Is Marris Otter worth the extra cost??

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brrman

brrman

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My LHBS sells rahr 2-row for $38/bag, but the MO is $61/bag!!!:eek:

Is it really worth the extra cost to buy MO at that price?? Holy crap. I have never used MO, so don't really know what I'm missing.
 
I prefer MO over 2-row for most beers, but then again I get it for $40 per bag. The 2 row runs me around $30-35.
 
I like it. The price difference is around 50¢ a pound, so probably less than $5 for a 5 gallon batch. I think it's worth it, especially for a Brittish beer. I wouldn't do an ESB without it.
 
It's good for certain styles of beer, but not a necessity for most. That $38 two row is more than fine for just about every brew.

Unless you plan on brewing lots of British style beers, I'd stick with the cheaper stuff.
 
McKBrew said:
It's good for certain styles of beer, but not a necessity for most. That $38 two row is more than fine for just about every brew.

Unless you plan on brewing lots of British style beers, I'd stick with the cheaper stuff.
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I'd agree. You can always round out your recipe with some munich as well. It'll help up the malt presence.
 
jldc said:
I like it. The price difference is around 50¢ a pound, so probably less than $5 for a 5 gallon batch. I think it's worth it, especially for a Brittish beer. I wouldn't do an ESB without it.
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That's good to know, cuz ESB is on deck for me. Perhaps I should just buy enough for that recipe so I can check it out and see for myself.

I am not complaining about my current brews - I think I can get great malt presence with a mix of 2-row and spec grains. But I have been wondering about that "unique" taste some people say they get from MO.
 
If you brew British, use British malts (MO is not the only one.) Same for German or Belgian. When brewing American use what ever malt you like. It's the land of the free you know. I like mine with pale 2-row.
 
I like MO and most of the beer I brew is light on specialty grains so I kick in the few dollars more for the Maris Otter. Big difference in a Maris Otter SMaSH from a US2row SMaSH.
 
I love the flavor of Maris Otter - lovely toasty, biscuity notes; it's my most frequently used base malt, because I brew mostly UK ales.

A Bitter made with 100% Maris Otter and Fuggles is sublime.
 
Yes, it's worth it. Becoming my base grain of choice. Find some folks to go in on a group buy, everything's cheaper that way.
 
You can get Thomas Fawcett MO for $40.24 a bag here (it's a pdf catalog). But that doesn't include shipping.;) I think it's worth it, but what do I know?... I typically brew 50% British ales and 50% German lagers. My 2 base malts are MO and German Pilsener. I've never brewed with Am. 2-row.
 
Looking at the latest issue of Zymurgy I noticed that a lot, maybe 75%? of the gold medal recipes from the NHC this year were based on Maris Otter instead of 2-row.
 
The sad thing is...

You can get 55 pounds of 2-Row for $27 at Mid Country Malt....

Same bag of Pilsner for $36
MO for $40...

I keep hearing LHBS saying they dont make money on malt... really?

I can buy it for $.65 per pound and you sell it for $1.50 or so per pound? Or, $65 per sack bulk price? Mmmhmmmm :drunk:
 
The Pol said:
I keep hearing LHBS saying they dont make money on malt... really?

I can buy it for $.65 per pound and you sell it for $1.50 or so per pound? Or, $65 per sack bulk price? Mmmhmmmm :drunk:
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Sounds like the Marine shops saying they don't make money all salt... when they're selling it for $60 a bucket, and you can get it for $30 online.



Saying Maris Otter is better than 2-row is like saying Munich is better than 2-row, or Vienna is better than 2-row. Its just a different base malt. Its apples and oranges.
 
I like the MO as well but I don't know if I could justify the cost unless I was making a lot of bitters. I do suggest you buy a couple of pounds for a single recipe because I think you will like it.
 
The Pol said:
The sad thing is...

You can get 55 pounds of 2-Row for $27 at Mid Country Malt....

Same bag of Pilsner for $36
MO for $40...

I keep hearing LHBS saying they dont make money on malt... really?

I can buy it for $.65 per pound and you sell it for $1.50 or so per pound? Or, $65 per sack bulk price? Mmmhmmmm :drunk:
Click to expand...

Actually I talked to a guy at the somewhat local HBS, and I told him the prices we got, and he said that is cheaper than his distributor(LD carlson) sells it to him for. He showed me an invoice and 50lbs of **** briess 2-row was way over the $25 that you and I paid for 55lbs.

So after looking at that I think that either a) briess thinks their really ****ty malt is better than some of the top german malsters(yes it was more than the pils to) or b) LDC who is the middleman in this, is really really jacking up the prices to homebrewers. Or possibly a combination of the two. Isn't that nice considering both companies, I think, do most of their business with homebrewers?


On topic however, there is no substitute for quality malts from where they are supposed to be from. Just tapped an Ordinary Bitter tonight. 6lbs MO .5lb 60L. Wonderful. Try it out in an English ale, I don't think you will be disappointed.
 
well, I went ahead and bought the sack of MO. Brewed an ESB with it tonight. Hopefully it wins me over!
 
The Pol said:
I think MO is awesssooooommmee
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Dude forgot to mention - the O'fest party is cancelled. My wife has some craziness at work and now has to work that date - and her schedule is so unpredictable right now that its no good to plan anything.

Sucks...
 
brrman said:
Dude forgot to mention - the O'fest party is cancelled. My wife has some craziness at work and now has to work that date - and her schedule is so unpredictable right now that its no good to plan anything.

Sucks...
Click to expand...

Bummer man... although, I am no longer on call... which also means that I had to give up weekends off to hold a real schedule. No parties for me
 

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