COLObrewer said:Did you keep them moist during the couching phase? Also, tell us about your barley grain, where did you get it? The temperatures you are talking about shouldn't be too hot to kill the grain unless your couching bed was too thick. The malt creates heat when malting but it sounds like this is where it stopped, I would think if it was moist and had chitted, it would bolt at those temperatures.
I got the raw barley from the local feed store, yes I made sure it was moist but it never really started to dry out, maybe too wet? So the only thing I can point to is that it drowned. I read the nutrition profile of the barley and had a crude protein content of 10% I figured this is lower than briess at the LHBS.