gingerbread beer - substitution for base malt

[ninkasi2012]

hey everyone, I'm thinking of brewing a gingerbread beer i found.

the recipe is:
76% english pale ale
4% chocolate
10 % cara 40
10% cara 80
hops = centennial and hallertau
other = cinnamon, cloves, candied ginger
and i'm using a nottingham yeast

my local homebrew doesn't have english pale ale - should i substitute 2 row or marris otter? I find 2 row is a bit light but might work since i'm using some chocolate and cara 40/80.

thoughts?

i would like to have a bit of a body to this so I was thinking of mashing at 153-151. however i do have some lactose - what do you think if i put a little bit in right before i bottle - maybe 1/2 pounds for 5G batch? if i do this i might mash at a slight lower temperature.

thanks in advance for any feedback.

 

[Yooper]

Maris otter is a fine English two-row, and that would work great. I'd mash at 154 or so for that grainbill.

I'm not a fan of lactose, but if the beer needs to be sweetened, you could add it at bottling.