First All-Grain recipe help.

Perhaps hopville doesn't like my computer, but when I click the link, I don't see any quantities for ingredients.

 

Same here

 

ehhh I know you want to keep it simple so I am going to say throw a pound of 20 L crystal in there.

 

You aren't linking to your recipe, you're linking to the beercalculus default page. Try saving your recipe and then copy/pasting the link to the saved recipe.

 

To expound on my thoughts: You are using Pale and MO. MO is a Pale malt it is just a different one. So The MO Is going to be almost lost to the pale malt. I usually go with one or the other. Sometimes blending variations such as MO, Optic and Halcyon because I want to enhance one aspect of the malt while keeping a strong "English" malt profile. Sometimes you can try to replicate this by adding small amounts of character malts such as biscuit to pale ale malt to get it closer to what you perceive MO to taste like. Etc etc.

 

The crystal does good for body, color (depending), head retention and a more round malt profile.

 

What do you want the beer to taste like?

 

I think domestic 2 row and Maris Otter is good combo for base malt... although domestic 2 row and Vienna/Munich/Aromatic is usually what I go with...another option is to use a good NA Pale Ale malt like ESB from Gambrinus (I think Great Western and Rahr also make a Pale ale malt that's somewhere in between domestic 2 Row and an English base malt. Try one and find out for yourself.

 

I agree with the others. You've got a good start and YOU DO want to keep it simple for your 1st AG batch. You shouldn't have any trouble adding a bit of crystal to add a bit of complexity to your beer. Some of us look for complexity in a different number crystals (I like 40 @ .5#) others have lots of luck using an additional Continental malt (European). Don't be afraid to have about 3 or 4 malts in your bill. This is very common when making a good APA.

 

Just to echo what others have said: I'd add some crystal--probably a half ounce to an ounce of 60. And the maris otter won't hurt anything, but probably won't have a big impact either at 2 oz. You might try something like going all 2-row this time, then MO next time--it makes an excellent base malt for APAs.