British Pale Ale Malt =Maris Otter?

I was planning on brewing Yooper's 'Hoppy American Amber or Malty American Pale Ale?', but the LHBS didn't have any Golden Naked Oats, so I reverted back to just doing Jamil's West Coast Blaster, which is what Yooper's is based on (I believe). Anyway, Jamil calls for British pale ale malt, and Yooper calls for American 2 row. I have American 2 row and Maris Otter. I'm tempted to use the Maris Otter, but is that going to change the flavor, in a bad way, over using British Pale ale malt? As I understand MO is a type British pale ale malt, but I'm not familiar enough with the various types...or should I play it safe and go with US 2 row?

Thanks!
Pat

mccullpl said:

I was planning on brewing Yooper's 'Hoppy American Amber or Malty American Pale Ale?', but the LHBS didn't have any Golden Naked Oats, so I reverted back to just doing Jamil's West Coast Blaster, which is what Yooper's is based on (I believe). Anyway, Jamil calls for British pale ale malt, and Yooper calls for American 2 row. I have American 2 row and Maris Otter. I'm tempted to use the Maris Otter, but is that going to change the flavor, in a bad way, over using British Pale ale malt? As I understand MO is a type British pale ale malt, but I'm not familiar enough with the various types...or should I play it safe and go with US 2 row?

Thanks!
Pat

Click to expand...

Got lost about half way into the post. Please rephrase the question. I'm dizzy...

Cheers!

MO IS British pale ale malt. Any recipe that calls for BPA malt automatically means MO to me. Golden Promise is another, but MO is my default for British pale ale.

I've made this recipe the way Yooper wrote it up. It was AWESOME. Just skip the golden naked oats or, if i remember right, Yooper or someone else offers some suggestions for GNO subs in the recipe thread.

I have Crisp Pale Ale malt which is also a British pale malt. IMO they are all nice base malts. MO has a little more complexity than US 2 row. It does a little better when the base malt is almost all of the grainbill.

Good to know the MO would be fine...doesn't sound like I can go wrong either way! I guess I just need to pick one, and go with it

This thread has definitely helped me out!

It is worth mentioning that Maris Otter is a barley variety, as is Pearl, Tipple, Halcyon, Golden Promise - among others - and they are often labeled as such for sale. Each of these barley varieties has its own flavor characteristics and it will further vary between maltsters. A Bairds or Crisp MO tastes differently than a Warminster MO, as will a floor malted MO taste different to one that is not.

For our uses, it is important to remember that Maris Otter was developed for use in "Real Ale" breweries and how they use MO is very different to what the average US home brewer is doing. In short, MO is best used in simple recipes where you want the singular flavor of the base malt to come through. You won't find UK breweries that use MO adding things like biscuit, melanoiden, and aromatic malt to their beers - as home brewers and "craft breweries" so often do - because it defeats the purpose of using such a high quality and pricey malt.

With that said, most UK Pale Ale Malt is a mix of high and low quality barley, of various varieties. It has more character than your typical US 2-row, although it doesn't quite have the unique flavors of your single varietal malts, like MO or Golden Promise. If you are going to jam your recipes full of extraneous malts or extremely high hopping, you are better off using a pale ale malt over a MO.