Is crushing steeping grains essential?
 

As I was watching a YouTube video it just reminded me that I totally forgot to crush my 250g of medium crystal that I used in my American Pale Ale recipe that I brewed up last week. Does crushing the grains actually make much difference in the amount or quality of extraction during steeping?

if you don't crush it, you can't extract anything out of it. the ale will be thin and light in color

+1

Yup you gotta crush em...if you don't have a grain crusher you can just use a rolling pin and a zip lock bag. Just fill the bag so that you have a single layer of grains. Just role the rolling pin over it to crack the grains. You don't want to pulverize it into flour.

I tasted the grains before steeping - they tasted sweet. I tasted the spent grains after steeping and there was no sweetness at all. So I must have at least got something out of them, right?

you will get some out of it. i'd expect maybe 10% of what you should have at best

did you get your grains from a bulk source or were they in one of those little pre-packaged bags? some of those bags come pre-crushed

no, I specified uncrushed so they would keep longer

oh well... live, brew, and learn

bummer...