Beer Forum

I was wondering if anybody had tried using Ashburne as the base malt for an English bitter - I was considering substituting Ahsburne for Maris Otter in a bitter I'd like to brew...

Looks interesting. I've never used this malt before, but I think I might give it a go sometime.

I'd go with a more attenuative yeast, though, because it says the malt tends to the sweet side. 002/1968 might leave too much residual sweetness in that case. 1098, 007, or 005 might be better suited with this base malt, only because they will attenuate more.

Also be aware the Diastatic power of this malt is reported at 65.
(For comparison, 2 row is 140 and Munich is 40. Crisp Maris Otter is around 80.)
I don't know your recipe but some Bitter recipes call for adjuncts. This malt will self convert but it will be slow and it won't handle much adjunct.
You might want to add a little 2 row (maybe a lb or 2) just for the security of the extra DP.

HTH-

It's not really a base malt, I have made a test beer with it. It's much darker than the Briess pale or real "Maris Otter". It's more like a Light Munich in color and taste than a pale. My conclusion is use the Breiss Pale is better for basemalt if you want make an British type beer with American malt. There is no way to duplicate the Contintial flavors in "Maris otter" and weyerman malts using American malts.

If you want to use more American 2-row and get it taste like Maris Otter try this mixture in place of the maris otter in your recipe. (yes there is still some Maris Otter in it )

7 pounds 2-row
2.5 pounds Marris Otter
.5 pounds melinodin malt

This replacement is a little darker per once so you might want to lighten up the color in your recipe.