What is a good base malt?
Depending on what your looking for:
Optic is as malty as you can get.
Pearl is the UK equiv of Rahr pale.
Golden promise has a touch of biscuit but lots of apple.
Halcyon is a very clean UK lager malt w/o the DMS
Dingeman pale is like cross between MO and Optic and a little darker than the rest.
Barley is the fourth most important grain crop in the United States. Barley is one of the oldest cultivated grains. Grains found in pits and pyramids in Egypt indicate that barley was cultivated there more than 5000 years ago.
Half the barley grown in the US gets used for livestock feed. As feed it is nearly equal in nutritive value to kernel corn. It is especially valuable as hog feed, giving desirable portions of firm fat and lean meat. The entire kernel is used in feed, generally after grinding or steam rolling. Malt sprouts from malting as well as brewers grain–byproducts of brewing–are also valuable livestock feeds.
Around 25 percent of barley crops are malted in the US. Of the malted barley some 80 percent is used for beer, around 14 percent for distilled alcohol products, and 6 percent for malt syrup, malted milk and breakfast foods.