Lawrence Brewers Guild

What are the major differences? What do people normally brew with? I heard 6 row generally has higher lintner values. Is this true?

Quick basic explanation I had already written up.

Generally speaking all malted barley is 2-row unless specifically labeled 6-row. The absence of a "row" label will also mean 2-row, like on all Crystal malts. This is just a different variety and refers to the number of kernels on the mature plant. "2-Row" and "Pale Malt" are generally considered to be interchangeable labels. It's just a way of saying this is the most basic malt. Some company's will have both a "2-Row" and a "Pale" but the difference is sometimes only a single point of color on the Lovibond scale. This is undetectable by 99.9% of people. Finally 6-Row is different, this malt contains more of the enzymes responsible for converting complex carbohydrates into simple carbohydrates (sugar) during the mashing process. 6-Row is generally used when the grist contains a lot of non-malted grains (like rice, corn) or non-barley grains (like any other malted cereal grain).

What Frank said. And here are a couple of links with probably way more info than you wanted, including how they calculate lintner values.

http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Maltin ... aveled.htm
http://beersmith.com/blog/2010/01/04/di ... your-beer/

6-row is supposedly a little harsher tasting, although I've never done a side-by-side comparison. The Briess writeup above describes it as tasting "grainier". That's probably the main reason that it's less popular than 2-row. If you don't notice the flavor difference, or it doesn't bother you, there is nothing wrong with using 6-row & 2-row interchangeably in pretty much any beer.

Regarding the Linter value, yes 6-row is higher. But 2-row has a high enough value that it can easily convert itself, and a small amount of adjunct grains. The higher powered 6-row is mainly useful on beers with a high percentage unmalted grain, as the umalted grains don't bring any enzymes to the party. I'm not sure where the cutoff is, but I'd say that "high" means maybe 25-30% or more. So beers like wits, with up to 70% unmalted wheat, or a light lager, with up to 50% rice or corn. In my personal experience I regularly use 6-row in wheat & milo beers, with about 50% unmalted grain.

Hope that helps.

Thanks guys, these are incredibly helpful responses.

God I love this club.