Base Malts are the foundation of your grain bill and play a big part in determining the overall malt character of your beer. Base malts are grouped broadly by colour, heritage/variety, and the beer styles they’re intended for as defined by the maltster. With so many high quality malts available, think about the kind of flavour and colour you want out of your base.
- Base Malts
- Sub Base Malts
- Crystal Malts
- Character Malts
- Adjuncts / Cereal Grains
- Dark / Roast
- Dextrin Malt / Body Builders
- Grain Builder
Recommended Usage: 60 – 100%
PALE MALT
“Pale Malt” is a generic term used by maltsters to refer to a lightly kilned malt lending a light colour and low overall malt flavour. Confusingly, Pale Malt is often a Pilsner-variety grain. Pale Malt should be sought out for lighter coloured beers where malt complexity or richness is not desirable.
Colour: Straw to Light Golden (2 – 3.5 EBC)
Flavour: Crisp, light, and low malt flavour
Colour: Golden (3.5 – 4.5 EBC)
Flavour: Light bodied, neutral malt flavour with a subtle residual sweetness
PILSNER MALT
At the heart of European beers is good quality Pilsner malt. Pilsner malt carries a richer flavour than lower colour “Pale” malts and can impart a grainy, doughy aroma.
GLADFIELD PILSNER
BEST MALZ PILSNER
BEST MALZ HEIDELBERG PILSNER
Colour: Golden (3.5 – 4.5 EBC)
Flavour: Soft, lightly doughy, and sweet.
AMERICAN MALT / “AMERICAN 2-ROW”
This group sits somewhere between “Pale” and “Ale” malts in colour and malt profile. If you’re designing an IPA or American Pale Ale recipe – or your recipe asks for “American 2-row” – these malts will contribute a brilliant light orange colour and a hint of malt toastiness to your beer.
Colour: LIGHT ORANGE (4.5 – 5 EBC)
Flavour: Clean, medium-body, and a light toastiness
ALE MALT
‘Ale Malt’ is a catch-all for malt-varieties kilned to a slightly higher colour, lending a fuller body and a sweeter finish. This category includes English heritage varieties which are notable for giving a nutty and/or honey quality to the finished beer
GLADFIELD ALE
VOYAGER VELORIA
BARRETT BURSTON ALE
VOYAGER VELORIA
BAIRDS MARIS OTTER
THOMAS FAWCETT MARIS OTTER
Colour: ORANGE (5.5 – 7.5 EBC)
Flavour: Bready, nutty, and honey sweet
While most of the malts in this category can be used as a base malt, they are typically used in a smaller proportion to alter the body and mouthfeel of your beer
Recommended Usage: 10 – 50%
WHEAT MALT
Wheat malt is a welcome addition to almost any beer style. Wheat will help smooth the body of the beer, create a fuller mouthfeel, improve head retention, and round out the bitterness in IPAs. Wheat malt is light in colour, so even a large addition shouldn’t massively affect the colour of your beer.
Usage Rate: 10 – 40% of grain bill. Up to 70% for traditional Wheat beers
GLADFIELD WHEAT
BEST MALZ WHEAT
BARRETT BURSTON WHEAT
Colour: Golden (3 – 4 EBC)
Flavour: Bread, doughy, marshmallowy, smooth
VIENNA MALT
Vienna malt is pale barley kilned to about twice the colour of pale or pilsner malts. This enhances the sweetness of the grain without contributing any toasty, roasty, or biscuity flavour. Incorporating Vienna malt into your recipe will enhance the malt sweetness of your beer, as well as slightly darkening the colour. Vienna has a natural nutty confectionary-type sweetness, typified by German Vienna-style Lagers.
GLADFIELD VIENNA
BEST MALZ VIENNA
VOYAGER VIENNA
Colour: Orange (6.5 – 9 EBC)
Flavour: Sweetness, mild nutty character
MUNICH MALT
Munich malt is a rich, toasty and biscuity malt. Munich is darker than Vienna malt and carries a more intense flavour. It’s a great option for giving a malt backbone to all beers but works particularly well in giving body and mouthfeel to lower alcohol beer styles.
GLADFIELD MUNICH
BEST MALZ MUNICH LIGHT
BEST MALZ MUNICH DARK
Colour: Deep Orange to Amber (12 – 30 EBC)
Flavour: Toasty, biscuity, rich and malty
CRYSTAL MALT / CARAMEL MALT
Crystal malts are made by soaking then slowly heating barley, creating sugar crystals within the grain. The intensity of the heat and the duration of this process determines the finished texture and sweetness of the malt, ranging anywhere from a light honey flavour to a rich burnt caramel. Crystal malts should be used sparingly to maintain drinkability and to not overwhelm the hop profile of your beer.
Recommended Usage: 0 – 10%
EXTRA DARK CARAMEL / DARK AROMATIC
These very dark crystal malts have a rich, potent flavour and aroma. Because of their dark colour, they can impart an astringent character if used too liberally in a recipe. Dark crystal malts add huge complexity to dark, malt-forward beer styles like Brown Ales, Stouts, and Belgian Abbey Ales
Recommended Usage: 0 – 5%
With character malts we’re refering to lightly roasted malts, aromatic malts, and any other specialty malt which is designed to amplify the flavour and bring colour and character to your beer. We recommend using these malts sparingly to not overpower the base malt and hop character of your recipe.
CARAMUNICH MALT
Caramel Munich (or CaraMunich) malts are a caramelised version of Munich malt, and therefore have an amplified rich toasty malt character. While technically a caramel malt, Caramunich malts impart very little sweetness and are great for building body and malt complexity in your beer, without overcrowding your beer and smothering hop aroma. The flavours associated with Caramel Munich malts range from toast and bread crust all the way to fruitcake and raisin, with Caramel Munich III the darkest and most intense of the range.
Recommended Usage: 0 – 20%
Colour: Dark Amber to Ruby (85 – 190 EBC)
Flavour: Bread crust, fruit cake, toasty
BISCUIT MALT
Biscuit malts have a crisp dry taste similar to a water cracker. They’re a great option for blending with richer and/or sweet malts to give your beer a dry finish
Recommended Usage: 0 – 5%
BESPOKE CHARACTER MALTS – COLOUR
We carry a range of specialty malts for giving your beer a rich red hue. In some cases you can use these malts as 100% of your grain bill. For other varieties, we’ve had great results blending them with a very small amount of dark malt like Eclipse Wheat or Carafa III (1 – 2% of grain bill)
Recommended Usage (SM40, Aurora, Red-x): 40 – 100%
Recommended Usage (Red Back): 10 – 20%
BESPOKE CHARACTER MALTS – AROMA AND FLAVOUR
These include all of the malts that don’t fit easily into the other categories. Used sparingly these can cut through the sweetness of a beer and give your beer structure. Use these grains to amplify the malt richness and aroma of your beer.
Recommended Usage: 0 – 15%
There are many grains we can use in our brewing other than barley. Oats, rye, rice, corn, and many other grains and cereals can be used to modify the appearance, mouthfeel and finish of your beer. Many of the grains listed below are husk-less, meaning that they can cause problems with restricting the flow of your wort and leave you with the dreaded “stuck sparge”.
NOTE: Rice hulls can be used in any recipe with a large proportion of huskless grain to give structure to your filter bed and improve lautering. The recommended amount of rice hulls to use per recipe is approximately 10% of the volume of your grain bill.
OATS
Oats are an increasingly popular choice in pale ales, stouts and IPAs and work brilliantly in softening the mouthfeel of a beer. As a large proportion of your recipe, oats can lend a slick, almost creamy texture. We strongly recommend using Oat Malt instead of rolled oats – particularly if your recipe asks for greater than 10% oats – as this will improve recirculation and avoid your mash clagging together.
Usage Rate: 0 – 20%
RYE
Ryecorn has a distinct earthy flavour and will give a subtle spiciness and dryness to the finish of your beer. Rye is huskless and a typically smaller grain, therefore it requires a finer mill setting.
Usage Rate: 0 – 20%
Usage Rate (Black Forest Rye): 0 – 10%
CORN AND RICE
Corn and Rice carry a sweet and neutral flavour into a finished beer. They are a popular option for cutting through malt richness when a lighter and drier flavour is desired. They are a common adjunct used in light international lagers and cream ales.
Usage Rate: 0 – 30%
Dark malts give a range of rich, roasted flavours to your beer ranging from chocolate to bitter espresso. Even a very small amount will give significant colour to your beer. An important decision when coming up with a dark beer recipe is whether you want a bitter roast character in your beer or instead a darker colour, or possibly something inbetween.
CHOCOLATE MALT
Chocolate malts employ an extending roasting process while the grain is wet, ensuring that resulting roast character is not overly astringent. These malts lend a beautiful rich espresso coffee and chocolate flavour. We recommend combining these malts with other sweeter malts to complement the chocolate character
Usage Rate: 0 – 15%
Colour: Dark Brown to Black (800 – 1400 EBC)
Flavour: Dark Chocolate, Espresso, Dry and Bitter
DE-HUSKED DARK MALTS
Huskless, or de-husked dark grains such as Carafa and Eclipse Wheat do not carry significant astringent character into your beer, as this harsh character is the result of the grain husks being roasted. You can expect these grains to contribute colour and a smoother roast character than Roasted Barley or Black Malt.
Usage Rate: 0 – 15%
Colour: Dark Brown to Black (800 – 1100 EBC)
Flavour: Chocolate, Cocoa, Smooth
Usage Rate: 0 – 5%
Colour: Black (1100 – 1500 EBC)
Flavour: Rich Roast Coffee and Chocolate. Use 1 – 2% for colour correction only
With the range of highly-modified malts available to us as brewers we can often find that our brewing wort is sometimes too fermentable, leaving a beer that is too dry and lacking body. Thankfully, most maltsters have remedied this by offering dextrin malts which will leave a higher proportion of unfermentable sugars, thus giving your finished beer more body. Dextrin malts can also aid head formation and retention in your beer.
Usage Rate: 0 – 15%
Use these ratios as a guide for designing your own grain bills
SESSION ALE/ SUMMER ALE
PALE ALE – Light and Hoppy
PALE ALE – Full Bodied and Malty
IPA – West Coast Style (#1)
IPA – West Coast Style (#2)
NEIPA / HAZY IPA
RED ALE
Beginner Recipes
These SMASH beer recipes (single malt and single hop) are a great way for you to familiarise yourself with the different hops and grain varieties available
Total brewing water: 32L
Mash Temp: 67°C
Boil Time: 60min
Hop Additions: See recipe
MUNICH / ELLA
A deep orange coloured beer, the toasty and cracker aroma of the munich pairs well with the floral and spicy Ella hops.
- 5kg Munich
- 200g Ella Hops
- Whirlfloc Tablet
- Safale US-05 Yeast
AMERICAN / SIMCOE
A huge piney and resinous aroma with lemon and grapefruit notes. American Ale malt provides a clean malt backbone.
- 5kg American
- 150g Simcoe CRYO Hops
- Whirlfloc Tablet
- LalBrew BRY-97 Yeast
ATLAS / MOTUEKA
A light bodied, crisp, and refreshing malt presence paired with a zesty hop aroma of lemon, lime and kiwi
- 5kg Atlas
- 200g Motueka
- Whirlfloc Tablet
- M54 California Lager Yeast