Pearled Barley sub for Flaked Barley

Hi, I'm wanting to brew up some Dry Stout and my LHBS was out of Flaked Barley, but they said I could get barley from Wholefoods or whatever and just boil it for 20minutes, then add it to the mash as you would the flaked barley. They say this would gelatinize it and it would have the same effects (I'm really looking for the mouthfeel and body from the unmalted barley, fermentables are largely LME).

Has anyone succeeded with doing something like this? They had me convinced in the store, now I want to ask HBT to confirm if I go for it or go to another store to get flaked, or get something shipped.

Hmmm.... looks like I've been duped. Off to the other LHBS tomorrow for some flaked barley I think!

Whole barley could be used but just like flaked barley it needs to be mashed. Cooking it will gelantize the starch but that only prepares them to be converted by base malt enzymes. Without mashing you are only going to soak out some unfermentable starches, gums and proteins. If you are using mainly extract you will be fine as long as you do a mini-mash with some pale malt.

Yeah, get the flaked barley from LHBS.

BigEd said:

Whole barley could be used but just like flaked barley it needs to be mashed. Cooking it will gelantize the starch but that only prepares them to be converted by base malt enzymes. Without mashing you are only going to soak out some unfermentable starches, gums and proteins. If you are using mainly extract you will be fine as long as you do a mini-mash with some pale malt.

Click to expand...

Yeah I should have mentioned I'm doing a PM, so there is 1lb pale malt, 1lb Roasted Barley and 1lb of this "ordinary" barley going into a mini-mash tun. Then the LME goes into the boiil.

I'm going to call the LHBS I got the advice from and go through it with them once more to be sure. The other place is 1hr+ round trip and that doesn't help the brew day timeline at all!

Thanks for your help, guys.