Denny, It may relate to "provenance". England is famous for those chalk cliffs at Dover, as well as that hard, gypsum-rich water IPA's are famous for. It just may be that the local environment, geology, hydrology and other factors in their malt growning regions have a (biochemical) effect on the malt grown there. This could help explain why my english beers brewed with MO taste so darn "English" in terms of malt profile. Its all two row malt, but English seems to make a difference.... Australian wines made of Rhone style grapes (shiraz, voigner, cabernet, merlot, etc.) taste Australian, not French. Why don't grocers sell endive from the US... its always Belgian. Some products with specific provenance have desirable characteristics over similar products with different provenance. From my last couple years of experimentation, I have settled on using english malts for my bitters and english style pale ales... I am less convinced the difference is discernable with porters and stouts. I tend to buy both american and english pale malt if my budget can afford both, I have had good results duplicating some english styles by replacing a portion of american pale with victory malt to get some of the bready/biscuity flavors, but its not exactly the same.