Maris Otter Substitute: US 2-Row + Specialty Grains ?

[Oktober]

A conversation with a friend of mine got me thinking: is it possible to use US 2-Row and one or more specialty malts (i.e. Victory malt, Biscuit malt, etc) to replicate the flavors associated with Maris Otter or other English pale malt as a base malt? Can you achieve that flavor by just adding some kilned malt to the relatively weaker flavored US base malt? I have a sack of US 2-Row that is waiting to be used, so I've been noodling it for a while.

As an experiment, I’m thinking about brewing an English pale ale and trying this theory out. Right now I thinking of using Victory malt (0.5 lbs per 5 gallons) to add to the 2-Row as the English pale malt substitute – has anyone else tried this in the past? Any suggestions?

I appreciate it.

Slainte!

-Okt

[Chupa LaHomebrew]

I think you can get a similar (not the exact same) profile by blending in some munich. Victory has a pretty discernible taste of its own, so not that it would be bad in an english pale but for what you are talking about, I would try 2-row and munich. Maybe 10-15% munich in place of pale?

[BDawg]

I like the munich idea but also I'd put a touch of biscuit in there.

[siwelwerd]

Biscuit and Victory more so than Munich, in my opinion. Try brewing some test batches, with just the two row and some combination of those three, some simple hopping. Even better if you can do a side by side with a beer that is 100% Maris Otter. With some experimentation I imagine you can get reasonably close.

[thatguy314]

I find maris otter differs fairly substantially between malsters as well, so don't worry about replicating Crisp or Muntons. Just worry about making a malt profile that has the characteristics you want.

IMO a light hand with biscuit (biscuity), munich (toasty), and vienna (bready) would work well. I would use american munich 10 instead of german munich 10, as it has a milder flavor and is not quite so agressively toasty.

[Cliff]

IMO a light hand

Light as in half pound increments in a 10 pound grain bill?

[Hoser]

Listening to the Firestone Walker episodes of CYBI, I believe Matt Bryndilson of Firestone Walker addressed this subject. I think that is why their pale ale and IPA recipes are 85% 2-row, 10% munich, and 5% carapils. A friend and I recently brewed an IPA with this grain bill and it turned out phenomenally! I will probably do it for all of my IPAs from now on going forward, very clean, malty, balanced, and simple!

[Thirsty Boy]

I found through making malt teas, you can address this issue quite well. I use autralian domestic pale lager malt for every brew i make (get it for free) so decided i needed to learn how to get decent flavour out of the stuff and to replicate "other" base malts where they would be appropriate.

I found that by tasting and blending malt teas - you can come fairly close to assembling something like a marris otter or other more flavoursome malt profile from the stock malt and some specialties.

For me, my malt plus about two percent bairds amber malt, was very very similar to bairds marris otter. Another brand of amber malt... Different, but still in the ball park for the "type" of difference between the base malts.

So - peerhaps Amber malt as a quick answer. make some malt teas and experiment as a thorough answer.