I just sunk 75 plus shipping into a big sack of Maris Otter. I plan on keeping it for English bitters only and using domestic pale or pils for other stuff. But here's my question...MO can run nearing twice as costly as domestic pale malts...I haven't done enough side by side experiments to really know, but is it really worth it? Is there a significant difference between a bitter brewed with, say, 7 lbs of MO versus 7 lbs of Rahr two row? I would anticipate that there would be, and I am a lover of good, subtle bitter, hence my actually buying it. But we as homebrewers often do things out of superstition, too, so I could also see a possibility of the MO not having a big difference in beer flavor, even though I think it unlikely.
Any opinions on that?