Suggestion for Home Malted Grain Issues?

[KAMMEE]

A co-worker has a farm where he grows feed for his cattle and thought it would be neat if I could make a beer using his grains. This took a lot of work, in that I had to malt the 6 row barley and wheat that he provided. It took a little less time than I had originally thought to get the acrospire to indicate full modification. However, I've used a 5 ounce test batch to determine if the grains actually will convert the starch, and going through a step mash on the stove from 122 for a protein rest, then 149 for a sac rest, and another sac rest at 158, I cannot get all the sugars to convert as confirmed through a negative iodine test. I am thinking that if this grain is now only minimally modified, I might be able to help it along by using 50% two row from a professional maltster. I will say, this stuff has a very HIGH protein content...

Any thoughts on whether using some commercially available malt would give enough enzymes to convert the remaining crappy 6 row that I had to malt myself?

 

[Cyclman]

This is way outside of my exprience zone, but it sounds like you want to use his grain more to have done it than as a primary source of future base malt.

I would recommend if this is your goal making caramel malt. It'd include grain from his farm, you don't have to worry so much about sacrification, and it'd likely come out tasty.

There is a Basic Brewing Radio episode on malting that might help: http://castroller.com/podcasts/BasicBrewingRadio/3436411