difference between otter v golden promise?

[slurp the apprentice]

Can anyone enlighten me regarding the difference between pearl ;maris otter and golden promise.I tend to brew pale ales and have used pearl and m/otter without being aware of any flavour difference.Its only been since using this forum i realised there was alternatives to pearl and m/otter. I now know most of my favourite beers use golden promise , is this why i like them ? or would their flavour remain little changed if pearl or maris otter were used instead ?

[RabMaxwell]

Hello Slurp i normally use Marris but my favourite is Golden Promise it gives a more intense malty flavour than Marris does.Very good for scottish ales harder to get though even for me and i live in Scotland.Since muntons closed at Kirkaldy Fife i think my next supplier will be one that sells Golden Promise once i get through the 10 sacks of marris i have left.Cheers

[slurp the apprentice]

Thanks for your helpful replies but i am still in the dark about pearl?

[BigEd]

Thanks for your helpful replies but i am still in the dark about pearl?

Pearl is a standard brewing barley variety and is quite good. Muton's Pale Malt is produced from pearl I believe.

[johnmac]

My mother used to put pearl barely in her stews. They were truly horrible. Hope that helps!

[mysterio]

I used Golden Promise for the first time today so I'll get back to you on that.

[SteveD]

Rab, The Hop and Grape stock Golden Promise at £1.35/kg <3kg £1.20/KG at 3Kg and over. They will sell 25Kg sacks at a better price still. I have no idea what a canny Scot such as yourself might have been getting it at, but if you want it and can't get it elsewhere, it doesn't seem too bad. Supplied whole or crushed.

Maris, Optic, GP, Pearl, Halcyon, Pipkin,....who knows. I doubt the differences are drastic, and if there is a lot of roast or heavy hopping I doubt you could tell the diffrence reliably.

Many many brewers and maltsters are of the opinion that Maris Otter is the best brewing barley in the world. Almost revered. Who am I to argue with them

Golden Promise is primarily a whisky malt, if I'm not mistaken. The Scots do use it for ale, it's true, but historically that may well be because, being indigenous, it was cheaper to use that than import high quality English barleys, rather than because it was any better. Similarly, the characteristic lower hop rates used in traditional Scottish ales can possibly be attributed to the expense of quality hops yet again added to the expense of importing them.

Scottish thrift determining beer character?

[RabMaxwell]

I know steveD i got some from them years ago. But being a frugal scotsman i buy my bits & bobs from hop & grape. Malt from maltsters & yeast & hops from Charles Farms i even sparge my hops.Muntons at Kirkcaldy shut down so i need to go somewhere else. Next nearest one is haddington should be able to get my Golden Promise from them when my last 8 sacks of maris go. Cheers

[SteveD]

I know steveD i got some from them years ago. But being a

frugal scotsman

i buy my bits & bobs from hop & grape. Malt from maltsters & yeast & hops from Charles Farms i even sparge my hops.Muntons at Kirkcaldy shut down so i need to go somewhere else. Next nearest one is haddington should be able to get my Golden Promise from them when my last 8 sacks of maris go. Cheers

Frugal Scotsman....the finest sort! If it wasn't for that, Whisky wouldn't taste the way it does. Re-using the foreshots and feints is frugality, but contributes to the flavour. So thank Christ for that! And who else would stuff a sheeps stomach with it's lungs and other bits, to eat with said whisky, if only on Burns night.

I got the feeling you'd not be paying homebrew supplier prices, but I though it worth a mention anyway.

Cheers,

Steve

[onlooker]

The marris otter from Bairds seems to add alot of colour and malty residual sweetness when compared to pearl or lager malts. I have just started experimenting with golden promise also from Bairds, and it seems to be alot lighter in colour than the marris otter, as a result I have started using it for my IPA recipe, I will probibly use it for my golden summer ale recipe aswell.

Ofcourse the colour is more a result of how the barly has been malted than the barley variety itself.