^^^^
British malts have always been considered fully modified, or over modified, from a Continental perspective, but it seems that's all relative. All malts are better modified now. But from what I've read, a lot of that has to do with barley variety, and breeding has been directed toward this goal. Different barleys apparently modify differently with respect to different parameters (proteins, glucans etc.,) more or less evenly from kernel to kernel, and so on. You can't make modern malt from heirloom barley, and vice versa. But it does seem that the "improvements" that have been made in terms of agronomic quality, ease of malting, and better brewhouse performance, don't necessarily make for improvement in the beer!
BTW ynotbrusum, one of the variations I tried was including a short rest in the 130s on the theory that some glucanase activity might be beneficial even though the old British brewers could never have started at such a low temperature. I didn't see any real difference in lautering or extract recovery, and have yet to tap that beer to see if I did any harm. You first alerted me to the availability of this malt, and recommended a Hochkurz of some sort. Seems to be the right appeoach, thanks. I'm kind of hooked on this stuff, and luckily LHBS is only charging me <10% more than Golden Promise or other premium malts to get it.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled topic. Sorry.