Rahr has never been available to me locally and pricey to ship until I bought a couple of sacks from 50 pound sack (Rebel brewer). At $12 or more less than my LHBS it was a good price but no sense saving money if you are not happy with the product. So far I am though.
Good clean malt no sticks, rocks or dirt like I got a lot of with English malts for a while. Crush was NP with my non-adjustable Schmidling mill with about 10+ years on it.
Did a simple Pale Ale I made up using one 50lb sack & 4lb crystal 10l. for 20 gal. Pro Mash tells me I got 78% efficiency. I am good with that. This morning it is fermenting nicely with a gallon starter from slurry of S-04. Now to see how it tastes.
I also really like the “pull narrow strip to open” on the sack. No more fighting with the strings or cutting it open.
[quote=“tom sawyer”]its a great base malt for pale ales.[/quote]+1 My favorite domestic so far. Doing a pallet buy with North Country and they don’t carry Rahr, so trying Great Western 2-row this time, see how it compares.
I think Denny gave the thumbs up to Great Western as well. I’ll see if I can score a sack of that next time my supplier goes through MidCountry. Not sure I saw GW on their list though.
[quote=“Denny”]Yeah, GW is great stuff, too. Almost as good as Rahr.[/quote]I’ll get to check this out myself - just ordered 22 bags of it (four are for me).
Im sitting on 2 bags o Rahr 2 row and a bag o Marris. The 1st batch with the Rahr should be ready to drink next weekend (a NB cream ale recipe that I blackened w/ some roasted malt). I have recently done a cherry wheat and am about to do a chinook IPA all with this malt (the Rahr). I kinda plan to do some of the ones that I really like in Marris just to see if I can tell the difference.
Barry
Ps Thinking about buying a few more bags looking at the drought!
Certainly seems to be one of the areas I take for granted that Rahr is right in the Twin City suburbs and Northern Brewer is just 15 minutes away and always has it in stock. :cheers:
Rahr is my favorite too. I’ve used several sacks of MaltEurop that I liked as well. I’ve like about anything other than Breiss. Refuse to use that base malt. I know people that love it, just not me. Never used GW, would like to try it.
Ditto. I’ve been quite pleased with the Rahr two-row as a base malt.
I tend to immediately divvy my bulk grains into 10 lb. vacuum bags and, like any obsessed brew-nerd, can’t help but stare at the pile of ingredients. I’ve never seen so much as an oddly-shaped husk, let alone any sticks or stones that may break my bones (or grain mill).
[quote=“Denny”][quote=“sethhobrin”]Are you guys talking about plain Rahr 2 row or Rahr 2 Row Pale malt? I’ve recently discovered these are two seperate things.
What is the difference?[/quote]
AFAIK, there’s Rahr 2 row pale malt and Rahr 2 row pale ale malt.[/quote]
2-row pale malt is great, I didn’t care so much for the pale ale malt. It lacked the light toasty character of the 2-row pale malt, but didn’t have nearly the graham cracker/biscuit character of a British floor malted Maris Otter. So I splurge for MO for my British Bitters, and use the Rahr for my west coast style pale ales.
I too prefer the 2 row Pale to the Pale Ale malt. I received a sack of the Pale Ale once on accident and it threw the taste off. I would put Malteurope right below Rahr on my favorite list.
Looking for an update from those of you who were planning to try GW 2-row. What did you think?
I normally use Rahr, but I’ve got a chance to get in on a group buy. Rahr is not an option, but GW is. Sounds like I should probably go for it, but was hoping for more feedback before I pull the trigger.
