German Brewing

Since the core of the Low O2 method is in direct support of preserving the freshness of the wort produced during mashing, how much emphasis should be placed on the pre-milling freshness of the malt?

I ask the question for two reasons:

1.) My LHBSs (3 in close proximity) have varying levels of freshness in their grains. The one with the freshest grains has a limited stock, with Briess dominating. My source for Belgian and German grains leaves something to be desired in the freshness department.

2.) Due to the increase in farmstead breweries here in NY, which are direct result of the NYS Farm Brewery License, several maltsters are now operating here in the state to produce a NYS malt product that breweries can use to satisfy the ingredient requirements of the license. Procuring this malt would likely be the freshest source available to me. I could likely get it almost immediately after packaging.

Ultimately, is it more desirable to stick with continental malts that may not be the freshest available, or could I be using this homegrown, NYS grain and reap many of the benefits of the Low O2 method?

I have had great malt flavor ( Low o2 of course), with Weyermann, Best, schill and others have used Avangard, and castle. But I have also had fantastic flavor from Rahr(local to me) and canada malting. To be honest, a lot of my pale lagers as of recent have been with Rahr premium pils..I love the malt flavor from it, its local and fresh and cheap. Now the drawbacks are that its got a really high pH so you have to know how to read and react to a malt analysis sheet.
With that said, Low o2 makes all malts taste differently, but when we speak of lingering fresh grain, we ALWAYs mean Pils malt flavors. Kilning IMO has more to do with it, than freshness. Cause if it is kilned too high, you won't get the flavor you need in the first place. Obviously I have not tried anything local to you, but I would certainly try and get my hands on some and mini mash them to see. You will be able to pick out the subtleties when doing the mini-mashes side by side.

All you need for a low-do mini-mash is campden. I would like to see a malt analysis sheet for the 2 row, my guess is its too high of a L for pale lagers.

Be very careful with using the old methodology of malt blending now. Munich malt will now taste like straight up hard pretzel, with a slight bitter of the outside crust. Vienna is fresh dough. A solidifying of the process, is usually all thats needed. Though blends of pils/pale have worked for me and others. In the end you really have to taste the beers you are trying to reproduce, then using a mini mash or 5, start blending and tweaking.