Maris Otter vs. Pale Malt

[Burlyman]

I like oats in an IPA...

is it for texture or...?

 

[Clint]

Gives a thick,silky mouth feel..

 

[JohnB]

OP writes about the differences between base malts. I struggle with tastes and couldn't tell the difference between one base malt and another; but my grandfather grew malting barley for Bateman's of Wainfleet on "The Chalk" of the Lincolnshire Wolds. At that time ('cos it was a while ago) he grew Golden Promise which is really a Whisky barley, and still much grown in Scotland for that trade, I understand. Long gone are the days when a farmer grew for a brewery, rather than for a maltster. I have used M.O. and G.P. and now use Crisp's Pale Ale Malt and to be honest, perhaps a slightly lighter colour than G.P. which I'd class as the Rolls Royce of malts - but I'm obviously biassed and I don't apologize for that! Personally unless you are brewing to express a single malt beer, with no adjuncts then I'd always suggest going with the cheapest base malt and spend money on good crystals and modifieds. If you are brewing to taste individual barleys, then buy the finest and freshest you can get your hands on.

@MyQul UK are a chief exporter of malts around the world. We import bread wheat, we import some feed barley, but UK malt is the finest anywhere. Have a look at the ukmalt -dot -com website. I suppose because we also import some European malts it is wrong to say we are our own sole producer of malt, but on an import/export basis we are a net exporter of this fine UK farmers product.

 

[Cwrw666]

If you took animal feed grade malted barley, ground it up, soaked it in hot water for an hour, then boiled the runnings for an hour and made beer with it, what might be the consequences?

Don't know about malted barley but straight barley for animal feed is often sprayed with such products as `propcorn' which kind of smells like vinegar. It allows barley to be stored at a higher moisture content than would otherwise be possible thus saving the cost of drying the grain down to the correct moisture content.
You wouldn't want to make beer with it!

 

[Tony Palmer]

Maris Otter is what the professionals call very forgiving. i.e. slight temperature issues are no problem and it malts well so tends to be a very even malt. The downside is that you pay more for Otter. Providing it has not been a difficult year (barley growing conditions) then using a malt sourced from a reliable source is OK, but make sure the strike temperature and hot liquor supply are adequate and in range.