I'd say get the brown malt. It's a mainstay in my BVIP and I've never found an adequate sub. Be aware that what some maltsters call brown malt others call amber. What you want is the 70L stuff, not the 35L. Here's some info from a froens who was looking for brown malt...
Thought I'd give you a heads up on something. A while back I was asking about Baird brown malt, and whether it was really brown and not amber since the sack indicated both "brown" and "amber" (55-70L). Weird. The folks at Baird told me that it could be either brown or amber depending on what the customer wanted it to be, that the two malts are interchangeable. B.S! Anyway, I purchased some Crisp amber malt (35L) from Greg Beron at Culver City Homebrew in So. Cal., and it is visibly identical to Baird. Furthermore, I just received some Thomas Fawcett brown malt from North Country Malt and it is easily, visibly darker then the Baird.