HBS barley and oats different than grocery store?

[AleJoe]

I was in a Natural Grocery today picking up some coca nibs and I noticed that they had flaked barley and oats for better prices than the local homebrew store.

Logic tells me that barley and oats is barley and oats but I wanted to verify there is no difference. AHS' pages make this note "Pregelatinized barley flakes are produced specifically for brewing. The process of gelatinizing makes the starches readily soluble and digestible by the naturally occurring enzymes in barley malt."

 

[PurpleJeepXJ]

The flaked barley and oats will be the same in both stores or at least similar enough for brewing purposes. I looked at Whole Foods and they didn't have any malted grains so if you are looking for mashing, base, or specialty grains in malt form then the ones at the grocery are not the same... If you want to go really hardcore you could get those grains from an agriculture supply store in organic form and malt them but that may be going to far to save a couple cents.