Help with grain substitutions for Arrogant Bastard clone

[niall]

The US has some wonderful beers and has been leading the way in the whole microbrew/brewpub revolution for some years. It's unfortunate that its biggest selling beers are carefully marketed slop. However the likes of Sam Adams and SNPA have become very successful and can be found on tap all over the States so it just proves it can be done. Small breweries producing flavourful beer had all but disappeared there until the microbreweries started to take off. This also mirrors the situation in Ireland which had loads of breweries a hundred years ago which have nearly all been killed off by the big boys market dominance. Hopefully we'll follow the lead the US microbrews have given. Judging by the variety of great British beers available it seems that a lot of smaller breweries in the UK have survived very well - is this the case?

[niall]

I think the reason micros are thriving here is because the get tax breaks that the large brewerys dont get. If current trends are anything to go by they will get swallowed up by the large brewerys once the get very sucsessfull

That's interesting, the same tax breaks were introduced over here a couple of years ago; I wonder if the micros here cast an envious eye across the Irish Sea and lobbied for similar treatment.

It would be a shame to think that the big boys would take them over. If the beer itself remains the same then it may not be a bad thing but I suppose there are no guarantees.

I would be quite happy drinking Sam Adams - its not my favourite lager by any means but I don't dislike it. Given the choice between it and the Bud/Miller/Coors brigade I would take it anytime. SNPA on the other hand is one of my favourite beers.

[monk]

Yeah, Maris Otter is generally considered a more premium malt, in fact I think you pay quite a bit more for it in the US than the standard base malt. It's supposed to be a bit 'maltier'.

This is true. Over here we're told you should always try to use Maris for your bitters and other ales with origins in the UK. American 2-row is less flavorful, I've heard. This would explain why Budweiser likes it so much...heaven forbid some flavor might sneak into a bottle of Bud and distract you from the effervescent aroma of horse pee.

In it's defence, though, American 2-row is great for american style ales where you want to emphasize the hop flavor and aroma, with less maltiness.

monk

[eskimobob]

I've heard a podcast with the guy from Whitelabs and he said that it is not necessary to make a starter - just pitch the vial. According to him (and if I understood correctly), if you do make a starter then it should be around a 1 litre or larger starter otherwise you will not have enough fermentables to get yeast reproduction going based on the population count in a Whitelabs vial.

I have always made a starter with the Whitelabs I've used so far.

[steve_flack]

if you do make a starter then it should be around a 1 litre or larger starter otherwise you will not have enough fermentables to get yeast reproduction going based on the population count in a Whitelabs vial.

IIRC to get the right yeast count for 5 gallons of lager you're looking at up to a gallon size starter - which is a lot. Obviously with ales the starter can be quite a bit smaller and often to get the right flavour in ales you need to make the yeast work a bit so overpitching could end up with a dull tasting beer. With lagers you're looking for clean flavors=not stressing the yeast=big starter.