# Substitute For British 2-row Pale Malt



## andytork (27/10/08)

As title

Whats the best grain substitute for a british 2-row pale malt ? 

I have a couple of partials and an AG I want to try for my first AG so want to try as per recipe as close as poss.

Hope someone can help

Thanks

Andy


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## dr K (27/10/08)

Technically, you really should use it if you can..but having said that it is early days and you will have so many other points to fine tune that you should not worry.
Australian Pale malt will be fine, commonly you will find JoeWhite, IMC and Barrett Burston.
There is plenty of UK pale around though, see the sponsors...

K


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## Aaron (27/10/08)

You can source Golden Promise and Marris Otter locally, so why not use the real thing?


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## buttersd70 (27/10/08)

Agree with aaron, british 2 row such as marris otter is easily available, so may as well use it. If using aussie malts...yes it makes a difference, but it still makes great beer.


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## andytork (27/10/08)

Thanks all for replies, I did search the sponsor sites, but its not obvious from the grain descriptions that it could be described as a british two row.

Is there a list of whats what, or is it just a search on a case by case basis

Thanks for the help

Andy


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## buttersd70 (27/10/08)

Andy
I take it you are looking at a recipe that is American in origin, as the Americans are the only ones (that I'm aware of) that will refer to it as 2 row (even though thats what it is.) 

The Americans also use 6 row barley for some things, but this isn't normally something used in Aust, UK or Europe. So we normally just refer to 2 row barley as base malt. So when an American says "English 2 row", they just mean English base malt. And this can mean one of several (usually ale) malt varieties. Maris otter, golden promise, perle, halcyon, etc, are all british 2 row varieties, and all have subtle differences. If a recipe just says 'english 2 row', without saying which specific one, it's probably a fairly safe bet that maris otter is what they are referring to.

Some of the main malts that you will see out in Australia are
Bairds - English
Thomas Fawcett - English
Joe white - Australian
Barret Burston - Australian
Weyermann - German

There are comprehensive lists of the various malts by manufacturer and country of origin in beer recipe programmes like beersmith and promash, and there are quite a few lists available online that give more generalised descriptions, specifically one of the articles on this forum which is here


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## dr K (27/10/08)

Pretty much all of the barley varieties that are used for making malting barley, and thus malted barley are two row (its a description of the way the head looks).
Six row barley is pretty much only grown in the good old US, I think because it suits the high adjunct (rice , corn etc) regimes of American Mega Brews..not sure.
For our purposes all of of our malting barley is 2-row, so the 2-row is in fact redundant, its sort of like saying "malting quality British Barley" rather than "British Barley. Of course then we have Winter and Spring...
but yes, Maris Otter, Halcyon, Golden Promise etc are all available and are all British 2 row malts.

K


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## andytork (28/10/08)

buttersd70 said:


> Some of the main malts that you will see out in Australia are
> Bairds - English
> Thomas Fawcett - English
> Joe white - Australian
> ...



Thats pretty much what I was looking for thanks. Sometimes when you go researching you end up with a little too much information that masks what you are really looking for.

Thanks heaps

Andy


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## buttersd70 (28/10/08)

No worries andy

Just don't get too hung up on feeling the need to use English malt in an English, German malt in a German, etc. As you get more familiar with the malt varieties, and how their flavours interact in your recipes, you will get a feel for what you can sub to give you a similar character. Subtle differences in the malt flavour can really only be detected if the mash regimen, the hopping, and the yeast strain allow those flavors to be detected in the first place.


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## cubbie (12/2/09)

buttersd70 said:


> Andy
> I take it you are looking at a recipe that is American in origin, as the Americans are the only ones (that I'm aware of) that will refer to it as 2 row (even though thats what it is.)
> 
> The Americans also use 6 row barley for some things, but this isn't normally something used in Aust, UK or Europe. So we normally just refer to 2 row barley as base malt. So when an American says "English 2 row", they just mean English base malt. And this can mean one of several (usually ale) malt varieties. Maris otter, golden promise, perle, halcyon, etc, are all british 2 row varieties, and all have subtle differences. If a recipe just says 'english 2 row', without saying which specific one, it's probably a fairly safe bet that maris otter is what they are referring to.
> ...




Does anyone have a Promash Malt Import File with details of the above grains? My current grain database does not include Bairds and Barret Burston


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## cubbie (13/2/09)

cubbie said:


> Does anyone have a Promash Malt Import File with details of the above grains? My current grain database does not include Bairds and Barret Burston



Anyone?


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## drsmurto (13/2/09)

Beersmith users have been waiting for the bairds malts for a while now......  .. the BB malts are available.

Not sure about promash


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## domonsura (13/2/09)

There's an australian file for promash here, it has the Joe White malts in it. Barrett burston aren't in there though, and neither are the Bairds. You might need to add them manually.

That link is direct to the promash site, you'll need to download that and import it into your Promash program.


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## cubbie (13/2/09)

Cheers, but i have that one. Guess it is manual input. Anyone have the grain specs?


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