New Malts to Brew With
When I started brewing a bit over a decade ago, I felt spoiled by what seemed like an unlimited number of malts to brew with, sourced from seemingly every beer-brewing country in the world. Things have only improved since, and the fact that you can now brew almost exclusively with floor-malted, heritage variety barley malted anywhere from Castleford, West Yorkshire, to Alameda, California, is nothing short of staggering.
But the resuscitation of historic barley varieties isn’t the only story in malting in the last few years. In addition to ushering in a heritage barley renaissance, maltsters have also responded to the growing number of styles we’ve been brewing (and distilling) by adding multi-tasking grains (lightly kilned malted oats, for example), malts with names like “IPA Malt,” and even grains free of a compound that leads to oxidation, prolonging the shelf life of beers brewed with them.
And while you’re increasingly likely to stumble across these new malts at your local homebrew store, we thought we’d compile a list with many of these new entries in order to showcase the breadth of maltster’s cutting-edge offerings, as well as to highlight some malts we thought deserved to be brewed with. So, without further ado, here are some great new malts that have become available to homebrewers over the last couple years, starting with some of those lovely, complex, heritage malts.
Heritage Malts
As a lover of all things malt, I’ve been delighted to see a renewed focus on complex malt flavor driven by base malt itself (can you tell?), and part of that movement has been a focus on resuscitating flavorful (but perhaps less disease-resistant or lower-yielding) barley varieties of the past, as well as traditional (but arduous) malting practices like floor malting. The following malts utilize one or both of those to produce some killer “new” (very old) malts.
Chevallier® Heritage Malt – Crisp Malt (U.K.)
Color: 2.6–5.5 SRM
Extract Potential: 76.7%
Tasting Notes: Deep maltiness with a marmalade-like sweetness and subtle notes of fresh bread.
Why to consider it: Per Crisp, it was the dominant barley variety in the U.K. from the 1820s–1920s. Quite the feat!
Where to use it: Golden ales, barleywines, IPAs, and DIPAs.
Haná Heritage Malt – Crisp Malt (U.K.)
Color: 1–2.1 SRM
Extract Potential: 76.7%
Tasting Notes: Freshly-baked bread, clean, and smooth.
Why to consider it: Haná was the variety of barley used in the very first Czech Pilsners more than 175 years ago.
Where to use it: Blonde Pilsner-style lagers.
Heritage Gold Malt – Briess Malt & Ingredients Co. (U.S.A.)
Color: 3.8 SRM
Extract Potential: 82%
Tasting Notes: Complex bread character with honey, biscuit, and floral notes.
Why to consider it: This is the new domestic heirloom offering — a base malt made from an heirloom variety, and traditionally malted in the style of an English ale malt.
Where to use it: Styles where malt complexity is desired — from dark Belgian beers (at lower rates) to malt-forward English ales (as the primary base malt).
Isaria 1924® – Weyermann Specialty Malting (Germany)
Color: 3.4–4.4 SRM
Extract Potential: 78%
Tasting Notes: Malt sweetness and a soft biscuit-like aroma.
Why to consider it: Isaria 1924® is made from the oldest German certified malting barley variety, officially approved for beer in, you guessed it, 1924.
Where to use it: Traditional and/or unfiltered lagers like Kellerbier, festbier, and Zoiglbier.
No. 19 Maris Otter® Ale Malt – Crisp Malt (U.K.)
Color: 2.1–3.4 SRM
Extract Potential: 80.6%
Tasting Notes: Bold bready backbone with a complementary sweetness and malty afternotes.
Why to consider it: Just like a nice jar of vanilla paste is a complex wonder, so too is this floor-malted classic Maris Otter, indispensable in brewing rich, complex British ales. It has a deeper flavor than the conventionally kilned Maris Otter malts.
Where to use it: Best bitters, porters, barleywines, or in anything else showcasing complex British malt flavors.
Base Malts
While a return to tradition has been part of the base malt story, some other really interesting innovations have been occurring in the sci-fi land of malting in recent years. The entries below portend the future of malt, whether that be special milling techniques, malt varieties selected for health reasons (!), or a more style-driven approach to malting.
Eraclea Pilsner Malt – Weyermann Specialty Malting (Germany)
Color: 1.1–2.1 SRM
Extract Potential: 80.5%
Tasting Notes: Malt sweetness with light honey notes.
Why to consider it: This malt is made from 2-row Italian Adriatic Coast winter barley, and cultivated around Eraclea near Venice; if you’re looking for Italian Pilsner terroir, this is your malt.
Where to use it: Classic Mediterranean beers from Mediterranean-style lager (like Italian Pilsner) to Italian grape ale.
IPA Malt – Gambrinus Malting (Canada)
Color: 2–2.5 SRM
Extract Potential: 79%
Tasting Notes: Bread, toast, grain, and a slight nuttiness.
Why to consider it: A base malt specifically made for IPAs — what else need be said?
Where to use it: Hop-forward West Coast IPAs, hazy IPAs, DIPAs (or anything else with a ton of hops in the recipe forumlation).
North Star PilsTM – Rahr Malting Co. (North America)
Color: 1.3–1.8 SRM
Extract Potential: 79%
Tasting Notes: Overtones of honey and sweet bread, with notes of hay and a nutty character.
Why to consider it: The domestic barley selection grows richer every year, and this low-color, low-modification lager malt is a very cool addition to the ensemble.
Where to use it: Use this malt for the base of pretty much any classic or new-age lager style.
Pilsner Zero Malt – Viking Malt (Europe)
Color: 1.5–2.2 SRM
Extract Potential: 80%
Tasting Notes: Malty, slightly nutty, and sweet.
Why to consider it: This is a “LOX-less” variety of Pilsner malt, meaning it is made from a barley variety that does not produce the lipoxygenase (LOX) enzyme. This mediates certain oxidation reactions in beer, thus extending the shelf life of your beer by reducing the overall rate of oxidation and staling, while also contributing to increased head retention.
Where to use it: This malt should be used in any Pilsner malt-based beers where you’d be concerned about oxidation, e.g., light lagers, hoppy beers, or in batches that may not be consumed too quickly.
Synergy Select Pilsen Maltgems® – Briess Malt & Ingredients Co. (U.S.A.)
Color: 1.8 SRM
Extract Potential: 83.3%
Tasting Notes: Clean, sweet, with notes of bread, cracker, and honey.
Why to consider it: This malt is a classic Pilsner malt with a twist: The majority of the husk, fine grit, and flour have been removed to minimize bitter/astringent flavors.
Where to use it: Pretty much anything you’d use Pilsner malt in, particularly less-hopped beers where the base malt character is dominant.
Adjuncts
An influx of new base malts seems to be the main malt story of the last few years, but we’d be remiss not to highlight some of the cool new adjuncts that maltsters have cooked up
as well:
Crystal Red Malt – Briess Malt & Ingredients Co. (U.S.A.)
Color: 200 SRM
Extract Potential: 75%
Tasting Notes: Pronounced caramel, burnt sugar, raisins, and prunes.
Why to consider it: This is a classic drum-roasted crystal malt that’s been roasted specifically to enhance its redness.
Where to use it: This malt can be used in almost any style that isn’t ultra pale, contributing gold through orange/red and up to deep red hues depending on usage rates.
Dextrin Malt – Rahr Malting Co. (North America)
Color: 1.2–2.2 SRM
Extract Potential: N/A
Tasting Notes: Bready, grainy, and raw barley flavors (more prominently at higher usage rates).
Why to consider it: As lagers and hazies soar in popularity, a malt that can boost body, haze, and foam is a very powerful tool to have around.
Where to use it: Hazy IPAs, lagers, stouts, or wherever you’d like a boost in head retention/mouthfeel.
Honey Malted Oats – Gambrinus Malting (Canada)
Color: 3–6 SRM
Extract Potential: N/A
Tasting Notes: Bready, grainy, and sweet notes with a rich body and smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Why to consider it: Oats meet honey malt — malty sweetness and favorable oat characteristics in one package (and they have husks, so no need for hulls!).
Where to use it: Hazy IPAs, oatmeal stouts, brown ales, or any other malt-driven styles.
Parting Words
This was in no way a comprehensive list, and I’d love to shout out a few of the other maltsters that deserve a hearty hurrah for their recent additions to our grain bins, namely:
Warminster Maltings, a traditional floor-malting operation in the U.K. with a great, classic U.K. line including brown malt and mild ale malt that hit the U.S. homebrewing scene in mid-2021.
Prairie Malt, a Saskatchewan, Canada, maltster that’s part of the Boortmalt Group, features a number of malts (including another one of those very cool LOX-less base malts) that have started to trickle into homebrew shops.
Admiral Maltings based in California’s Bay Area, which is producing some superbly cool malt including a recent collab with Crisp that married Crisp-grown Haná barley with Admiral’s floor malting to yield a superb lager malt.
And having said all that, there’s one thing left to do — brew! To that end, we have two very special recipes for you that each use one of the malts highlighted in this story.
The first comes to us from Hanabi Lager Co. based in Napa Valley, California. They brew some incredible traditional, grain-forward lagers on their drool-worthy custom decoction brewhouse using truly esoteric (and flavorful!) malted barleys like Purple Egyptian and Bere, and their recipe for Haná Pilsner featuring Crisp’s Haná malt, one of those wonderful “new” heirloom variety malts, is a crystal-clear lens through which to examine those subtle malt complexities.
The second recipe, for Whistlestop Oatmeal Stout, utilizes Gambrinus’s multifaceted Honey Malted Oats to lend a toasted oatmeal sweetness to an already smooth and easy-drinking stout, was sent over by Forgotten Star Brewing Co. based in Fridley, Minnesota. Built in a storied WWII manufacturing facility, Forgotten Star sports quite a few award-winning beers.
Hanabi Lager Co.’s Haná Pilsner clone
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.047 FG = 1.012
IBU = 20 SRM = 4.2 ABV = 4.7%
Hanabi Lager is quickly gaining an international reputation for developing a new class of Pilsner- and helles-style lagers that are rich and complex in flavor, unusually so for these lager categories, into which they only loosely fit. They focus exclusively on rare and heirloom grains, brewing with them on their custom decoction brewhouse, and presenting them through the pure, cold-fermented lens of lager.
Ingredients
9.5 lbs. (4.3 kg) Crisp Haná Heritage Malt
1.3 oz. (36 g) acidulated malt
3.8 AAU Tettnang hops (60 min) (1 oz./28 g at 3.3% alpha acids)
3.8 AAU Tettnang hops (15 min) (1 oz./28 g at 3.3% alpha acids)
3.8 AAU Tettnang hops (5 min) (1 oz./28 g at 3.3% alpha acids
White Labs WLP802 (Czech Budejovice Lager), Wyeast 2000-PC (Budvar Lager), or Mangrove Jack’s M84 (Bohemian Lager) yeast
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
Mash-in with ambient temperature water (Napa Valley water is silica-rich with moderate calcium, and low alkalinity), and then apply heat to raise the temperature to 101 °F (38 °C). Once there, pull the first (30% v/v) decoction, bring to 148 °F (64 °C), hold until iodine negative, raise to boil, boil 10 minutes, then return to the main mash. Adjust main mash temperature to 131 °F (55 °C), hold 5 minutes, then pull the second 25% v/v decoction. Bring the second decoction to 148 °F (64 °C), hold until iodine negative, then raise to a boil for 10 minutes, then return to the main mash. Adjust main mash temperature to 146–148 °F (63–64 °C), hold until iodine negative. Pull the third decoction (30% v/v), ramp straight to boil, boil 10 minutes, then return to the main mash. Adjust temperature to 172 °F (78 °C), hold 10 minutes, then transfer to the lauter tun.
Vorlauf until wort is clear and then lauter the boil kettle.
Boil 69 minutes, adding hops according to the schedule. Whirlpool, and then cool wort rapidly to 42 °F (6 °C). Pitch yeast and aerate thoroughly if using liquid yeast.
Ferment at 50 °F (10 °C), carbonate via spund/bung valve when gravity is 1.020. Taste daily until diacetyl and related carbonyl aroma compounds have dropped to acceptable levels, and then cool 1 °F (0.5 °C) per day until you reach 39 °F (4 °C), rousing the yeasts as needed for proper flavor/texture/conditioning. Rack to secondary (under pressure), and lager at 39 °F (4 °C) for up to three months. Bottle under counter-pressure.
Forgotten Star Brewing Co.’s Whistlestop Oatmeal Stout clone
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.057 FG = 1.016
IBU = 20 SRM = 27 ABV = 5.4%
This stout is rich and robust with a harmonious blend of roasted nuances and a delightful oatmeal sweetness that comes from two unique oat products — Simpsons Golden Naked Oats® and Gambrinus Honey Malted Oats.
Ingredients
7.6 lbs. (3.5 kg) Maris Otter pale malt
10 oz. (285 g) Simpsons Golden Naked Oats®
1.3 lbs. (0.6 kg) Gambrinus Honey Malted Oats
10 oz. (285 g) Weyermann chocolate wheat malt
1.3 lbs. (0.6 kg) Weyermann Munich malt
4 oz. (113 g) Simpsons chocolate malt
3 AAU Magnum hops (90 min.) (0.2 oz./6 g at 14.4% alpha acids)
2.5 AAU Fuggle hops (30 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 5% alpha acids)
4 AAU Crystal hops (5 min.) (0.75 oz./21 g at 5% alpha acids)
Wyeast 1058 (American Ale), White Labs WLP001 (California Ale), or SafAle US-05 yeast
¾ cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
Mash the grains at 154 °F (68 °C) for 60 minutes. Raise mash to mash-out temperature of 168 °F (76 °C) and lauter as normal. Collect enough wort pre-boil to allow for 5.25 gallons (20 L) in your fermenter.
Boil for 90 minutes, adding hops as per the schedule. At the end of the boil, cool wort to slightly below fermentation temperature, 65 °F (18 °C), and pitch yeast (aerate if using liquid yeast). Ferment at 67 °F (19 °C) until complete.
Rack to a keg and force carbonate or add priming sugar and bottle condition.
