Hi Guys,
Is there a difference, (there must be!) between the various pale malts around, like optic, golden promise, maris otter and so forth?
So what properties/traits do these bring to a beer?
Cheers All,
Alex
Pale Malt Confusion.
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lancsSteve
Re: Pale Malt Confusion.
There are colour, flacvour and extract potential difficulties. Someone else here will know a lot more and have more experience but some trypical differences are:
Marris Otter - most expensive (usually, especially on large scale) hardest to gow, most highly prized for flavour and low nitrogen. 'Best of British' for ales. Usually malted to 4L but some maltsters do a low colour version.
Golden promise - lighter coloured than normal Marris Otter - used in Tim Taylors and some other summer ales with lgiht colour (though lighter coloured MO is the same colour)
Optic - typically a French grown version is used in Belgian Saisons... Reportedly gives a little more body than MO.
Lager malts are lighter in colour.
Other malts are richer in malt flavour and darker in colour such as mild ale malt...
For recipe formulation terms they are pretty interchangeable but will each give a particular nuance of flavour and colour to a beer.
See other threads on this topic here such as: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=37277
Marris Otter - most expensive (usually, especially on large scale) hardest to gow, most highly prized for flavour and low nitrogen. 'Best of British' for ales. Usually malted to 4L but some maltsters do a low colour version.
Golden promise - lighter coloured than normal Marris Otter - used in Tim Taylors and some other summer ales with lgiht colour (though lighter coloured MO is the same colour)
Optic - typically a French grown version is used in Belgian Saisons... Reportedly gives a little more body than MO.
Lager malts are lighter in colour.
Other malts are richer in malt flavour and darker in colour such as mild ale malt...
For recipe formulation terms they are pretty interchangeable but will each give a particular nuance of flavour and colour to a beer.
See other threads on this topic here such as: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=37277
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boingy
Re: Pale Malt Confusion.
It's not something I've really experimented with but I suspect you'll only really notice the difference if your recipe is designed to "feature" that malt. In other words, if it does not get swamped by the other (speciality) malts in the recipe. I have heard it said that some pro brewers don't really care what the base malt is. They just consider it to be the main source of fermentables, and that all the character and flavour comes from the additions like black, choc, crystal plus the usual stuff like yeast and mash schedule. Obviously this applies to some beer types more than others. And in the other corner I suspect you will find some tasting "experts" who will claim they can tell you the type of barley, what time the barley was harvested and the head brewer's middle name...
The answer is to brew with some and see. Use only the base malt plus a "middling" hop schedule. Just make sure that the base malt really is a base malt and that it has enough of them there enzyme things to be able to convert itself....
The answer is to brew with some and see. Use only the base malt plus a "middling" hop schedule. Just make sure that the base malt really is a base malt and that it has enough of them there enzyme things to be able to convert itself....
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lancsSteve
Re: Pale Malt Confusion.
And use either a neutral yeast or one that emphasises the malt - but the differences will likely be v. v. v. subtle.