|
Bintani |
|---|
To celebrate the arrival of Rahr Malts at Bintani HQ, we were lucky enough to get some time to talk to the team at Rahr Malting. Our resident Technical Sales Specialist, Sam Bethune, had a great chat with Ashton Lewis Manager of Training & Technical Support over at Rahr Malting in the USA. The two discussed everything from the difference between North American and European malts, the popularity of Rahr malts in the US market and their recent awards success. So read on for some key highlights from that chat, and some insights into what you can look forward to when using Rahr Malts in the brewhouse.
What’s the difference between Rahr Premium Pilsner and Pale Ale from other malts, especially European malts?
European malts generally tend to have a grassy character, particularly German malts, which are lighter-coloured pils or malt. Rahr North American Malts have a very, very clean flavour. Ashton Lewis credits this flavour to Canadian barley. When compared to European barley, it tends to be plumper. Another key difference is in the protein level and lower beta-glucan than European malts. When comparing the malts overall, Ashton noted, "They're well modified where they're very easy to use in a brewery" and estimated the beta-glucans to be "typically lower than about 110", much lower than most European malts.
On the popularity of Rahr Premium Pilsner and Pale Ale malts and recent award wins...
Ashton was bullish on how popular Rahr malts are. When counting over 10,000 breweries throughout the US and Canada, Ashton estimates that about 80% of all breweries are Rahr customers. Regarding awards consideration, on a recent trip to the Great American Beer Festival, multiple award winners were for beers made using Rahr malts. "We had a lot of customers that won awards with our malts." Ashton attributes their awards attention to the high-quality malt ingredients used to create nice-tasting beer. It's as simple as that.
Other Key Takeaways from Ashton Lewis
On Astringency:
"[Rahr malts] tend to be low astringency, flavour profile... our malts produce very clean, low, astringent beer."
On High DP
" Our Barleys have been bred for years, and show very high DP, great for easy mash conversion and inclusion of adjuncts where desired.
What can brewers expect when using Rahr malt?
"Our malts are pretty forgiving in the brewhouse", so the first thing to expect as a brewer is an easy time brewing. Ashton points out that "a lot of the US brewers have adopted very, very short mash cycles" and attributes Rahr malt's high enzyme and well-modified quality to successful brewing at a shorter mash cycle. Overall, because the malts are so easy to use, you can create a very reliable extract yield consistent from batch to batch and, most importantly, expect good flavour.
So why not try it for yourself and see why big US brewers like New Belgium, Bells, Green Flash, and Sierra Nevada are all using Rahr Malts.
Anything else to note?
Getting delivery of the Rahr Premium Malt range is a straight shot from Canada to Australia, so we can expect quick and efficient shipping when placing orders.
We can't wait to see some of the new and improved brews using Rahr Premium Malts.
