Can you look at rye and know if itis malted or not?

[diverrick]

I made a batch today but after adding the rye nothing happened. I looked at the bag and it had no info on it at all. No label nothing. I wonder if I ended up with regular rye and not malted. I backed up added Amylase and heated it back up and thing started happening. I was wonder is there anything to look for in a malt rye that distinguishes it from normal rye?

[seamusm53]

When any grain is malted, the seed is allowed in the presence of a warm moist envirnment to germinate. The seed cracks open and a small sprout grows from the kernel or husk. The grain is then dried and the sprouts broken off and discarded. The process induces the grain to generate malting enzymes which then become available to convert starch to simple sugars which in turn become available for yeast to turn to ethanol. But I digress. The husk remains visibly cracked after germination. This evidence of germination is easily visible but if you aren't sure use a hand-held magnifying glass. If there is are cracks in the grain husks it may well have been 'malted'. The only kicker here is if the grain has been ground or mechanically cracked - but packaging should have some labelling indicating such. Do remember that the malt enzymes are heat labile - much over ~145 degrees destroys the malt enzyme's ability to convert starch.

[MartinCash]

You should be able to taste it. Regular unmalted rye will taste the same ar wholemeal rye flour for breadmaking. Malted rye should taste malted.

[8Ball]

Well now you know. Two great answers.

[Twisted Brick]

These two samples came from the same bag. The raw rye was steeped at 40F to 42% hydration and dried to 4-7% moisture to make the malt on the right.

Unmalted rye has a smooth, homogenous surface while malted rye has slight wrinkles and dents. Commercial rye malt is handled better than mine and in the malt I've bought the acrospires/holes are almost unnoticeable.

The malt has a sweeter/milder taste and is not as hard to the bite. I step dry my malt in a kiln so haven't seen any grain split yet (fingers crossed).
.

[diverrick]

This morning I got out the rye and took a hard look at it in good lighting. It looks like the malted stuff and upon close examination it says in faint faded felt pen, 6 Row rye. I did not see that marking on the bag yesterday when I used it, it is very faint. So if it was malted I wonder why it didn't work? I added it at 150 degrees or so, per the instructions. Either way, After I was done with the conversion and sparging, I took a reading and found a very disappointing..05 reading. Almost water. (sad face) So I got some sugar and took it on up to target ABV, pitched my yeast and everything is cooking along now. What little starch that was in there had converted to sugar based on iodine test. Thanks guys

[Tummydoc]

How fine did you grind/crack the rye?

[seamusm53]

BTW, 6-row refers to the species of rye grain not whether it was malted. But if you bought it at a beer/wine-making dealer it probably was malted - it is a popular product. What you did in terms of adding sugar to the rye grain I believe is essentially the same as Uncle Jesse's corn whiskey process where the grain flavor is obtained without requiring significant starch conversion. As to your perception of 'failure', could your temps have been significantly higher than 150 degrees? Cuz that'll kill the malt enzyme for sure.

[MartinCash]

... But if you bought it at a beer/wine-making dealer it probably was malted - it is a popular product...

I hadn't thought of this. My local homebrew shops carry either malted rye or flaked rye, but not raw rye grain.