2-Row vs Maris Otter vs Golden Promise vs Halcyon vs Pearl vs Optic

[Zackcavalier]

Man. I just was wondering what the big difference was for my usage and it looks like this will answer it for me. Thanks for this.

 

[ndrice]

I'll start this off with the caveat that my palate is experienced if not educated. As with all things beer, YMMV.

I first tasted all six back to back in the order that I have them pictured. The head on all of them was white and about 1/8th of an inch thick. I didn't pour aggressively, but I kept these on the low end carbonation-wise to keep in line with some of the more common English styles of beers. I then ate a few oyster crackers and drank some water. Tasted them in the reverse order. Ate some more oyster crackers and drank some more water and tasted them in no particular order.

These were my initial impressions.

2-row
Bready. Very light. Very slightly sweet with a smooth light graininess. Very faint twang. Probably from S-04 yeast. Serviceable if a bit nondescript. It's amazing how you can just tell this is the base malt for a lot of commercial beers. It tastes "familiar."

Maris otter
Toasty on the nose. Much nuttier than 2-row. Slightly sweeter and more caramelly flavor. Toasty sweetness comes through. Toasted bread.

Golden promise.
Very mild aroma. Flavor is slightly sweet. Cracker sort of breadiness. Grainy. Sweetest of the six. Pleasant.

Pearl
Slight sweetness and caramel on the nose. Faint "green" almost vegetal aroma. Not unpleasant though. Medium caramel flavor with a smoother mouthfeel than the others. Sweetness carries through.

Optic
Very little nose. Slight oat aroma. Flavor leans towards the sweet grain side. Maybe a little rougher than the others. Almost grassy. I like it though.

Halcyon
Light nuttiness in the aroma. Grain is more present. Subdued caramel. Maybe a bit like the crusts from white bread. Really clean. Light nuttiness is nice. Very mild.

The three that stood out for me as the most distinct from each other were Maris Otter, 2-Row, and Optic. The Optic smelled like a clean barn (not barnyard though). Good horse feed. A definite rough graininess that I could see complimenting some styles very well. Maris Otter was definitely the most toasty of the 6 with some deeper more rich flavors. 2-row was, like I said, kind of "familiar" tasting. There's a reason it's the base malt for so many good beers. It's pleasant, unobtrusive, and doesn't assert itself in any particular way.

All that being said, however, I think my favorite was the Golden Promise. The residual sweetness resulted in a fuller mouthfeel without being too much. The cracker-like breadiness gave it a crisp flavor that balanced out the sweetness nicely. I still think there are some styles that would benefit from this kind of flavor more than others, but in the right place, this seems like a really nice malt.

After I feremnted these out, I did a little digging around about the yeast that I used, Safale-04, the Whitbread strain and noticed that some people mentioned a twanginess about the finished beer. All of these definitely have a slight twang. I'm hoping it clears up a bit with time, but that's one flavor that came across in all of the beers.

It was a fun experiment.

I've got four 6 packs of these beers left. I thought I'd throw it out that if there are any interested parties in the DC/Maryland area who would like to have a bit of a tasting party and experience these beers for themselves, I'd be happy to host a few people. Shoot me a PM.

 

[thatjonguy]

Thanks for the write up! You should submit this as an article.

 

[stpug]

Thank you for the write-up. Submission as an article would cool.

I love looking at the colors of the beers these experiments produce. It's always amazing to me the color difference between 2row and MO; night and day! I also like how Optic turns out the lightest. Somewhere in my memory banks I have it that Optic is the base for "pilsner" malt, however when trying to re-find the source I could not . My memory is definitely not like an elephants so I could be off by a mile. And Pearl and Halcyon end up similar in color.

Don't I wish I lived in Maryland about now? YES!!

 

[TheHairyHop]

Thanks for following through. I must be the only one who dislikes MO. It was so toasted bread, I couldn't handle it in a smash. GP sounds cool though

 

[WileECoyote]

Thanks for the write up! You should submit this as an article.

+1, I Agree You Should Submit This, If you do and they use it you can receive a free 1 year membership to HBT.com

Thank You so much for the wonderful test and the great descriptions, I use MO exclusively, don't like US 2 row, you have inspired me to try a batch with Golden Promise and possibly other base grains.

We really like malty flavorful beers with mouthfeel.

Thanks Again !

Cheers

 

[ndrice]

Thanks for the good feedback! I hope my descriptions made sense.

 

[Malty_Dog]

This is great stuff. I used Golden promise recently in a pale ale because my LHBS shockingly was out of US 2-row (first time I ever experienced that). I agree its tasty and was in no way a step down. Not surprised about the MO, I really like it though. Everything has its place . This was fun to read.

 

[Seven]

Great job! I really like the Thomas Fawcett malts.

 

[phuff7129]

+1 golden promise. I used gp in an ESB and a mild and really liked. Brewed the same beers with MO and while good the malt profile was not as well rounded as the gp.
I also brew an imperial ipa that has always seemed to be missing something. Great hop profile but the malt was just not right. Brewed it replacing the 2 row with GP and its absolutely amazing!

 

[gbarron]

Nice study, thank you!

I have tried MO, GP, and Optic and agree with many of your impressions. I know a lot of people use MO in virtually all of their beers, but I can't get past its "nutty" character in hoppy beers. I think MO works great in English styles, stouts, etc., or when mixed with another, more neutral malt like American 2-row/pale ale.

Agree that GP is a very sweet malt. I used it in a N. English brown ale, American stout, Wee Heavy, and RIS. The sweetness is very evident. So evident that some have mistaken my American-style stout for a sweet stout (with 70+ IBU's and a pound of roasted barley!). The Wee Heavy is also a bit too sweet even though it fits all the BJCP style parameters. Optic I found to be pretty neutral.

 

[mcspanner]

Great write up, thanks for taking the time to do this.

Many of the recipes I find use 2 row as the base malt, which is fine if you have access to us 2-row. Here, in the uk, we don't. All the uk forums suggest optic as a substitute in American recipes. What's your feeling on this advice, I'm keen to try and clone SN torpedo but all the recipes start off with good ol' US 2-row.

 

[ndrice]

Great write up, thanks for taking the time to do this.

Many of the recipes I find use 2 row as the base malt, which is fine if you have access to us 2-row. Here, in the uk, we don't. All the uk forums suggest optic as a substitute in American recipes. What's your feeling on this advice, I'm keen to try and clone SN torpedo but all the recipes start off with good ol' US 2-row.

Optic was a bit rougher than 2-row. More grainy, but still very neutral compared to the other malts. For a beer as hop-centric as SN Torpedo, I think you'd be fine to use it as a sub for American 2-row.

 

[ndrice]

Thanks for all the positive support and feedback on this experiment! It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I was able to broaden my appreciation for different base malts. Based on all of your suggestions to submit this as an article I went ahead and did just that.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/entries/English-Base-malt-comparison.html

Pretty much my posts from this thread with some more looking into the different barley varieties.

This website (http://barley.agricrops.org/menu.php?) was a great resource for barley varieties and where they came from.

Like, who knew there were Maris Dingo, Maris Puma or Maris Mink barley varieties?