Need advice on order that i am placing at North Country Malt

Good morning.

Ok - going all-in. Placing first bulk grain order. Sick of paying high prices at my local HBS store for 1lb here...2 lbs there.

I really want to buy the 55lb bag of Marris Otter. Figured i'd get alot of use from this.

Two of my immediate recipes (Wit and an Oatmeal Stout) call for Belgian Pale Malt.

Should i order the Belgian as well or can I substittute the Marris Otter for the Belgian without noticing a significant difference in taste?

Thanks again guys

In my case I switched to GW pale malt instead of MO in several recipes and neither I nor anyone who drinks it can tell any real difference. Then again most of my beers are rather hoppy & IIPA-ish so that my matter.

I'd do a test with your next brew. I have cut my grain costs. MO $1.07/lb or GW $.66/lb

Thank u Samc.

What Maltster is GW?

Woul di notice a difference if i were to substitute MO for Belgian?
Still a noob so pls excuse the questions.

BMG - Great Western Malting Co.

Only way for you to know is to brew with both and taste what you get. Nothing anybody says can make this point any different.

Yep - very subjective i suppose.
Can't think of a better way to learn than to make beer that has both!

Thank you

You can order by the pound as well from North Country, in case you didn't realize.

Do you have a grain mill? Or are you going to get them to mill it for you, then store it somehow at home? I'm looking to start bulk purchasing for base grains, but I'm not sure how to deal with storage until I get a grain mill.

You can get per pound orders from North Country, but that puts in it line with more LHBS and online suppliers (about $1.55/lb). I placed an order with their center in Champlain NY a while back, and they were absolutely great people to work with. I need to plan a drive back over there and get more 2row, I'm almost done with my first 55lb sack!

My *guess* is that MO would have a bit more mouthfeel than the Belgian. I've been doing everything with Pilsner malt and Munich, and doing a 90min boil for anything that's mostly Pils. Seems to work well so far!

menschmaschine -

Yep - I'm ordering a few specialty grains in smaller amounts. The MO i ordered in bulk as my "base"

cd2448:
I just purchased the Schmidling "Malt Mill". I'm buying in bulk uncrushed - then storing in one of those big Rubbermaid storage containers in a dark corner of my basement.
I'm not sure if you can store crushed....

Hotspur - thank u!
Yep - they seem like good people over there at North Country. Can't beat their price on a 55lb sack of MO for 42 bucks.
I purchased about 65 lbs of MO and other specialty grains for about 80 bucks incl shipping.

We'll give it a try with the MO as a base. Doubt if it'll see the difference in the Oatmeal Stout..

Remember, you also get a malt analysis for each type of grain from North Country. That may not mean much to some, but I find it invaluable for mash schedules, efficiency predictions, and color accuracy.

Remember, you also get a malt analysis for each type of grain from North Country. That may not mean much to some, but I find it invaluable for mash schedules, efficiency predictions, and color accuracy.

Click to expand...

I did not know this...what a great feature!

Check out TF&S lager malt. I have been very pleased with this malt. Its a touch darker than other pils malts also it seems to have a little bump in malt flavor. This makes it perfect for a base malt but still gives you a rather light base beer to build on. This allows you to play with more specialty malts to build your flavor and color profile of the beer you desire. I really have been liking that i am using more of the specialty malts that i want and pulling more of their flavors out into the finished beer rather than them just being their and being over shadowed by the M/O or pale malt.

Martymoat - I'll check that out..after i finish my 55lb bag of MO
Agree spanishcastle - nice touch

I buy Maris Otter in bulk for British-style ales, and Golden Promise for Scottish ales. I also just picked up a sack of Great Western Pale Malt because I wanted to do a few American-style pale ales. The taste of all three is different, but I can't say (yet) how different they are in the beers, since I just started the APA with the GW this past weekend.

I do think the MO adds a nice flavor to my English-style bitters and IPAs that will likely be missing in the APA, but I'm not sure I'd want it there.