Whole rye uses

https://milehidistilling.com/how-to-make-rye-whiskey/

... tho I'd guess distilling whisky on your balcony is illegal under Swiss or Basel law.🤣

Thank you for the picture, Ilya! 

It's a good rye, it looks to me like it's a mix of different ryes. I only once got such mix of rye kernels from a Korean(!) grocery store, it had 7 distinctly different cultivars of rye mixed in it. 

I usually do not wash kernels 'with bleach' or with 'vinegar' :) It is what bread factories and bakeries do to guarantee that their soaked grain won't stink to heavens and won't contaminate their starters or bread dough after 16-22 hours of soaking in whatever water they have.

After all, you never know what is on those rye kernels. You could mill a small handful of kernels in a coffee grinder or blender and add abundant warm water to it (150-200%, 40C water), leave it well covered for 24 hours at your room temperature, regularly checking out its smell after 16 hours, to see if it will begin to stink.

Sometimes, the water in which kernels soak bubbles This is a warning sign, microflora is too active! 

I'd rather it didn't not look like so:

Because then the starter looks like so in its first 24 hours

If they do stink or bubble, then you have to wash them kernels thoroughly before soaking them, and maybe soaking them in acidified water (you can use your sourdough starter or its hooch to acidify it, i.e. a blend of lactic and acetic acids, not necessarily vinegar which is mostly or only acetic acid solution).

Or soaking kernels first in Dr. Parcells's soak for 20 min, then rinsing and switching to clean water for 16-22 hours depending on how cold or warm is your room. 

Dr Parcells soak is 1 tsp of Clorox (water+sodium hypochlorite) per 3L of water. Soak your kernels for 20 min, drain, then soak in clean water for 10 min and drain. Hardly "washing it with bleach" : ) 

I do not use vinegar much in anything that has to do with starters or bread. I used apple cider vinegar once in the first step of my starter development and I think vinegar bacteria propagated in that starter, not necessarily acetobacter, but other species present, and the starter's aroma was distinctly different, very fragrant, unusually so, and pleasant but different from a starter without vinegar. So I said to myself 'never again'.

Instead I have a Zero Water pitcher in my kitchen that produces distilled and demineralized water in minutes, so I use that water with 0.00-0.04ppm solids to prewash kernels, soak in it for 16-18 hours at room temperature, strain and again rinse the kernels before processing them in a food processor into a chopped rye mass or a rye dough mass which I then freeze for future uses.

It never stinks that way, whereas my wholegrain rye flour starters are always stinky on their first day, even if left overnight let alone for 24 hours at our room temperature in the kitchen (26-27C). 

In the end germinated kernels look like so (this is 'fully processed' germinated rye kernels, no water added)

Or like so (shorter time in a food processor)

Frozen on a layer of plastic wrap, big and small pieces are easily taken out of it as needed. 

I initially baked with it using bread formulas "по ГОСТу" (i.e. protected by law formulae for high fiber, highly nutritious breads for a "healthy diet" ).

I now use it as a rye flour or rye bread improver in sourdough starters, preferments or bread doughs, maybe 10-25-50% of total rye flour in bread, and germinated wheat kernels at 20-30% level of total wheat flour in normally 100% wheat flour breads.

100% germinated rye produces a fully ready sourdough starter from scratch in 14 hours at 28 degrees C and when a starter is refreshed with germinated grain and water (1:2 feeding at 27-28C), it is extremely active and ready in 1.5 hours!

Thank you for letting me know, Gary! I kept it closed for editing, and didn't even notice. It is now opened to public. Enjoy!