First cereal mash

Howdy folks.

After drinking a few of Sierra Nevada's Ruthless Rye IPAs I decided to experiment with some rye beers of my own. I had ordered a pound of malted rye on my last grain order before doing some research and discovering that 2 or 3 lbs. was more appropriate for a rye IPa, so had a friend pick me up 5 lbs. of rye berries at a health food store in town.

After a couple of searches and some reading I find some different approaches to cereal mashing. Some say to do a mini mash with base male and then bring to a boil to gelatinize and some say to just boil the grain for 30 minutes or so before adding to your mash. Is there really any advantage to the mini mash with base malt?

It would seem to me that if the rye needs to be gelatinized before mashing that there would be little advantage to the mini mash. Looking for advice from anyone who has used raw grain.

Thanks in advance,

bob

From what I've read, the mini mash helps break the starches down enough so that after they're gelatinized, they're more easily broken in the main mash. At least that's what Palmer says in "How to Brew".

Thanks Cromwell.

I went with using half as much base malt as rye berries. Must have been the way to go, overshot estimated OG of 1.046 by 4 points.

Bob