Surly Bitter Brewer Grain Substitutions

[chainlife]

I absolutely love me some Surly Bitter Brewer in the Summertime! I found a recipe online which is the following:

4# thomas fawcett optic
3# canada malting pale ale malt
.75# simpsons golden naked oats
0.38# english medium crystal
0.05 english roasted barley

Sacch Rest: 153 deg for 60 min
Mashout: 168 deg

.25oz Glacier FWH
.5oz Warrior 90 min
1.75oz Glacier 0 min
2.5oz Glacier DH

Wyeast 1335

My issue is I cannot find the Fawcett Optic. Is there an acceptable substitution for this? Can I modify another grain (roasting/smoking/etc.) to approximate Fawcett Optic? Any help is appreciated as this is a fantastic beer that many people would enjoy! Thanks

 

[Eucrid]

Fawcett Optic is English so Maris Otter is probably your best bet.

 

[sumbrewindude]

Pearl or Golden Promise would be adequate substitutes.

 

[solbes]

Hard to say as I have never used it and I doubt many have. I would guess base malt plays a big part in a low gravity bitter like that. Why don't you just ship the kit from NB, which is the origin of the recipe?

I have bought the ingredients a'la carte from their sister store Midwest Supplies made to NB's Furious and Bender recipes. Close enough to the originals, but not quite perfect. Hoping to have a chance to improve on both when I tweak the recipes this spring.

 

[mrdauber64]

Northern Brewer got the recipe directly from Surly. Here is the All-Grain recipe:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/surly-bitter-brewer-pro-series-all-grain-kit.html

 

[chainlife]

I bought the hops in bulk ahead of time, so I'm trying to avoid getting their kit, I'm trying to not get bent over on the grain either, so pretty close is all I am really shooting for.

 

[solbes]

Ok, then I'd go on the description of Optic. Link below states:

Fawcett Optic (2.3-3.0°L)
Optic is a barley variety widely grown in the United Kingdom. Our customers have been impressed with its highly aromatic qualities.

http://www.countrymaltgroup.com/fawcettmalting.asp

Midwest Supplies states for Optic:

Adds a degree of biscuit flavor. Brighter and lighter in flavor than Pearl, a great malt for the production of Real Ales.

Its a little tricky in this one since the gravity is so low. With most Surly beers, the hopping and crystal/kilned malts mask some of the flavors from the base malt. Probably not the case here. I'd go with Fawcett Pearl if you can find it. MO would probably be your next best bet.

 

[chainlife]

I can get pearl, mo, and golden promise, I'll try one batch using each as the base and will report my findings from side by sides per batch. I really want to nail a cheaper & easier to find equivalent GB down so people can make this cheap and easy