Grain Identification

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AnOldUR

fer-men-TAY-shuhn
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Can anyone tell the difference in flaked grains by appearance only? I got flaked barley from two different places. It turned out that I didn’t need it all, so I have a sealed bag that I’d rather not open until needed. The light colored one on top is from the original batch. The one below is noticeably darker and looks more like flaked rye than flaked barley. Unfortunately, the brew store shipped it out without marking the bag, so it makes me a little suspicious. Have you seen flaked barley this dark?
:confused:

flaked barley.jpg
 
How well do you trust your tongue? Give 'em a taste.

I'd guess that to be flaked rye; flaked barley usually isn't quite so dark.
 
It may come down to the taste test, but I’d rather not break the seal not knowing when it will be used. The other side is that I’d hate to plan a brew day and then find I have the wrong ingredient.

After a little research this is more confusing. The light colored barley came from Midwest and they advertise as selling Oio. The darker stuff with the ridges came from BrewmastersWarehouse and his is from Gilbertson & Page. So, I’m thinking different maltsters could use a different process, but it turns out that it’s the same company from Canada.

http://www.specialtymalts.com/gilbertson_page/descriptions.html

One of these must be wrong. Ed at BrewmastersWarehouse has been really helpful in the past. I’ll ask him for a visual comparison with what he has in his inventory.





:off:
Thanks for the quick replys yesterday. I snuck in a brew session in the afternoon that took me away from my computer.
:D
 
I can tell you that the package below is flaked barley from my store. It has a very distinct look. Neither looks like flaked rye, which has a greenish color to it, similar to rye malt. My best guess based on the visual evidence is that the other bag is flaked barley as well. I say that because all of the other flaked malts I have in inventory look nothing like the whats in the other bag.
 
I think you are correct about the toasting process giving the flakes the color. I checked out G&P's website and it looks like they use a toasting process to gelatinise (sp) nearly all of the adjucts they carry. There is a Word document here that they are toasted, and then flaked.
 
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