Extract recipe, forgot to mill the grains. Big deal or not?

[Brewer88]

I am embarrassed to be admitting this, but I just pulled the steeping grains out of my brew pot after there 20 minutes and realized that I they were not milled. Generally the kits I get from Midwest are milled when they arrive, but in this case they were not. I was stupid for not noticing. It is a done deal now though. Will this cause any major problems, or am I alright? Since they were just for steeping I am hoping that it is not a big deal.

[captain carrot]

You will get some but not all the specialty grain flavor and color etc. It will still be beer though maybe not to style. Worst case you can crack the grains with a rolling pin if they come unmilled again. Good luck!

[spiderwrangler]

What style were you making? It may have a bigger impact depending.

[Brewer88]

It is an IPA, majority of the grain is Crystal 50/60.

[Dirk McLargeHuge]

What Captain Carrot said. You'll get something. But all the goodness is inside.

When this happened to me, I put the grains in two freezer bags on a cutting board. Then I used my cast iron skillet. I rocked the edge back and forth over the grains, cracking them as much as I could. It's the same technique I used when I need to crack peppercorns or coriander seeds.

Relax. You'll screw up worse.

[lunitick1976]

Ya hell it's not like you racked your wort onto a half a keg of starsan,,,,, keep brewin it's bound it get funnier.

[Stinkfist]

ehh if you are just steeping it won't be as big of a deal since you are basically just rinsing the grains..I think you will be alright....probably not what it should be but should be a decent beer non the less as long as everything else is ok..

[alan_marks]

If I may state a bit of heresy, for next time I would suggest doing whatever you need to do to crack open your steeping grains...smashing them with a skillet, whirling in a food processor, pureeing in a blender, whatever works! The thing is you really can't steep uncracked grains cuz the hot water can't penetrate the endosperm to get all the goodness out. The whole point to steeping flavor grains in an extract brew is to get all the flavor goodness from those grains. Since you really aren't concerned about sparging like an all-grain brew, I would just smooch 'em up then drain my steep through a fine strainer before using the liquor to continue to my boil with extracts. I wouldn't worry at this point with proper milling, since the idea is to get the flavor from the grain.

Hope this helps,
Alan