Help with Maris Otter

Hi,

My local homebrew shop doesn't sell Maris Otter LME but I want to make a recipe that calls for 9.15 lbs of it. I am thinking of using either Victory or Biscuit malt in combo with Light LME to get close to Maris Otter. Thoughts?

Another problem, the recipe calls for 3.15 lbs of Maris Otter at the beginning of the boil and then 6 lbs with 20 minutes left in the boil. Would you then steep some of the Victory/Biscuit at the beginning and then steep the rest at the 40 minute mark?

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated! Thank you.

1) I'm sure someone will chime in who's done it. Swear I've read today about people doing this in a pinch.

2)You would steep it all at the beginning. The purpose of late boil additions for malt sugars is almost always to affect bittering. By adding some of your sugars late, you will increase your bitterness with the same amount of hops. Also, some people late addition malt sugars to avoid caramelization, which is sometimes desirable, and sometimes not.

This was in the last growler
http://growlermag.com/homebrew-recipe-scotch-ale-issue5/

16 lbs English Maris Otter pale malt (good alternatives would be Simpsons Golden Promise or Fawcett Optic – consult your LHBS)

The only place I know of that has Maris Otter extract is Northern Brewer. They have pretty reasonable pricing and shipping, so if you need other stuff you could order it from them. Otherwise, I think 2-row and biscuit/victory would help get the flavor you're looking for.

Steeping always happens before the boil. I like to toss my steeping grain bag into cold water and steep it until the temperature is 160F, or you can heat it up to 150-160 and steep at that temp for a half hour. They're suggesting you add a portion of the LME at the beginning and the rest at the end of the boil to help with hop utilization, but that's ONLY if you can't do a full boil. If you're boiling 6+ gallons of wort, add all your extract at the beginning.

just use standard lme....if you don't want to steep like others have suggested...victory/biscuit is not a substitute for MO....

I personally can't tell a difference between MO and standard 2 row....maybe someone with a refined palate can but its a similar enough I doubt it will change your recipe too much

Just my 2 cents