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Do you need to grind flaked rye and malted rye before mashing? Didn't on my first all-grain and I'm not terribly pleased with the lack of extraction. Used the appropriate rests and extra amylase. Ran across a post that Denny did on another site that mentioned grinding malted rye. Is this always necessary?

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You have to grind the malted rye to expose the endosperm for gelatinization and conversion. Flaked rye has already been gelatinized and can be added to the mash without any pre-processing.

The rye kernel is smaller than barley. I've found that it's best to tighten up your mill a bit to give a good crush.

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If I don't need to precook them, I throw my flakes into the mill along with the malt. Crushing them does no harm and increases the surface area even more which may speed up or improve conversion efficiency. – mdma♦ Feb 16 '12 at 19:52
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I've tried using flaked grains both ways and found absolutely no benefit to crushing them, so I no longer bother. – Denny Conn♦ Feb 17 '12 at 17:20
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For me, the main benefit is that all the grist is weighed out and put in the same bucket for milling. I find it's more of a pain to have to single out an item in the grist as not being milled. But of course, each to their own. – mdma♦ Feb 17 '12 at 17:55

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