british pale ale malt vs american 2 row

Is there a big difference? Can one be substituted for the other?

Short answer: yes, with a ‘but.’ Long answer: no, with an ‘if.’ What kind of beer are you making? There’s not a big difference, but there is difference. Yes, you can use it but it won’t taste exactly the same. If you’re not trying to brew a clone of a British beer, it’ll be fine. It’s kinda like the difference between pils and 2-row. In a stout it doesn’t matter. In a pilsner it matters a lot.

To minimize the difference, find North American 2-row Pale Ale malt.  If it says Pale Ale it has been kilned darker than the 2-row brewers malt.  The British Pale Ale malts are kilned to 3 to 4.5 L.  NA 2-row brewers malt will be in the 2 L range.

You have the differences in the barley variety, then the difference in how it has been processed in the malting steps.

I agree, even the Briess pale ale malt is pretty good. I’d say, for my tastes, the American varieties have a more “cookie” like taste and the British has a more “biscuit” like taste. The differences might be subtle of you are not sure what you are looking for, but for simple beers such as OrdinAry biter it can make all the difference in the word. Hop bomb American ipa, not so much.

I had an ale made with a low color Maris Otter malt.  The ale had a very round malt flavor, no biscuit or toasty flavors. Gave me a better feel for what the variety brings to the party.

It was Dark Star’s American Pale ale.

Don’t British people call cookies ‘biscuits?’

Crisp and Thomas fawcett are the only Maris otter malts I’ve ever had that I really got a distinct flavor from. Both of them are floor malted, maybe that’s the difference.

Planning a bitter with floor malted Warminster MO at 4.5 L, once some kegs open up.  I hear the Glenn Eagles is good stuff too.

Absolutely.

The Warminster MO is good, and floor malted.

The difference beteen English biscuit and American cookie is the sweetness. Whatever the hell you want to call it it is two completely different things.