Fermenting potatoes without 6 row?

[MrMack]

I had an idea for a beer containing beets, potatoes, and sweet potatoes because of an awful pun I thought of. But when I went to the home brew store they didn't have 6 row malt so I ended up just getting 2 row. While I could have gone to a different home brew store, they're all at least an half hour away from where I live, making it pretty impractical.

So what I'm wondering is if there's another way to ensure the conversion. I've read online that putting potatoes in the refrigerator causes the starches to convert to sugar, would that work? I've also read about using Beano or banana peels? Or will the sweet potatoes make up for the lack of enzymes in the regular potatoes?

It's a small batch, I'm using 3 pounds of 2 row, 5 pounds of potatoes, 3 lbs of sweet potatoes, and however much two beets weigh.

 

[cshamilton]

This technique might be a good starting place: http://byo.com/bock/item/323-brewing-with-potatoes-techniques

More importantly what's the awful pun?

 

[MrMack]

I think I found the answer elsewhere, thought it was kind of hard to search for due to scientific papers about using banana peels as substrate for the production of amylase, which is different.

I found a thread post here http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=28110#p6977388 in which someone tests this and found that bananas could convert the starches in potatoes. On an unrelated note, turns out home distilling is legal in New Zealand. That's neat.

As to the pun, I don't want to give too much away until I have a finished product to show off. But basically it's Soviet themed "red" ale. Hence my desire to have it contain potatoes and beets, to keep up the theme and make the beer extra red.