belgian. It's also cheaper - only marginally more expensive than 2-row.

 

Mike, which German Malting Company do you use? Why are you of the opinion that Belgian Pilsner Malt is more 'pilsner-ey'? Which Belgian Malting Company is your 'baseline' here?

Cheers!

 

Lovely idea. I made a very nice citra-centennial IPA with 65% Belgian pils. Also had a 12% munich, some extract. and crystal alt. Most likely was Dingemans malt

 

I've been happy with 'Avangard Malz' from my LHBS. It's distributed in the US by LD Carlson. I'm comparing it with Dingeman's Belgian which he also carries. If I was brewing a straight Pilsner, I'd probably favor Dingeman's, which has what I perceive to be a more classic Pilsner flavor profile. That might fight for attention in a hop or yeast forward beer, so I use the more subtle Avangard.

 

I also use pils as my base malt in almost all my beers. I get castle belgian pils from my lhbs. I use it for everything but my stouts, the MO steps in. I do like the flavor it brings. Nothing says beer to me like pils.

 

My personal preference is pilsner malt for IPA's and something along the lines of golden promise for pale ales. I have done a 50/50 split of those two (as well as a 50/50 split of maris otter and golden promise) for pale ales with great success in the past as well.

 

Optic has some light pilsner flavor and aroma that I find to be pleasant.

 

I also use pilsner malt in most of my APAs/IPAs, though never 100% pilsner yet. Like others, I've found it adds a crisp "lightness" that helps accentuate the hops, helps me get a touch more attenuation, for whatever reason, and I personally like that "beery" (for lack of a better term) flavor it adds to my beer. I typically use Best Malz or Weyermann just because that's what my LHBS carries, though after reading this thread I'm thinking I may need to try some other maltsters.