Pale Ale Malt vs Maris Otter vs Munich Malt

[UpsidedownA (Andrew)]

I recently did an experiment comparing Weyermann Pale ale malt with Weyermann Munich malt and Muntons Maris Otter pale ale malt. The beers were all single hop single malt, produced as alike as possible 65˚C 60 minute infusion mash, bittered to 29 BUs with Northdown whole leaf hops and fermented with Safale S-04. OG 43 FG11 ABV 4.3%

Taste wise they are all thoroughly dull beers. The Maris Otter and the Pale malt are pretty much identical in appearance. The Munich is noticeably darker. The hop aroma is marginally more noticeable on the pale ale than the maris Otter and the Munich is slightly more malty smelling. The Maris Otter is sweeter tasting than the Pale, which is almost lager-like (maybe there is a just over threshold amounts of DMS in the pale beer). The munich ale is sweeter but not by much than the maris otter. I'm not sure I have the vocabulary to do a good job of describing the differences. Basic take home point: Maris Otter tastes noticeably different from Weyermann pale ale malt and similar but not identical to Munich malt. But I don't think it tastes BETTER than either of the others. Probably of the three, the pale ale malt is the most interesting as it stands although the other two might be a better base for a fruity IPA.

If anyone wants to try them, I have a good few bottles left (500ml amber swing tops). I will happily swap them for home brew (in 500ml amber swing tops).

[Shane Phelan]

I would definitely be interested to taste the difference between the 3. It seems that Maris Otter is definitely overrated for what it actually is.

[UpsidedownA (Andrew)]

Cool. You can have some anytime. Or maybe I can bring some along to a meet.

[molc]

Mci seemed to suggest the same thing yesterday at the conference as well...

[Qs]

I could be way off but I get the feeling Maris Otter gets bigged up by the yanks because american 2-row has much less character than European malt. Though that's a guess coz Ive never used US 2-row.