SPONSORED CONTENT
Reliable workhorse. Versatile team player. All-around high performer. Does that sound like your last performance review? Excellent. We’re actually talking about what makes Rahr Standard 2-Row a great base malt. Made from a blend of North American two-row barley varieties, Rahr 2-Row is consistent across the board and widely used as the primary building block behind craft beers of any style. Keep reading to learn how this light-colored base malt became the de facto backbone of American beer.
No off-flavors. Never gets in the way. A balance in every way, shape, and form. A blank canvas for whatever you want to do. These are some of the things Rahr Malting Company‘s senior manager of malt production Chris Wilhelmi says about Rahr Standard 2-Row, a light-colored base malt that quietly became the de facto backbone of American beer.
Fact is, you probably already love a beer brewed with Rahr 2-Row. Possibly even several beers. But how did Rahr 2-Row become the standard base malt for brewers of every beer style? To chew on this nugget and several others, we’ve invited product managers Matt Johnson and Joel Menk, along with maltster Chris Wilhelmi, to participate in a roundtable discussion. Please pour yourself a pint and proceed!
RahrBSG: What’s germinating, gentlemen? Please say hello.
Chris Wilhelmi: Hi. I’m Chris. I make the malt.
Joel Menk: I think that you’re doing an awesome job, Chris. I’m Joel. I’m a product manager for RahrBSG.
Matt Johnson: I’m Matt. I’m also a product manager for RahrBSG. And as a brewer, I’ve used Rahr 2-Row as far back as 2008.
RahrBSG: Let’s start with simple definitions. What is Rahr 2-Row?
Chris Wilhelmi: Rahr Standard 2-Row is a North American–style brewers’ two-row. It is a blend. I would say it’s probably our oldest blend. It predates me, and I’ve been here 10 years. In terms of color, it’s darker and better modified than a European lager malt would be, or even an American lager malt. It’s also lighter than a pale-ale malt. It has a nice golden color around 2.0 Lovibond. It’s got enough color to provide flavor and a good baseline for your beer, while still maintaining enough enzyme package to have really good attenuation. So, it’s just a straight shot to the bullseye. No marketing. No sales pitches. That’s 100 percent what it is.
Joel Menk: It’s a high-quality malt that has really wide applicability. Nothing about it is overstated.
Matt Johnson: It is consistent across the board. You can count on it to have the amount of extract that you’re looking for. You can depend on it to perform well in simple infusion mashes in small brewhouses or in a large 60-barrel brewhouse like I ran. You want that dependability. You can use it as a single malt and add a little bit of hops to make a nice light beer. You can use it as the backbone of a stout or for any beers that require more flavor from other malts, hops, yeast, or whatever you want to do. It’s the base of any North American–style beer that you want to produce.
Chris Wilhelmi: For me it’s not really a style of malt. It’s more of a concept of malt, right? It’s a Jack-of-all-trades brewers’ two-row that does everything well. And it is going to meet your expectations time after time after time. You know you’re going to get reliable extract. Also, it’s meant for you to build around it. It’s really a framework malt. We supply the parts; you build the beer.
RahrBSG: Where is Rahr 2-Row produced?
Chris Wilhelmi: It’s produced in both Shakopee, Minnesota, and Alix, Alberta. Same COA. Same spec. Same barley varieties. Same processing, just two different malthouses. The product coming out of both malthouses is tested for quality assurance the exact same way and to the same standards.
RahrBSG: Speaking of the barley varieties—where are they grown?
Chris Wilhelmi: We have a farmer network throughout the Great Plains—the Northern plains from Minnesota to Montana. That’s pretty much where the barley comes from. I can’t isolate it to any one place.
Joel Menk: This approach of using barley from across the region means we have a more expansive palette to paint with, and we can make a more beautiful malt. Brewers get a much higher quality malt and a much more consistent malt. When you limit yourself to malt made from a specific barley variety grown in a specific field, you may get a unique malt with a romantic story of terroir. But the maltster only had one color with which to paint their masterpiece.
Chris Wilhelmi: Now, if you want a malt with a single-barley varietal, so be it. But you need to understand the limitations of each barley variety if you’re going to do that. When we use three or four different varieties that all have different properties, malt them correctly and then blend them together to make 2-Row, the different varieties tend to fill each other’s gaps really well. You end up with a blend where everything kind of meshes, and the shortcomings of one are balanced by the benefits of another.
Rahr Malting Company operates the largest malting facility in North America in Shakopee, Minnesota. RMC also operates a second malthouse across the Canadian border in Alix, Alberta.
RahrBSG: And which barley varieties are used?
Chris Wilhelmi: Rahr 2-Row is a blend of several different barley varieties that all target roughly the same spec range. The COA of this blend has probably been in existence for decades. We as the producers know exactly what it is and what it needs to be time after time—and so do the brewers who use it—even as we’ve changed barley varieties.
The majority now is probably an Explorer-Synergy blend with a little Fraser for an enzyme boost. Ten years ago, it was mostly Pinnacle. Ten years before that, it was probably Harrington and some even older varieties like Meredith. But we’ve managed to keep the general profile and meet the brewers’ expectations of the blend throughout this time.
RahrBSG: Why are barley varieties replaced?
Chris Wilhelmi: We tend to replace varieties when something new performs a bit better agronomically. It might be better for farmers in terms of yield or disease resistance. It might be lower in beta glucans, which maltsters like. Brewers might like something with higher average extract. So, the constant evolution of barley varieties coming and going is kind of just climbing up the hill of making a better barley for everybody. Our 2-Row now is not your grandpa’s two-row, but from season to season, the blends are indistinguishable from one another.
Matt Johnson: I think something that brewers would appreciate knowing is how Standard 2-Row has developed and continues to be developed with the barley varieties that are coming out. All to be consistent. To be the best possible base malt for any brewer, really.
RahrBSG: What would you tell a brewer who has never used Rahr 2-Row?
Matt Johnson: As a brewer myself, I would look at 2-Row for any of the ales that I produce. From the lightest blonde ale to my wheat ale to ambers, reds, porters, and stouts. Anything that has been part of the craft-beer industry since its inception—I’m thinking of Sierra Nevada Pale, Anchor Steam, those type of beers—that’s where I’m using Rahr Standard 2-Row because it is such a workhorse, dependable, and consistent, and it really allows me to build off of the base it creates. If your two-row is consistent and your brewing practices are consistent, guess what? You make a consistent beer over and over.
Joel Menk: We have more than 177 years of experience in this field.
Chris Wilhelmi: I mentioned balance before. We’re constantly working to achieve the perfect balance between color and enzyme package. High enough kilning so it’s clean and DMS is driven off. It’s got to be modified enough to have low beta glucans, good friability, and great extract. But it can’t be so modified that you get green or vegetal off-flavors. Rahr 2-Row isn’t fancy; it’s all about finesse.
You can use it in any kind of mashing profile, infusions at different temperatures, you name it. It’s a little grainy and a little malty, and it’s really well-suited to the standard American pale ale. It would also make a real nice cream ale, too. It would help showcase your adjuncts in that style and let them shine.
RahrBSG: We know you need to get back to malting now. This was super-informative. Thanks for hanging out here with us!
Are you heading to CBC in Indianapolis this April? Chris, Joel, and Matt will be at RahrBSG booth #4405 to answer all your questions about Rahr Standard 2-Row and the rest of Rahr’s malt portfolio. They’re looking forward to seeing you!
SPONSORED CONTENT
