I am trying to brew for the 1st time with Maris Otter and I need some help, please.

Hey everyone

I dont actually have a recipe yet...just a slight idea what I want my beer to be like.

I am thinking of creating my partial or may all-grain recipe (5 gallons)...using Maris Otter malt (and if it is partial some DME obviously...havent decided on that yet).....but my idea is to brew a nice fruity, pleasantly aromatic ale with normal alcohol conent (4-6%) with slight, bitter (pleasant again....nothing too strong) aftertaste.

Basically, I am looking for something easy to drink.....regardless if it is winter or summer. Something refreshing...yet not to heavy.

Any ideas what other malt I should mix? Or what hops I should be looking for (German or English probably).

I'd really appreciate some ideas, or existing recipes.

Thanks a lot.

Try some caramalt or dark crystal from Mutons to compliment your Maris Otter.

Hops..I would personally go English.

Brewers Gold for bittering
EKG for flavor & aroma.

If you want some fruity notes go with a English yeast like Wyeast Whitbread and ferment in the higher temperature range.

Just my two cents. I'm sure others can chime in with more info.

Pecafaced said:

Try some caramalt or dark crystal from Mutons to compliment your Maris Otter.

Hops..I would personally go English.

Brewers Gold for bittering
EKG for flavor & aroma.

If you want some fruity notes go with a English yeast like Wyeast Whitbread and ferment in the higher temperature range.

Just my two cents. I'm sure others can chime in with more info.

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Thanks a lot....really good info. Although now I am struggling to find pots that can handle a 5 gallon batch. In Spain everything is a nightmare that is a piece of cake in the US.

I love Maris Otter. I would second English hops. Challenger is a nice clean bittering hop, and I like Northdown and Fuggles for flavor and mild aroma.

I did a SMaSH using Marris and Cascade that turned out nicely.

Elysium said:

Hey everyone

I dont actually have a recipe yet...just a slight idea what I want my beer to be like.

I am thinking of creating my partial or may all-grain recipe (5 gallons)...using Maris Otter malt (and if it is partial some DME obviously...havent decided on that yet).....but my idea is to brew a nice fruity, pleasantly aromatic ale with normal alcohol conent (4-6%) with slight, bitter (pleasant again....nothing too strong) aftertaste.



Thanks a lot.

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A maris otter/fuggle SMaSH is always nice.

FYI Muntons has Light Maris Otter LME.

MO and Cenntenial/Cascade APA is nice.

Pecafaced said:

Try some caramalt or dark crystal from Mutons to compliment your Maris Otter.

Hops..I would personally go English.

Brewers Gold for bittering
EKG for flavor & aroma.

If you want some fruity notes go with a English yeast like Wyeast Whitbread and ferment in the higher temperature range.

Just my two cents. I'm sure others can chime in with more info.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. Let me be a bit of a pain in the ass.....How can I calculate how much I need for a partial or all-grain brewing of 5 gallons?

Until you've had some experience with recipes, you may be better served by looking up well reviewed existing recipes and tweaking them slightly, as opposed to starting from scratch.

Also, take a look at Beersmith - it's free for the first 30 days (one time fee of $27 after that), and it's a SUPERB tool for recipe crafting.

Elysium said:

.How can I calculate how much I need for a partial or all-grain brewing of 5 gallons?

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Find Beercalculus to be quite helpful for making recipes as it gives parameters per style, so you can see how close you are, using your ideas/additions, to the Beer you're trying to achieve. You can also, easily, see how balanced malts/hops are.

First all grain batch I did, 2.5 gallons, used 2.25kg Maris Otter, 250gr crystal 70, 14 gr chocolate wheat, Fermentis S-04 rehydrated, pitched and spent first few days at low to mid 60s, Nugget for bittering, Fuggles and Kent Goldings for flavour/aroma additions and ended up with something really close to Hen's tooth at about 6.5%, or thereabouts. Mash efficiency was pretty good as it was a fine crush BIAB. Could see how it would be a good brew even if lower in ABV, but was great as it was.

Look for ESB recipes and, depending on the ABV you are after, scale the amount of Maris Otter and/or DME/LME you use.

wiggybrewer said:

MO and Cenntenial/Cascade APA is nice.

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Going to give this a try sometime soon as I've only used MO with British flavour and aroma hopping so far

Have used them before in an extract brew (IPA) and really enjoyed the piney, citrusy flavour that came through. Wonder if Northern Brewer and Cascade would come close.

Elysium said:

Thanks for the reply. Let me be a bit of a pain in the ass.....How can I calculate how much I need for a partial or all-grain brewing of 5 gallons?

Click to expand...

No worries about being a pain, that's what these forums are for...to ask questions and gain knowledge. I agree with homebrewdad, check out some existing recipes that go with the style you are looking to create or try Beersmith. This program is as simple as putting in your ingredients and it will give you an estimated gravity and ibus's. There are also a lot of free programs online that can calculate everything for you as well.