Pale Malt/Maris Otter Mix in IPA

I'm working on a recipe that I'll brew later this week and I'll be using Marris Otter for the first time. My plan is for a big IPA using a 50/50 blend of U.S. pale malt and the maris otter for the base. From what I've read maris otter has slightly more "body" than normal pale malt, and thats what I'm looking for. Heres the tentative recipe for a 3 gal batch:

5lb Pale Malt
5lb Maris Otter
.5lb carapils
.5lb 50l
.5lb sugar? (I threw that in at the last minute)

A bunch of centennial, amarillo, and simcoe

California V yeast

I'm hoping for a more full bodied IPA. My beers normally seem "thin" to me, and I'm hoping to change that.

Looks good, If you want to add sugar use candi sugar probably clear. Mash at about 154 155 ish and you should have a nice malty IPA.

Sugar or Carapils...which do you want to use cause they are generally added to recipes for opposite purposes. If you're trying to beef up the body, skip the sugar.

brewt00l said:

Sugar or Carapils...which do you want to use cause they are generally added to recipes for opposite purposes. If you're trying to beef up the body, skip the sugar.

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I thought that when you add sugar the yeast uses it first since its simpler and therefore leaves a little more of the more complex sugars from the malt behind. So adding sugar will take away from the body? Sounds good to me, I'm not that big of a fan of adjunct stuff anyway.

I have a small Marris Otter partial mash going that's going to be supplemented by pale malt DME (there's also a few oz of Belgian biscuit in the mash) for a traditional-1840s-inspired IPA (all Fuggles, 70-ish IBU, 1.068 OG). I say inspired because the goal isn't to brew in a traditional manner but to come up with something that tastes like a big IPA but with British flavor profiles.

I have nothing specific to add, but I just wanted to post to say that the Marris Otter smells good.

I vote to use all MO

punk_rockin2001 said:

I'm working on a recipe that I'll brew later this week and I'll be using Marris Otter for the first time. My plan is for a big IPA using a 50/50 blend of U.S. pale malt and the maris otter for the base. From what I've read maris otter has slightly more "body" than normal pale malt, and thats what I'm looking for. Heres the tentative recipe for a 3 gal batch:

5lb Pale Malt
5lb Maris Otter
.5lb carapils
.5lb 50l
.5lb sugar? (I threw that in at the last minute)

A bunch of centennial, amarillo, and simcoe

California V yeast

I'm hoping for a more full bodied IPA. My beers normally seem "thin" to me, and I'm hoping to change that.

Click to expand...

skip the sugar for sure as it will dry out the beer more. If you want more body (read more sugar in the end) mash higher, towards 159 or so. I just mashed an IPA at 152 and it came out at 1.080 and went to 1.012. It is thinner than when I mashed at 158 because of the sugar left over is less. Had I added sugar I would have gotten lower still.

I'll skip the sugar then, and mash at around 157-155. Thanks!

Sugar won't lighten the body unless it is used as a replacement for some base malt. It doesn't magically bring the FG lower, it is just more fermentable than malt sugars so it will ferment out a little lower if it is used to replace some of the malt. If you just add a little regular sugar to the beer, you just upping the alcohol content a little, and the FG will be the same as if you had gone without, but it won't dry it out any.

RICLARK said:

Looks good, If you want to add sugar use candi sugar probably clear.

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Too much money for no benefit, IMO.

usurpers26 said:

I vote to use all MO

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+1 Also as others have mentioned mashing at 159 will get you a nice high terminal gravity. I just did an ESB which I mashed at 159 and it went from 1.049 to 1.022 and it has been holding steady at 1.022 for 2 weeks now.

Be careful mashing high with an IPA - you may end up way sweeter than you had anticipated.

punk_rockin2001 said:

I'll skip the sugar then, and mash at around 157-155. Thanks!

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I mash at 152°F and my 1.067 OG IPA gets to 1.012 - 1.013 FG. All malt, all Maris Otter for base.

Gives a nice malt backbone and a very drinkable IPA. Too drinkable if you ask yourself the next morning. 7.1% ABV should not go down like session beers!

BarleyWater said:

Sugar won't lighten the body unless it is used as a replacement for some base malt. It doesn't magically bring the FG lower, it is just more fermentable than malt sugars so it will ferment out a little lower if it is used to replace some of the malt. If you just add a little regular sugar to the beer, you just upping the alcohol content a little, and the FG will be the same as if you had gone without, but it won't dry it out any.

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That's not entirely true. Some yeast, like Wyeast High Gravity Trappist (3787 I believe) benefit from incremental addition of simple sugars, and Wyeast recommends this technique for yeasts like this. This helps the yeast, which are stressed because of the high alcohol content, to do the heavy lifting in the latter stages of fermentation. Basically, it gives the yeast an easy high-power "snack" that they can easily chew on to get them going strong again so that they can, simultaneously, tackle some of the base-malt sugars that they were having a hard time with in the latter stages of fermentation. It can make the difference b/w a fermentation stuck at 1.020 - 1.030 and getting that final gravity down to 1.010 - 1.014, and I've seen it work wonders (I'm currently going through the process right now with a Belgian IPA).